Adam Silver discusses NBA potentially running a European league

Speaking this week to reporters in Paris, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that the NBA continues to explore the idea of launching a league in Europe. Reporting in December indicated that the NBA and FIBA were discussing the concept, and Silver addressed those talks earlier this month in an appearance on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast.

As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes, Silver’s comments this week were his most expansive on the subject, as well as his most intriguing. The NBA commissioner suggested that he believes the EuroLeague – Europe’s current top basketball league – is leaving money on the table, Windhorst notes.

“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. “And what we do at the NBA is we run leagues.

“We, of course, run the WNBA, we have the [Basketball Africa League], we have the G League, we have a 2K video league. So we operate five different leagues and we think it’s an expertise we have. And so we are looking very closely to see if there’s an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here to create a larger commercial opportunity.”

According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, the NBA is considering various models for its league — it could include new teams, existing clubs, or a combination of the two. Vorkunov says sources in Europe have continuously mentioned Real Madrid as a club that might be interested in leaving the EuroLeague for the NBA’s new venture.

While other EuroLeague teams could also be candidates to defect, the NBA has also reached out to some major European soccer clubs to see if they would have interest in creating new basketball teams, sources tell Windhorst. Both Windhorst and Vorkunov mention Manchester and Berlin as markets the NBA is looking at, with Vorkunov also listing London, Paris, and Munich as a few more possibilities.

The league may schedule NBA regular season games in one or more of those markets within the next couple seasons, per Windhorst and Vorkunov.

“Everything is on the table,” Silver responded when asked by BasketNews whether the NBA’s European league could feature EuroLeague teams. “So, [the] potential to include existing clubs? Absolutely there should be interest. The opportunity to create sustainable competition? Yes. Would we want to have a broad base of countries represented? Absolutely.

“I mean, that’s the benefit we have now by coming in and looking at this from a blank canvas. Incidentally, I recognize there’s enormous history and tradition here in European basketball, and we want to respect those traditions.”

Here’s more on the NBA’s potential foray into Europe:

• In order to move forward with a European league, the NBA would need to get the support of its Board of Governors. Windhorst, citing ownership sources, says there are still plenty of questions about the league’s plans, especially since some of the other leagues the NBA operates haven’t been consistently profitable. According to Windhorst, Silver suggested this week that a decision on whether or not to continue moving forward on a European league could be made following a Board of Governors meeting in a couple months. “We have an NBA board meeting in late March,” Silver said. “We’ll be giving an update to our bosses, in essence.”
• Of course, March’s meeting won’t be the first time that the league shares its plans with NBA team owners. As Windhorst writes, FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis made a presentation to team owners in New York in the fall about a potential European league, while George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s managing director of Europe and the Middle East, met with a committee of owners in November and spoke about which cities the league would target.
• League officials from the NBA and EuroLeague met last year as the NBA looked to partner with the established league on its new venture, says Vorkunov. The EuroLeague rejected the NBA’s proposal, since it didn’t want to give up control of its operations. “They wanted the heart and the head,” a EuroLeague executive told The Athletic.
• Vorkunov describes “dissent” among prominent European basketball figures about the impact of the NBA’s entry into the market. “I think the NBA walks into the European business and revenues go up a whole bunch,” one EuroLeague club owner said. “I don’t know how they do that, but they’re experts at it.” Others aren’t so sure, Vorkunov explains, noting that another club owner doesn’t believe there’s room for both the EuroLeague and an NBA league to succeed in Europe.