{"id":539809,"date":"2026-01-16T03:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539809\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T03:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:39:11","slug":"latest-on-nbas-potential-european-league-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/539809\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest On NBA’s Potential European League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking to the media in Berlin, Germany ahead of Thursday\u2019s Grizzlies-Magic game, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the NBA is pressing ahead with its plans for a new league in Europe, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would just say we continue to be enormously excited about it,\u201d Silver said about the notion of an NBA Europe. \u201cWe\u2019ve been meeting with clubs that are interested in participating in our league. We\u2019ve been in discussions with other potential stakeholders, including media companies that would like to cover it, potential media partners and traditional sponsors who want to work with us on the league. We\u2019re looking at the opportunity to grow the arena infrastructure, not just here in Germany but throughout the continent. It\u2019s something that we\u2019re enormously excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA recently received a letter of potential legal action from the EuroLeague if the NBA contacts teams the EuroLeague says are under contract, a source confirmed to Ben Horney of Front Office Sports<\/a>. According to Horney, a person familiar with the NBA\u2019s thinking says it has \u201cengaged with all parties in a lawful and appropriate manner,\u201d and has \u201cnot engaged with anyone about any opportunity that they are not free to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver discussed the notice on Thursday, saying, \u201cI send the legal letters to my lawyers, so I\u2019ll let them handle that,\u201d\u00a0per Joe Vardon and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think by any means it\u2019s inevitable that there is a clash (between the NBA, FIBA, and EuroLeague,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI think there\u2019s opportunity here to grow European basketball. And frankly, I\u2019m much more focused on the competitive landscape, not just with other sports in Europe, but with other entertainment options. That\u2019s how we view the NBA. We don\u2019t think of ourselves, even in the United States, as necessarily competing against other basketball organizations or other sports organizations. We\u2019re competing for people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if I thought that the ceiling was the existing EuroLeague and their fan interest, we wouldn\u2019t be spending the kind of time and attention we are on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are rumors<\/a> that Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid \u2014 the most successful EuroLeague team in history \u2014 is leaning toward joining the NBA\u2019s proposed league, which doesn\u2019t have a formal name or official start date. Several of the permanent EuroLeague teams have signed 10-year contracts, but those deals include out clauses, including a \u20ac10 million early exit fee and additional damages that would be determined based on the situation, a source tells Horney.<\/p>\n

Although the EuroLeague has reservations about the NBA\u2019s European project, there\u2019s still a possibility that the two sides could collaborate in some fashion in the future, according to Horney.<\/p>\n

Silver reiterated on Thursday that the NBA will determine by the end of this year whether it will expand its own league, Reynolds notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, honestly, the real heavy lift would be creating a new league in Europe,\u201d Silver said. \u201cAs I said, that\u2019s an enormous undertaking, which is why we\u2019ve been moving one step at a time and being very careful and cautious and making sure we\u2019re covering all our bases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to the media in Berlin, Germany ahead of Thursday\u2019s Grizzlies-Magic game, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2214,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-539809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-adam-silver","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115902700962898729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}