NBA Europe? League ‘looking very closely’ at new competition, says Silver
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has dropped the clearest hint yet that it will push ahead with plans to launch a basketball league in Europe.
Silver said he had been encouraged by talks with clubs, media, sponsors and governing body Fiba during talks ahead of the NBA’s two games in Paris this week.
“While Europe continues to develop some of the very best players in the world and many of our most recent MVPs are European, we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game,” Silver said.
“At the NBA we run leagues. We run the WNBA, we have the league in Africa, we have the G League, we have a 2K video [game] league. We operate five different leagues and we think it’s an expertise we have.
“So we are looking very closely to see if there’s an opportunity to professionalise the game to another level here to create a larger commercial opportunity. We believe that with markets, if you can create proper incentives, you can get significant additional investment, and ultimately that’s the way to grow the game at all levels.”
An NBA European league would not feature US teams but may include established clubs who currently compete in the EuroLeague, which is run by Fiba.
It could mirror the Basketball Africa League (BAL), which the NBA has run in partnership with Fiba since 2021. Silver suggested it would be discussed with its franchises in March.
“Everything is still on the table,” said Silver. “So the potential to include existing clubs – absolutely, should there be interest. Would we want to have a broad base of countries represented? Absolutely. That’s the benefit we have now by coming in and looking at this from a blank canvas.
“Having had this long history from our operation of sports leagues, largely in the United States, a little bit elsewhere, seeing what’s happened in Europe, not just in basketball but in soccer as well, it gives us the opportunity to say, ‘alright, let’s take a fresh look, what are the most effective practices for creating a commercially viable league?’ And that’s the process we’re going through right now.”
Europe looks set to become the next battleground for basketball’s growth. NBA great LeBron James’s business partner Maverick Carter is reported to be raising $5bn to launch a new international basketball league.