The first Euroleague Basketball American Tour is set to commence with CSKA Moscow, FC Barcelona, and Lietuvos Rytas coming to the United States to test their mettle against the Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Golden State Warriors. All games of the 2008 Euroleague Basketball American Tour are played according to NBA rules and with NBA referees. Check out the the Euroleague American Tour Schedule:

October 10: CSKA Moscow vs. Orlando Magic
October 14: CSKA Moscow vs. Toronto Raptors
October 18: FC Barcelona vs. Los Angeles Lakers
October 19: FC Barcelona vs. Los Angeles Clippers (Toronto Raptors)
October 21: Lietuvos Rytas vs. Golden State Warriors

You may remember a couple seasons ago when CSKA mauled the Clippers during the 2006 NBA Europe Live Tour 94-75, a team that featured Elton Brand, Corey Magette, and Chris Kaman.  CSKA is arguably even more loaded this time around with Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas of Lithuania, EL Final Four MVP Trajan Langdon, J.R. Holden, Matjaz Smodis (Slovenia), Alexey Savrasenko (Russia), Nikos Zisis (Greece), Sasha Kaun of Kansas, Erazem Lorbek (Slovenia), Terrence Morris (Maryland), and former NBA player Zoran Planinic of Croatia.

2008 NBA Europe Live and 2008 NBA China Games:
For the third consecutive season, NBA teams will be traveling across the Atlantic to European cities Paris, London, Berlin, and Beijing, play some preseason exhibitions.

For the NBA Europe Live Tour, the New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat will travel to London and Paris to play exhibitions against one another, while New Orleans Hornets and Washington Wizards will play exhibitions in Barcelona, Spain and Berlin, Germany.

For the NBA China tour, an agreement between the NBA and CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) has the the Milwaukee Bucks (without Yi Jianlian) taking on Golden State in Guangzhou and Beijing, China . The games will feature the first sporting event at the Olympic Basketball Arena after the Beijing Olympics and the first ever NBA game played in Guangzhou.  Both NBA China games will be televised on ESPN.  Check out the schedule for both NBA Europe Live and NBA China below:

October 9: Miami v New Jersey, Paris
October 12: Miami v New Jersey, London
October 14: New Orleans v Washington, Berlin
October 15: Milwaukee v Golden State, Guangzhou (ESPN)
October 17: New Orleans v Washington, Barcelona
October 18: Milwaukee v Golden State, Beijing (ESPN)

Links and Resources: NBA Europe Live 2008 Official Website (NBA.com), CSKA makes American debut Friday (Euroleague.net), NBA China Games to Feature Bucks and Warriors (NBA.com), Euroleague Teams to travel to US for Preseason (NBA.com), CSKA defeats Clipper 94-75 (topbuzz.com)