Rumors

Ergin Ataman: And honestly, in terms of entertainment, I think NBA basketball has lost some of its appeal. It’s becoming more and more about show, while the EuroLeague has risen. That’s why the NBA is now trying to set up “NBA Europe.” Would they care about European basketball otherwise? No. But they see the shift: NBA interest is decreasing in Europe, while EuroLeague is growing. What happens with NBA Europe, I don’t know. But I hope the EuroLeague’s level of competition translates there. Because Europeans don’t care about showtime—they care about winning and championships. That culture comes from football, where the focus is on results, not spectacle. That’s why I’m confident in saying this: EuroLeague teams are more organized, more competitive, and if you take out the NBA’s very top stars, EuroLeague teams can absolutely compete with them.

EuroHoops.net

You talk about coaching, but you're already talking about coaching in the NBA! Tony Parker: I'm not closing any doors. There's the NBA, the NBA Europe that's coming up. For now, I'm telling myself: I'm going to get my diploma and we'll see in May, depending on the opportunities. But the ultimate goal, of course, would be to go and coach in the NBA. The dream is to be a head coach one day in the NBA. I've always dreamed big. "I was approached by a few clubs. But I preferred to choose to prepare myself, to get my diplomas."

L'Equipe

As part of the NBA’s continued push into global markets, the league will collaborate with new partner Amazon to broadcast eight Saturday afternoon games that will air in primetime overseas, it was revealed today. With the league in serious talks with stakeholders, club teams and banks over a proposed NBA Europe, the idea is to keep flooding that continent with programming. The eight games will purposely feature international stars such as Victor Wembanyama, whose Spurs will play in four of the Saturday matinees. “All intentional,” said Jeff Kaiser, Prime Video’s head of U.S. sports programming. “…We’re an NBA global partner. Our games will be distributed worldwide this season." One of the key metrics that drew the NBA to Amazon Prime Video -- resulting in an 11-year, annual $1.9B package -- was its global capability. The network is available in more than 240 countries and territories, and, when negotiating the deal, sources have repeatedly said Prime Video’s reach gave the streaming platform a significant advantage over Turner.

Sports Business Journal

Jorge Garbajosa talked about a potential arrival of NBA Europe: "NBA needs to take care of it. We are cooperating as much as we can, as we think their arrival is great for ecosystem of basketball in Europe. We [FIBA] talked with NBA, we talked with EuroLeague, we are fighting to have the best competitions in Europe and general growth. Of course we also take care of national teams and calendar of domestic competitions.”

BasketNews

"We are working on a structured pyramid of competitions in Europe, that's what we ask from NBA and EuroLeague, to find a best model for everyone," Garbajosa concluded.

BasketNews

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.

Spotify

Bill Simmons: And what's really interesting about this, and I mentioned this a couple weeks ago that I felt like the NBA is drifting against expansion, which was a lock forever, until they got $76 billion from the media deal. Then suddenly, you know, the media money and the teams that, I mean, the owners don't need to give up the media money for expansion fees because they made so much. I think this is the apple of their eye right now, and I think that's why the reports are coming out this week. That's why Adam Silver is very publicly meeting with all these people, even though it's private, but it's not stuff's leaking out and and I think this is going to happen in a real way.

Spotify

Bill Simmons: So what's the NBA offering? Well, from what I've heard and from what's been reported, it's probably a 10 team league, but they could get away with eight. Maybe you grow it to 12. You get a guaranteed spot in the league. You get the voting rights, get better TV distribution, better sponsorship. You're not relegated. You don't to worry about, like, you know that I think there's 12 teams in the Euro league that are in there, but there's another six that you could get bounced out or if you don't have a good season, and there would be some sort of link to the NBA, which I think is the key here, their exhibition games, which I've already announced, A bunch of them, Manchester City, Paris, London. Maybe a tournament. And I've heard a couple different ideas for this, and I don't even know if they've decided on what they want to do yet, but you can have, maybe in October, you have the two best, three best NBA teams and the three best teams from this NBA early, they have little round robin. Maybe it's just champ versus champ Best of three. Maybe it's something. In February, with all the best teams, there's some sort of synergy thing. And it goes beyond just we're going to have some regular season games over there and some exhibition games, I think, big picture, 20 years from now. What does this look like? The leagues are probably a little more intertwined, not too intertwined, but a little intertwined.

Spotify

Bill Simmons: And what's cool about it, I remember watching a bunch of Luka Doncic games when he was playing over there as a 17 year old. I can't remember what team he was on [Real Madrid], and the quality play was good. The crowds were great, but it was FIBA, so the style of it was pretty neat, and it was a good enough product. It was just the players weren't quite good enough, it just definitely felt second class. I think if you can move that up, where it's somewhere between first class and second class, and then you could also be a place. This could be a place where you park some of your retiring players. It's like, Oh, your last year, you're going to play for this team. And maybe, you go there, maybe they change the rules, where you could get a little bit of an ownership stake. If you go over for here, they could do some things with this league that they can't do with the NBA. They could bend the rules and make a little more European.

Spotify

The National Basketball Association has hired JPMorgan Chase and Raine Group to advise on the creation of a new European men’s basketball competition, as it looks to exploit growing interest in the sport across the continent. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chief executive, has taken a personal interest in the project, which aims to leverage the NBA’s commercial expertise and global brand to fill what executives see as a gap in the European market, according to people briefed about the matter.

ft.com

Private equity firm BC Partners had been in talks late last year to invest in EuroLeague, but those talks ran aground as the NBA’s ambitions in the region became clearer. A separate plan to create a new competition straddling Europe and Asia — spearheaded by Maverick Carter, business partner of basketball superstar LeBron James — has also been gaining support from backers.

ft.com

The NBA is pursuing franchise fees of more than $500M from teams looking to join the prospective NBA Europe, with multiple sources maintaining the league’s preferred number is somewhere between half a billion and $1B. Following the BOG meetings two weeks ago in Las Vegas, one governor told SBJ that the Europe league is “very high priority.” However, another source said the league is willing to walk away if it does not receive entry fees in the desired number range.

Sports Business Journal

An official from one EuroLeague franchise had earlier scoffed at a proposed $500M figure, and -- considering the template for NBA Europe includes existing EuroLeague clubs -- it seemed unclear whether teams will be priced out of joining. “Look, the FC Barcelonas and the PSGs and the Manchester Citys, they can do [between $500M and $1B],” said one source briefed on the NBA’s plan.

Sports Business Journal

On the subject of Carter and James going head-to-head against the NBA -- even though James has previously said he is not part of Carter’s advisement team -- one NBA team executive said, “I’ll tell you, you may think I’m crazy, but I think the catalyst of this [NBA Europe] going quicker is they’re worried LeBron and Maverick are going to get the Saudis and start like a league. I think without a question, they [the NBA] think it’s direct competition.” Asked why James would compete against his own NBA, the executive said, “LeBron doesn’t give a sh**. Not if Saudi gives LeBron $200 million in cash and calls it a night.”

Sports Business Journal