{"id":570031,"date":"2026-01-30T04:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/570031\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T04:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T04:32:23","slug":"and-ones-nba-europe-rising-stars-blakeney-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/570031\/","title":{"rendered":"And-Ones: NBA Europe, Rising Stars, Blakeney, Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking to Sportico (Twitter video link<\/a>), NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said one key component of the NBA Europe project is the league\u2019s desire to address the fact that some of the biggest markets across the Atlantic don\u2019t currently have basketball teams that are permanent members of the EuroLeague.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no top-tier team in the U.K. at all. The U.K\u2019s the biggest market in Europe. There\u2019s no top-tier basketball team there, in London, in Manchester,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cThere\u2019s no permanent top-tier in the top league there in Paris, in Berlin, in Rome. So they\u2019re missing the biggest commercial markets.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Our idea is to create this league, call it 12 to 16 teams, with the biggest countries having permanent franchises. Call it the U.K., Spain, Germany, Italy, France. Two teams in each one of those markets that we know with certainty will have franchises there. And then we\u2019ll open it up to the rest of the (European) ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teams based in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Athens, and Istanbul have become EuroLeague powerhouses, but London doesn\u2019t have a team in the league and has never exactly been a basketball hotbed. As Joe Vardon of The Athletic<\/a> writes, the NBA believes there\u2019s untapped potential in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust walking the streets here and being in the hotels, I hear from people all the time saying, \u2018I\u2019m sleep-deprived following your league,’\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Vardon before this month\u2019s Grizzlies\/Magic game in London. \u201cThere are more people approaching us and saying, \u2018I\u2019d love to have the London franchise,\u2019 and I think it\u2019s not just because it\u2019s such an attractive market, but because there\u2019s no top-tier basketball team right now. So, there\u2019s lots of groups seeing an opportunity to create a new brand here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:<\/p>\n

After announcing this year\u2019s Rising Stars participants earlier in the week, the NBA announced the rosters and the semifinal matchups on Tuesday evening (Twitter<\/a> links<\/a>). Among the notable team-ups? Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg<\/a>, 2025\u2019s No. 1 overall pick, will play alongside No. 2 pick Dylan Harper<\/a> and his Spurs teammate Stephon Castle<\/a> on Carmelo Anthony<\/a>\u2018s team.
\nFormer NBA guard Antonio Blakeney<\/a>, who played for the Bulls from 2017-19, was accused earlier this month of being one of the ringleaders in an illegal gambling scheme involving U.S. college players and game-fixing in China. ESPN\u2019s Michael Rothstein<\/a> has the full story on Blakeney, who faces wire fraud charges and could face a lengthy prison sentence if he\u2019s convicted.
\nFederal prosecutors investigating illegal gambling are looking at additional NBA games beyond the seven contests cited in an indictment this past fall, says Mike Vorkunnov of The Athletic<\/a>. That fall indictment was the one that led to the arrest<\/a> of Terry Rozier<\/a> and is connected to the case that resulted in Jontay Porter<\/a> being banned<\/a> from the NBA.
\nJonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report<\/a> has updated his 2026 NBA mock draft, while Sam Vecenie of The Athletic<\/a> shares some of his draft-related intel. Within his story, Vecenie considers how NIL will impact the 2026 draft class and identifies Arizona\u2019s Brayden Burries<\/a> and Illinois\u2019 Keaton Wagler<\/a> as two prospects whose stocks are very much on the rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to Sportico (Twitter video link), NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said one key component of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[31151,7,52247,225,226,42824,6,12,930],"class_list":{"0":"post-570031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-antonio-blakeney","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brayden-burries","11":"tag-cooper-flagg","12":"tag-dylan-harper","13":"tag-keaton-wagler","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-draft","16":"tag-stephon-castle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115982181682419691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570031","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=570031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}