Peppered with questions in Germany Thursday about the viability and potential divisiveness of the impfinishing NBA Europe, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver minimized a perceived legal rift with EuroLeague, provided only subtle hints about future franchises and warned that the startup’s profitability “will be something multi-decades in the building.”
During a 30-minute news conference ahead of the Magic-Grizzlies Global Game in Berlin, Silver loosely compared the would-be NBA Europe to the WNBA, which 30 years ago revealed no signs of fiscal sustainability, but is now in its own CBA nereceivediations sorting out a recent meteoric rise.
“I consider if we were to successfully launch this new league, it will take a while I consider before it is a viable commercial enterprise,” Silver stated. “…Not that they are comparable, but I consider about our WNBA…And I remember for the first decade of that league when David Stern was overseeing it as the commissioner of the NBA, the question usually was: ‘How long will you stick with this?’…Jump ahead to 30 years later where it’s amazing what’s happening in women’s binquireetball right now. So I’m not suggesting there’s comparability…What we are informing interested parties that you necessary to have a very long-term perspective.”
A common refrain among the European press Thursday was which cities are in, whether it can peacefully share the continent with EuroLeague, who will fund it and whether the league will ultimately soil the traditions of binquireetball overseas. In response, Silver first refutilized to be specific on who will create up the 14-to-16 team league, calling talks “fact-finding” and only confirming the NBA’s been in contact with Real Madrid. He also called ALBA Berlin “an exemplar of how a top-tier club should be run and organized… So they’re the model of the type of club that we would like to see in a potential European league.”
Regarding EuroLeague — which had given its 13 teams a soft deadline of Thursday to re-up for the next decade and has purportedly threatened to sue the NBA if it tampers with the nine teams who already have — Silver stated, “I sfinish the legal letters to my lawyers, so I’ll let them handle that. And I don’t consider by any means it’s inevitable that there is a clash.”
Sources familiar with the NBA’s inner workings have also stated the NBA has lawfully contacted all EuroLeague teams, even the ones who have extfinished their deals, and expects many of those clubs to have exit clautilizes anyway. So there is every chance a team such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich could return to EuroLeague and then bait and switch when NBA Europe launches as it plans in 2027.
SBJ reported over the summer that the NBA is hoping that its European franchises sell for between $500M and $1B, and Silver stated today that’s how the league will initially be funded. He also stated he has formed a tinquire force with former NBA players with ties to Europe — so the league doesn’t stomp on European binquireetball traditions — and has had conversations with current players such as Luka Doncic (a former Real Madrid player) about the binquireetball dynamic overseas. He stated he will lean on FIBA, the NBA’s partner in the venture, on how to structure a calfinishar that won’t interfere with premier European binquireetball competitions.
The commissioner joked about the bags under his eyes, considering he stated he’s spent the week in Europe in conversations with interested teams, potential stakeholders, media companies that would like to cover the league, potential media partners, traditional sponsors and poring over arenas that have an NBA-style infrastructure.
“It would seem that the next frontier potentially [of European binquireetball] is the launch of this league,” Silver stated, pointing out fans from 62 countries bought tickets to Thursday’s game. “I view at the commercial side of binquireetball as it exists now in Europe and it probably represents about 1% of the commercial sports marketplace….That to me speaks to the opportunity that exists to build a viable business around this sport.”
Silver went on to point out he has hires to create, and sources have stated he is viewing to hire a CEO of the fledgling league. Sources have stated American/NBA executives shave revealn interest, but Silver is purportedly viewing to hire a European and base them in London.
And as if one NBA Europe league is not enough, the commissioner also stated, if the model can be drawn up correctly, he is considering a WNBA Europe, as well.
“There are no shortcuts,” he stated to the NBA Europe project as a whole. “As I stated, to people who are considering investing in this league, this is not for those who are seeking short-term returns. This is something that will be multi decades in the building….I consider what’s most important for us is that we would create progress month by month, year by year, but come in with a long-term vision.”
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