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"Our idea is to create this league – call it 12 to 16 teams – with the biggest countries having permanent franchises. Call it the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, or France. Two teams in each one of those markets that we know with certainty will have franchises there, and then we'll open it up to the rest of the ecosystem."
Investment firm Qatar Sports Investments, which owns soccer giant Paris St. Germain, has been linked to Silver’s venture for Paris and is just one of the groups interested in either partnering with existing basketball clubs or starting new teams in targeted cities. According to league sources, investment groups with ownership of five percent or less of an NBA team will be permitted to own an NBA Europe team.
Representatives from Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, two soccer and basketball heavyweights, Olimpia Milano, Panathinaikos, ASVEL, Bayern Munich and Alba Berlin were participants, signaling their interest in joining NBA Europe. NBA officials met privately with Fenerbahce, a top European team from Istanbul, last week in Berlin. Additionally, representatives from English soccer giant Manchester City were there, as were executives from Italian soccer powerhouse AC Milan, signaling their intent to either create new teams in their cities or invest further in existing teams.
According to L’Équipe, Adam Silver is considering PSG the main option in Paris for the project. “They play at the highest level of competition (in soccer), and they have the know-how to operate a basketball club at the highest level, if they’re interested. Yes, it’s a club we’re talking to,” the NBA commissioner commented in a roundtable in London on Saturday.
Mark Tatum, Adam Silver’s second hand, emphasized the desire of being in Paris for NBA Europe. “Paris is a market we absolutely want to be in,” he said. “There’s their ability to create a brand, a culture, their association with the Jordan brand (Michael Jordan’s), which is linked to basketball. We’re looking for the right partners for our project, and PSG brings a very interesting level of expertise in terms of marketing, promotion, and building a global brand.”, Tatum commented.
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Jared Weiss: Victor Wembanyama learned Tuesday morning that his grandmother has passed away in France, a team source told @TheAthletic . Wembanyama was in tears during his post-game press conference and said, "I'm sorry, I lost somebody today."
Iisalo tagged up when he led teams in Germany and France before coming to the NBA. He’s implemented many of those concepts in his new home. The Grizzlies send at least three crashers to the glass on 18.8 percent of their shots, the fourth-highest frequency in the league. “It’s very hard to get into the low 120s in offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) without the offensive rebounding,” Iisalo said. “That’s what it takes to be an elite offensive team nowadays.”
Former NBA champion and EuroLeague big man, 36-year-old Serge Ibaka, remains a free agent to begin the 2025–26 season. Despite his free-agent status at this point of the season, Ibaka is staying in shape and is currently practicing with the French third-division team Levallois Metropolitans, awaiting a new opportunity to continue his career.
Nearly 30 years ago, Bouna Ndiaye, 59, and his best friend, Jérémy Medjana, 53, started an agency called Comsport, which is now the premier agency for French players at a time when the country’s influence on basketball is exploding. France won the silver medal in last year’s Olympics. Two of the last three top picks in the N.B.A. were French.
Now, they represent Victor Wembanyama, who had played so well this year that there was talk early in the season that he could win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. The agents’ story will even be told in a movie called “The American Dream,” which was produced by a prominent French production house, Quad Entertainment, and will be released in February. “You forget the struggle,” Mr. Ndiaye said. “Ten years, you’re not making any money. You keep believing that you’re going to make it.”
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The pair worked with one U.S.-based agent who never paid them. Another time, a client who had been with them for more than 10 years, on whom they had spent resources they were hoping to recoup, fired them before his first big N.B.A. payday. Mr. Ndiaye said the player, Ronny Turiaf, had told him, “You’re like my dad, but you’ve never negotiated free agency.” He wanted someone with more experience. (Mr. Turiaf declined to be interviewed for this article.) As a result, Comsport went bankrupt. For seven years, the French government administered a recovery plan for the agency’s finances.
AS Monaco recently received a transfer ban from the EuroLeague, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the French side from strengthening its roster. According to Athletiko, 14-year NBA veteran Cory Joseph is close to signing a deal with Vassilis Spanoulis’ squad. The 34-year-old Canadian spent his entire professional career in the NBA, entering the league as the 29th overall pick in the 2011 draft with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies have both had low moments to navigate this season. When the two meet on Dec. 7 it may not be a box office matchup, but in Paris, France, the game will have plenty of keen observers. Paris Basketball were the champions of France last season and won a European trophy in 2024. The NBA took notice and the two coaches who achieved those respective feats are now on the sidelines in the NBA. Both the Grizzlies’ Tuomas Iisalo and the Trail Blazers’ Tiago Splitter bolstered their resumes at the Parisian club. They left for the NBA as assistants at their respective franchises before being promoted to head coach.
Paris Basketball’s rise is a rapid one. American David Kahn, a former sports writer, lawyer and Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations, bought the rights and absorbed the debts of a French second division team, Hyères-Toulon, and relocated them from the south of France to Paris in 2018. They were promoted to the French first division, known as the LNB elite, in 2021, and for the past two seasons have also competed in the EuroLeague — the premier basketball league on the continent. Kahn, unfortunately known for passing up on Stephen Curry twice in the 2009 NBA draft while at the Timberwolves, has created a harmonious culture in Paris, one where decision-makers are aligned and share the same vision, said Francesco Tabellini, Paris Basketball’s current head coach. Khan, the club’s president, general manager James Newman and co-owner Eric Schwartz are the teams decision makers. “I think he (David) has tried since Paris Basketball was established to bring coaches here that were playing fast basketball,” Tabellini told The Athletic from his Parisian office.