NBA announced the launch of their 'NBA House' for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday (17th May) and the organisation's Brazil Managing Director Arnon de Mello said he was optimistic that the best Olympic Games ever will be staged in Brazil as he addressed political and health concerns in the country.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Arnon de Mello, NBA Brazil Managing Director:

"I have never heard any concerns (from NBA). What I hear is more curiosity, of people wanting to know… actually, more about the political situation rather than the health issues that we are also facing right now. So, you know, to that point, I say to them that we have a very strong democracy, institutions are very strong in Brazil, and we have seen what has happened during the past weeks and I hope it will stay like this. We have a stable economy and a stable political system and it's going to be all good."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Arnon de Mello, NBA Brazil Managing Director:

"We don't spend too much time worrying about these things. Of course, the health issues are, you know, we need to handle them the best way we can. And what we are doing, as I've mentioned before, is that we are in constant contact with Brazilian authorities, and they... not myself, but our doctors are doing that, and they take that information and pass it along to the teams, which then do the same thing to our players. So we believe we are not going to have any problems, we hope we are not going to have any major problems. I think it's all about being transparent and giving our players and our staff the information that they need to make their decisions. But we are very hopeful that we are going to have the best Olympic Games ever here in Brazil."