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The new store is the NBA’s fourth flagship location in the U.S. It now operates more than 200 branded retail stores and attractions worldwide, including flagships in New York City and London, both run by Lids.
Magic will travel the most this coming season
The Magic are staring down over 53,000 miles in a plane - that’s 2x around the world! Part of that is driven by a round trip to Europe, where they will play a pair of games against the Grizzlies in Berlin and London. In this case both teams will have just gotten off the trans-Atlantic flight, and the NBA was nice enough to give each team three days to settle in and try some German beer.
Bill Simmons: I wouldn't be surprised NBA Europe starts in the 2026-27 season
Bill Simmons on NBA Europe: I think this goes London, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Berlin and a Greek team as your definite seven better in this. I think Adam Silver has those seven in his pocket and I don’t know who the Greek team is yet. Maybe you could add Tony Parker's French team. You could add the Istanbul team. You could add Manchester City. All sudden, I'm at 10. Maybe there's an Israeli team down the road. Maybe there's a third Spain team. Who knows? But they could take this right away. And if you look at the way the Euroleague is, where you basically have this ownership. It's called Euroleague Commercial Assets. That's the company that runs the League of voting rights on league rules, financials, TV deals, etc. And then there's a B license that that's a one year thing that you got to play your way in based on results, and then a C license that's like, basically a wild card. They could challenge this. They could offer the sponsorship expertise better, TV deals. They could shoehorn some of the TV stuff into their things. They could do the schedule so that it complements the NBA schedule correctly and I think this is going to be like, I honestly wouldn't be surprised that this was going in the 26-27 season.
A spokesman for Real Madrid did not respond to a message seeking comment, and an NBA spokesman declined to comment on the meetings. Earlier this week, Silver, Tatum and Aivazoglou met in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who will host the NBA in January for a Global Games series between the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies. Silver would also want an NBA Europe team in London — a city of nearly nine million people with about 15 million living in the greater metropolitan area. The United Kingdom is home to soccer’s mighty Premier League and is also another place where the NBA could attract big soccer dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign funds. The British Basketball League’s reigning champion, London Lions, is owned by tech giant Tesonet. The club nearly folded before Tesonet’s 11th-hour purchase in 2024.
Adam Silver, Mark Tatum meet with British PM amid NBA Europe talks
Marc Stein: BREAKING: NBA commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum met today in London with United Kingdom prime minister Keir Starmer, @TheSteinLine has learned, as part of Silver and Tatum’s trip to meet with various potential stakeholders in a new NBA Europe league.
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NBA to have six games in Europe over the next three seasons
The NBA will play at least six regular-season games in Europe over the next three seasons, starting with a pair of games between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic this season. The Grizzlies and Magic will play in Berlin on Jan. 15 then in London on Jan. 18. The NBA will play games in Manchester, England, and Paris in 2026-27 then return to Berlin and Paris in the 2027-28 season. The games will be held at Berlin's Uber Arena, London's The O2, Manchester's Co-op Live and Paris' Accor Arena. "Announcing the next three season's regular-season games in Europe reflects the incredible momentum and appetite for NBA basketball in France, Germany, the UK and across the region," said George Aivazoglou, the NBA's managing director for Europe and the Middle East. "We look forward to welcoming the Grizzlies and the Magic to Berlin and London and to engaging fans, players and the local communities through the games and the surrounding events."
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.
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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.
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.
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