The NBA announced that the 2026-27 Emirates NBA Cup Championship Game will be played December 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University. This marks the first time the championship game will be held outside of Las Vegas.
Hinkle Fieldhouse: A Rich Basketball Tradition
Hinkle Fieldhouse, opened in 1928, is one of the nation’s most historic basketball arenas, hosting NCAA Tournament games, state championship contests, NBA and WNBA games, and numerous other sporting and civic events throughout its history.
The arena is perhaps best known for hosting Indiana’s high school boys basketball state finals for decades, including the legendary 1954 championship won by Milan High School—a game that inspired the classic basketball film Hoosiers.
Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson also won two Indiana state championships at Hinkle while playing for Crispus Attucks High School in the 1950s. Former Butler coach and current Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens once described the atmosphere inside Hinkle by saying, “Hinkle Fieldhouse gets loud, and it gets as loud as loud gets.”
The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023, followed by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2024, and the New York Knicks in 2025. The NBA Cup Championship returning to Indiana adds another chapter to the state’s long-standing reputation as one of the nation’s premier basketball destinations.
Original reporting: WOWO News/Talk (Fort Wayne) — read the source article.
