BERLIN \u2014 The NBA has descended upon Europe again this week, not only to stage a basketball game or two, but also to build momentum toward starting a new league on the continent.<\/p>\n
Potential media partners, investors, club owners and fans are excited, of course, but not all are pleased by the looming presence of NBA commissioner Adam Silver and most of his top lieutenants in Berlin and London over the next several days.<\/p>\n
Basically, the EuroLeague \u2014 Europe\u2019s most prestigious basketball league \u2014 isn\u2019t going to let Silver and FIBA, the international governing body for basketball which is partnering with the NBA in Europe, stand up a new league without a fight.<\/p>\n
The EuroLeague continues to monitor what the NBA intends to do and whether the American behemoth will try to pick off any of its 13 licensed teams, and sent a letter to Silver\u2019s office last week warning that there could be legal action if the NBA engaged with teams the EuroLeague said are under contract, a European basketball source confirmed to The Athletic.<\/p>\n
Asked during his Berlin news conference ahead of the Orlando Magic-Memphis Grizzlies game on Thursday for his reaction to the EuroLeague\u2019s threat of legal action, Silver said, \u201cI send the legal letters to my lawyers, so I\u2019ll let them handle that.<\/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
In a few ways, the new NBA-FIBA league would resemble the EuroLeague\u2019s current structure. All teams also play in a domestic league; at least 13 teams are anchor members that compete regardless of how they do domestically; with a chance for non-anchor clubs to play their way into the international league each year.<\/p>\n
On that last point, about clubs being able to play their way into the EuroLeague, the NBA\u2019s model would open up far more opportunities than currently exist for non-anchor teams to reach the highest level of play.<\/p>\n
The NBA has cited London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens, Istanbul, Manchester (England) and Lyon (France) as targeted destinations for anchor teams in a new league.<\/p>\n
Of the 20 teams currently playing in EuroLeague, eight play in cities on the NBA\u2019s list, which means some historic franchises could be left out of NBA Europe, though they could, if they wanted to, play their way in through FIBA or through their domestic league.<\/p>\n
But EuroLeague has largely been a money-losing proposition, and Silver has long said there is an enormous opportunity for marketing and growth in Europe. If professional sports is a $50 billion a year enterprise in Europe, nearly 99 percent of it is generated by soccer, with less than 1 percent generated by basketball.<\/p>\n
There have been numerous attempts by the NBA to partner with the EuroLeague that seem to have fallen through, and now EuroLeague is scrambling for survival. The relationship between the EuroLeague and the NBA has deteriorated over the last few months after they seemed to find room to talk this summer. \u201cThe NBA has made it very clear: it\u2019s under our terms or nothing,\u201d the source said, and the EuroLeague has balked at those asks.<\/p>\n
So far, nine of the EuroLeague\u2019s 13 permanent \u2018A\u2019 license clubs have re-signed to stick with the league for the next decade, while Barcelona is expected to soon announce its decision to stay as well. Real Madrid, ASVEL (of France) and Fenerbah\u00e7e (Turkey) faced a Thursday afternoon deadline to sign their license extensions. They are also the clubs believed to be most likely to jump to the NBA\u2019s emerging European league. Two European basketball sources said those license agreements have out clauses, believed to be worth roughly $10 million, so any of these EuroLeague clubs could, those sources believe, opt out and join the NBA\u2019s venture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re looking at this opportunity to create a league in Europe, if we do it properly, the league maybe physically based here in Europe, but the hope would be just like with the NBA, that people are following it around the world,\u201d Silver said, while also adding \u201cI think if we were to successfully launch this new league, it will take a while, I think, before it is a viable commercial enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Various NBA officials have set a soft target of October 2027 for an NBA Europe league launch.<\/a> Silver also said in December that the NBA would decide this year whether to expand domestically by adding two more teams. If NBA team owners move forward with domestic expansion and grant final approval for a European venture, Silver and his team would have two massive projects on their hands in roughly the same time frame.<\/p>\n