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NBA Europe could include big cities like Paris, Madrid, Milan, Istanbul, Munich?
“I’d say it’s the single biggest opportunity (in Europe),” said George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s managing director for Europe and the Middle East (EME), speaking on stage at SportsPro Live at London’s Kia Oval last month. Details of the proposed new league are not yet fully defined, but the NBA’s laser-like focus on having teams in major European cities has been clear from the outset. In the UK, London and Manchester are being earmarked for representation in a 16-team competition that could also feature teams from Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Milan and Istanbul, according to Aivazoglou, when he spoke to EuroHoops.
He was far less vague about the proposed NBA Europe, rattling off that the league would likely include 12 permanent franchises in European cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid and also four other clubs that would have to “play in on a yearly basis” such as established EuroLeague teams. “Now, again, just to be clear, this would be a standalone league,” Silver said. “It wouldn’t be a division of the NBA. Maybe one day some of these teams could be a division of the NBA. I mean I am always reading about new supersonic air jets, jets that are coming online. I mean, I think that could dramatically change things of faster flight.”
Mark Tatum: 'The lack of world-class basketball facilities in Europe is striking relative to the affinity there'
Tatum pointed to the lack of permanent Euroleague teams in key cities including London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, and said the investment that comes with a new league would help bring sorely needed basketball infrastructure to the region. "The lack of world-class basketball facilities in Europe is striking relative to the affinity there," Tatum said. "There are big markets in Europe that aren't being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren't being serviced."
Word is Berlin and London have emerged as European favorites to host NBA regular-season games next season. The NBA staged January games in Paris in each of the past three seasons ... including two this season featuring Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs against Indiana. Manchester has also been in consideration — to The Stein Line's delight — but it appears now that London is more likely.
If that league is up and running by the time you’re knocking on retirement’s door, and it’s like, you know—Paris or London—would you go play another year or two over there if it’s between that and retiring?” Josh Hart: “No.” Jalen Brunson: “I hope it would be something where like, it’s like Champions League. Yeah, where it’s not like—it’s a legit league where you’ve got to go and play games over there. But like, towards the end of the season, you qualify—like the in-season tournament—you qualify, and then you can go play in a week or two worth of games. That’s what I would hope.
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The NBA has held early-stage talks with owners of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Manchester City among others, along with possible backers of a London-based team, regarding potential investment and venues for the new league, according to Bloomberg News, which reported the developments earlier.
The NBA have yet to confirm anything official, although the deputy commissioner Mark Tatum this week revealed that he had met London mayor Sadiq Khan about the prospect of more games in the city, which hosted multiple regular season matches between 2011 and 2019.
AllCity previously raised more than $9 million in a Series A round led by individual investors in sports including retired NBA athletes Andre Iguodala and Chauncey Billups, along with venture capital firms in San Francisco and London. The company said it would use that funding round to develop free, ad-support streaming television (FAST) channels.
So, you got fans rooting for you in Gambia? Yes, but we’re everywhere, though. In Gambia. We got people in Sweden and Denmark. We were just in London, England. All over the world. People in Gambia, when they grow up, their goal is to get to Europe. They really think Europe is paradise. But then when they get here it is kinda still tough. You still got to work and do all your stuff and get your things right to still live a good life.
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“This is the fastest team in the tournament that we’re going to play, and so we wanted to match up,” Kerr said. “They made 14 threes against us in London. So the whole game today was going to be about switching, staying in front of people, not letting them break us down. “And so we just went with a change in the lineup. That’s how we’re going to do this. Whatever we need to do to win each game, that’s what we’re going to do. And so for this game, it just felt like that was the lineup that made the most sense.”
Mayor of London in talks with NBA to bring back exhibition games
The Mayor of London spoke to City A.M. on Friday while travelling to Paris, where he will use the current Games to bang the drum for the capital as a host city for major competitions and one-off events. As well as the Olympics, Sadiq Khan hopes to secure the return of regular NBA basketball and WWE wrestling shows
“We are speaking to the NBA,” he said. “Some of these things take some time but I think the NBA knows there is huge appetite for basketball in London. We are talking to the NBA to try to get it back to London as soon as we can.”
The round-the-world tour — Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to London — the Americans took to get ready for Paris, with five exhibition games along the way, is over. “It’s time,” Kerr said. “We’re not traveling around anymore. We’re here. We’ve got six games. We’ve got to get into the pool play, advance and it’s like the NCAA Tournament. It’s 40 minutes of forced attention and focus and we can’t let teams outplay us effort- and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.”
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