By Bugra Uzar/ info@eurohoops.net
Eurohoops was invited in FIBA’s breakfast with the press in Istanbul and we have already presented the position of FIBA Europe’s president Turgay Demirel and secretary general Kamil Novak towards the Euroleague.
However the new national teams’ competition system with the mid-season windows and the non participation of the NBA players on February and November issue is also a subject that had to be addressed. President Demirel said about the new system and the NBA: “I think it was a mistake to give the option some countries to participate in the tournaments directly. They can’t play games in front of their fans. We changed that in women’s basketball. Even the champions have to play one home and one away game in order to participate in tournaments. We got great results. Most of the games were played in full house. Imagine this on men’s basketball. Even without NBA players in those games, it would be a great excitement for fans to watch their teams in their home countries. Media and fans care about this too much. Let’s look at football. They are using this kind of windows and all the players have to be with their national teams unless the federations’ doctors confirm their injuries. They have to play even in preparation games. We have to use this in basketball too. We want to grow and we want to globalize basketball.
NBA is the reality of basketball. There is nothing like NBA in football. They have incredible financial resources.
I don’t think NBA players are going to play on February and November with their national teams, but I don’t think this is going to hurt any team.”
Novak added: “NBA has amazing financial resources. It’s unfortunate thing for us. That’s the reason we need to grow. We have to close this gap. Right now the gap is growing between us and the NBA. We can’t compete with them right now. Like mr. President said there is no such thing like NBA in football. We have to adapt. Of course fans are going to miss some players but again I don’t think it’s going to hurt any team because even right now some players aren’t playing for their national team due to various reasons”.
The new CBA, the D-League and the US national team
FIBA is also waiting to know the exact details of the new NBA CBA that have to do with the NBA D-League, because this is something that will affect the US national team in the near future. As Novak said: “We are aware of the situation with D-League but we have to wait in order to see clearly what’s going on. USA has to play in the qualifiers too. I don’t know which players are going to be used in the national team but they have to play games. We have to wait for the D-League and then make some moves.”
Turgay Demirel spoke also about the matter of European talent ending up in the NBA with much bigger rates compared to the past: “If the production of players grows in Europe, then the quality will grow too. So our federations have to work more and produce more players. Of course we are going to protect our federations and support them.
If we can increase the quality of European players, then the NBA Players Association will react.
They will start to create some ideas in order to protect American players and they might ask for some restriction. If they don’t, every player’s family and agents would love to take their players to the NBA because there is so much money out there. We have to increase the number of quality European players and put pressure on the American players. That way they might ask for restrictions and if there will be any kind of restriction, they will have to ask for it.”