The NBA Is Launching Its Global Expansion

Comprising 30 teams and standing as one of the five major American sports leagues, the NBA is the basketball world’s Mecca. More than a quarter of NBA players are foreign-born (27 percent, to be exact). After James Harden‘s MVP in 2018, international players have held a monopoly over the award. Giannis Antetokounmpo won the award back-to-back in 2019 and 2020, as did Nikola Jokic in 2021 and 2022. Joel Embiid was victorious in 2023, after which Jokic returned for a third trophy in 2024. And in 2025, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won it all after a record-breaking year, getting the better of Jokic. 

Talks about this new basketball league have been circulating as early as March 2025. The NBA and FIBA made this announcement official in December 2025. The NBA plans on meeting with potential investors ahead of international games hosted in Berlin and London this month.

So what are the details surrounding the NBA’s latest expansion?

The NBA Is Launching Its Global Expansion

Scouting the terrain

Leah McNab, who is the NBA’s Senior Vice President and Head of International Strategy, had much to say to USA TODAY Sports. According to McNab, the NBA is planning to launch a 16-team league, with 10 permanent teams, and at least four rotational spots. This system will be similar to the relegation system used in European football (soccer). This is in contrast with the NBA’s closed system, where the same 30 teams compete every year. McNab said:

“It is a very European system. We want to introduce a merit-based pathway into the league so that even teams in lower leagues can have the opportunity to play at the highest level of competition.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledges that the European market is intriguing. In an interview, Silver claimed that the popularity of basketball in Europe was one of the main reasons prompting the NBA to suggest the idea of a pan-European league.

“— and that is having a separate league in Europe. Basketball is the number two sport in Europe after soccer — probably 300 million fans.”

“Well, it’s something we’ve been discussing for a while,” he continued in the same December interview. Commissioner Silver also recognizes the immense amounts of basketball talent in Europe. Roughly 15 percent of NBA players are from Europe, according to the commissioner. However, despite this, Silver notes that European basketball has not had a lot of commercial success. This is likely due to domestic basketball leagues spreading the talent thin, limiting the potential for large-scale collective revenue.

The Opening Gambit

It would be an understatement to say that the bidding wars have already begun. Silver is expected to be in attendance for a pair of regular-season games held in Berlin and London between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic. The latter of the two cities will be the venue for a private conference expected to happen later this month. There, the NBA will meet with sponsors, media partners, and investors interested in this novel, Europe-wide project.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, talks of this new league have attracted interest from the Middle East. On the Varsity Podcast, Windhorst reported that both Abu Dhabi and Qatar are interested in establishing basketball teams based in Manchester and Paris, respectively. This is along with Abu Dhabi’s ownership of Manchester City, and Qatari investors surveying a potential franchise in Paris, as they are affiliated with PSG.

According to the NBA’s COO, Mark Tatum, the league is looking into markets such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Greece. With the project set to be launched in 2027, franchise bidding is expected to begin early this year.

Should this new league be established, that alone would change Europe’s basketball landscape forever. While the EuroLeague may not be dethroned any time soon, an American league’s expansion into Europe would be unprecedented.

“We have really measured NBA interest in Europe, and we’ve seen that interest skyrocketing over the last decade,” MacNab told USA Today. And while much remains to be seen, there is potential for this to become the first successful American-overseas expansion.