By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
In a big day that included the proposal for a new calendar, the position of the French federation towards FIBA and EuroLeague and also the new about the possible EuroLeague expansion, the EuroLeague CEO himself provided the details about the current state of European basketball.
“We have to congratulate FIBA for the fact that the new calendar includes a summer off every four years for the players and also about the fact that the FIBA World Cup will not be played on the same year with the FIFA World Cup, it helps us all”, said Bertomeu, who, of course, has his objections on the way the rest of the things are done by FIBA. “We support the national teams, we would love to see them playing at home, because that will help the sport. However, this can happen only if the best are playing for the national teams and that’s not the case. We can’t compare with the qualification games of football. Football stars like Messi, are travelling half the globe in order to play in their national team. That’s not the case in basketball. In football, it happens because FIFA also controls UEFA and every star is available.
In our case, there’s the NBA which operates outside FIBA. FIBA has no control over it and the NBA denied their players the ability to play in the qualification games during the season.
We are not saying that we are the same with the NBA. But in order for the national teams to play and attrack audience, the NBA players have to be present, so this must happen only when those players are available”.
Bertomeu expects from FIBA to address the matter, having in mind the best possible solution for the sport: “We are not the NBA, but FIBA is also not the NBA. The idea of the windows can’t work at this point. They are asking us to give our players, however the best players, those of the NBA, will be missing. I don’t think that this idea will help the sport and attract the fans. Τhe best players must play. And on the other hand, it’s not right to seperate the players according to their league. We know that the best play in the NBA, but we have to respect everyone, no matter the league”.
That’s why according to EuroLeague, the national teams games can only work if they are played in the summer. “For many years until 1999, even the major tournaments were held during July. In order to have the NBA players’ available, that’s probably the best solution”, concluded Bertomeu.