By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
There’s no concrete plan for an NBA expansion to Europe – or anywhere else at this point – however NBA commissioner Adam Silver once more confirmed that the league is monitoring with interest the situation in Europe.
While talking to the media after the latest meeting of the board of NBA governors, Silver practically repeated what he had said during the Paris Olympics, confirming that there’s NBA interesting in everything that’s going on in Europe: “There’s agreement that where we are in terms of the level of interest in basketball in Europe is not commensurate with the commercial activities. The level of interest here (raises left hand), sort of commercial activities here (raises right hand lower)”.
However, Silver and the NBA are monitoring Europe also in terms of player development: “I think the way all of us see it, it’s not just about a business opportunity. We’ve been in this position before in our leagues, where if you can’t demonstrate to the market that you can run a successful business, it’s not sustainable. I think for basketball to continue to grow, we need something, whether it’s a series of tournaments or a league that is viable.
There are also other factors. Now, for example, relative to that discussion, there’s now a move in U.S. college sports where because of NIL and collectives you’re now seeing some of the top European players leave their club systems and come into the college ecosystem.
I think that’s an open issue whether that’s good or bad for the game, frankly. I think we’ve seen before from a developmental standpoint some of our best players now happen to be international European players who came through that club academy-like development process and come to the NBA very mature from a playing standpoint.
That was a lot of what the conversation was about. There is no specific plan right now about Europe, other than we’re agreeing intensively to look at the opportunity. I think right now, we’re trying to work through it by looking at all these new media platforms. Obviously the advent of streaming, not just as a platform but as a destination for premium sports. How much interest there would be in us potentially doing something together? And also how we would come in in the most friendly manner with the existing ecosystem of regional tournaments, pan-European and country leagues”.
The last part of the quote seems to be referring to the old plan that the NBA has presented both to FIBA and to the EuroLeague of a streaming service that would include every major basketball league in the world, an idea which per Eurohoops sources had been presented back in the Madrid meeting of 2021.
Presented by some as a sort of “Basketball Netflix”, the idea was to expand the NBA TV service, combine it with other streaming services, like the EuroLeague TV and FIBA’s Courtside 1891 and create a streaming destination for all things basketball.
Collaboration with FIBA
Silver also confirmed that FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis was present in the Board meeting: “There was a specific focus on Europe, as well. I talked a bit about that when I was over in France. There are ongoing efforts led by Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, who is here, looking at the opportunity over time for the NBA to directly participate in the growth of the game in Europe.
Speaking of that, FIBA, our federation, which has been our partner in the growth of basketball around the world and of course overseas, the basketball competition in the Olympics, was represented at our Board meetings by Andreas Zagklis, who is the secretary general of FIBA. Longtime FIBA employee who then rose to the level of the top position there. He presented to our Board how the interplay works between FIBA and the NBA and USA Basketball around the world, and his view of the opportunity to continue growing the game, not just in Europe, but in the Gulf region, Africa, where we’re partners, Asia, other places in the world. I think he was very well received by our Board”.
The NBA clearly values FIBA as a global partner: “I think it was important to communicate that we’re committed as partners to growing the game globally. There are a lot of projects we’ve worked on historically. We talked even a little bit about his predecessor, Boris Stankovic, and of course mine, David Stern, who worked together with Russ Granik on NBA players participating directly in the Olympics and that historic agreement leading to the NBA Dream Team in 1992.
We talked about Basketball Without Borders and the well over 100 players who have now participated in Basketball Without Borders who have then come to play in the NBA. Of course, the Basketball Africa League, which we’ve done in partnership. A lot of what he discussed was about the history of this partnership, and there were some newer owners in the room, as well”.