On Thursday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke in Europe during a weeklong celebration of Victor Wembanyama, a rising European basketball star. He expressed a strong interest in bringing an American-led basketball league to Europe.
For the past year, the NBA has been exploring the idea of creating a new basketball league in Europe, separate from the NBA. Silver pointed out that the current top European league, the 18-team Euroleague, is not fully maximizing its potential in terms of money and growth, and the NBA sees an opportunity to get involved.
“While Europe continues to develop some of the very best players in the world — many of our most recent MVPs, of course, are European — we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game,” Silver said before the San Antonio Spurs played the Indiana Pacers in the first of two games at Paris’ Accor Arena.
“We run leagues. We run the WNBA, the [Basketball Africa League], the G League, and even a 2K video league. We have experience running leagues, and we think this expertise can help us raise the game to a higher level in Europe, creating more commercial opportunities,” Silver added.
This is a big story in Europe, as it could challenge the Euroleague, which has been around since 1958, just a decade after the NBA. For the NBA in America, however, this shows that Silver and his team are more focused on expanding to new markets than on growing the league within the U.S., despite considering potential expansion to places like Las Vegas and Seattle.
Silver still needs to convince the 30 NBA team owners to approve the plan. Some sources told ESPN that there are still many questions about the plan, which need to be resolved before it can move forward. Silver suggested that a decision could be made after a scheduled owners’ meeting in March.
One concern for the owners is that the NBA’s other leagues have not been consistently profitable. A new European league could make money from media rights and expansion fees, according to people familiar with the idea.
Many of the NBA’s top executives have been in Paris this week for meetings with potential teams, media partners, and sponsors. “Our plan all along was to spend time here [last] summer when we were here for the Olympics to have a series of meetings, and we were on the ground here for roughly two weeks to watch basketball ourselves,” Silver explained.
“Then, we went back to do some additional work, knowing we’d be here in January for more meetings. We have an NBA board meeting in late March, and we will update our owners then.”
Last fall, Andreas Zagklis, the secretary-general of the international basketball body FIBA, gave a presentation to NBA owners in New York about a possible European partnership. In November, NBA managing director for Europe and the Middle East George Aivazoglou presented detailed plans to a committee of owners, including potential cities for new teams.
Over the past year, the NBA has reached out to possible investors and team owners to gauge interest. They have also talked to major soccer clubs in Europe about the possibility of creating basketball teams for the new league.
“The meetings have been very positive. It’s not against any other group or organization,” Silver said about the discussions with potential partners. “The people we’ve spoken to believe there is a commercial opportunity. They think there’s a demand from young fans, which is the NBA’s main audience, and that the market is ready to expand further in this sport.”
As part of this effort, the NBA plans to hold regular-season games in different parts of Europe. After hosting games in Paris for the past three years and in London before the pandemic, the NBA has discussed holding games in cities like Manchester, England, and Berlin, where potential new league teams could be located.
