A potential European league could be a gold mine for the NBA as the top-flight North American league looks to muscle its way into a deep pool of talent across the Atlantic Ocean.
The NBA is exploring the launch of a European league with world basketball governing body FIBA as a partner, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last week, with an eye toward a 16-team format made up of 12 permanent clubs and four qualifiers.
The continent’s longstanding Euroleague quickly signaled its readiness to enter into talks with the NBA, even as it has balked at the idea of another league in the region.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“They understood perfectly that NBA became global, the last MVPs [Most Valuable Players] are almost all international players. They see that the talents come mainly from Europe,” said Olivier Mazet, an agent to players in the NBA and Europe. “There is a will to take the field, to ensure the storytelling from the emergence of talent in Europe to their arrival in the NBA.”
A joint-record 125 international players from 43 countries were named to NBA teams at the start of the 2024-2025 season, with all 30 franchises featuring at least one player born outside the US.
With the global pool of talent growing in the sport, the NBA follows a similar playbook to the other “Big Four” men’s US sports leagues, which are looking to stamp out their territory abroad.
The NFL has rapidly expanded the number of international games, with a Christmas Day Netflix streaming slate boosting its global ambitions, while MLB launched its season this year at the Tokyo Dome.
“It’s another example of Adam Silver’s vision and leadership in conceptualizing a way to internationalize the NBA,” said Leigh Steinberg, an American sports agent best known as the inspiration for the titular character in the movie Jerry Maguire. “One of the keys is the fact that the most popular American sport which is the NFL is not played in other countries where basketball is.”
Steinberg said he believed there was a possibility for the NBA and Euroleague to coexist, pointing to the NFL and its neighbor to the north, the Canadian Football League, as proof.
However, European bosses were not inviting.
The Euroleague is celebrating its 25th season with a cult-like following and attendances have been steadily on the rise, more than 3 million spectators going to games last season and average attendances rising 18 percent.
“European basketball does not need to be saved,” Euroleague Basketball chief executive officer Paulius Motiejunas said via e-mail. “If NBA and FIBA truly care about its growth and about the fans, their focus should be on contributing to its progress, not on creating a new league that fragments, divides and confuses fans.”
“We have consistently extended an open invitation for dialogue with any organization interested in supporting the growth of European basketball. That applies to the NBA, FIBA and any other organizations, but creating a new league does not go in that direction,” Motiejunas said.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
VICTORY ABROAD: The team took home a fistful of medals and secured spots for the autumn’s Asian Games, scheduled for September in Nagoya Taiwan’s women’s team captured the overall title at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Mongolia on Sunday, finishing with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The strong showing, led by gold medalists Wang Chieh-ling and Chang Jui-en secured the full quota of available spots for Taiwan at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, in September. Wang opened Taiwan’s medal run by winning gold in the women’s under-46kg class on Thursday, the first day of competition. Liu Yu-yun later earned a silver in the under-49kg class. On the final day on Sunday, Chang won Taiwan’s second gold medal in the under-62kg event, and
The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
RSS