NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA may soon be significantly expanding its presence in European basketball, in the form of partnering with FIBA on a new league that the sides have been talking about for many years.
Specifics are few, with the initial target — for now — being that it would be a 16-team league. But the announcement made Thursday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis is a major step forward after a long process of the sides going back and forth with ideas about what might work.
“We feel now is the time to move to that next stage,” Silver said, noting that NBA owners offered “enthusiastic support” for such a move.
It's a notion that has made sense for some time, particularly with the growth of the game in Europe and development of stars hailing from that part of the world. About one in every six current NBA players hail from Europe, including Denver's Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) — who have combined for five of the last six MVP awards — along with the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic (Serbia) and San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama (France).
“Basketball is the No. 2 sport in Europe. It’s widely popular. Hundreds of millions of fans. Roughly 15% of the players in the NBA right now are from Europe. Five out of the last six of our MVPs have been European,” Silver said. “But there’s a huge gap, I think, between the amount of interest in the sport and the development in terms of how we operate a league here in North America.”
The league would likely use FIBA rules, such as a 40-minute game instead of the NBA's 48-minute model, Silver said. But much of the other details — who, when, where — will be determined in the months ahead.
“FIBA has been running competitions for almost seven decades, since the 1957-58 season, and certainly we have seen great product,” Zagklis said. “We have seen great players. But at the same time, we have come to the conclusion that the popularity of the sport and the success that we’ve had with the national team competitions is not matched by fan interest and a commercial impact commensurate to that success.”
The NBA and FIBA, the sport’s global governing body, were in discussions for some time about adding either an annual competition in Europe or having an NBA-operated league there. It was a topic at a Board of Governors meeting this past September, one where Zagklis took part.
Zagklis was back for this meeting, and clearly things were trending this way since at least last summer if not even longer.
“Coming out of the most successful World Cup and Olympics ever, we also believe it is the right time to take the next step for club basketball,” Zagklis said.
In January, speaking at the NBA Paris Games — when the league took advantage of the trip to France to meet with European stakeholders on the topic of the future of basketball on that continent — Silver said he believes the NBA remains “on track” in the process of expanding its footprint in Europe. That was also when he said the league’s governors would be briefed further at the March meeting.
“The response we’ve gotten from the marketplace is very positive,” Silver said.
Zagklis said FIBA’s leadership also unanimously agrees that it’s the right time to partner with the NBA on a new league.
"Our role as a federation is to unite the basketball ecosystem," Zagklis said.
The new league — which would likely carry some sort of NBA branding, given how recognizable the league and its logo are — would be part of the current European club system, and teams would also play in their respective national leagues. One of the ideas being floated, if it is a 16-team final product, is to have perhaps as many as four spots available to be reallocated through relegation, something popular in European leagues but nonexistent in major U.S. sports.
The NBA and FIBA would also provide money and resources to the continued development of the game in Europe, with more team academies and adding to their existing programs there designed to work with players, coaches and referees.
“Given the opportunity to design a league from scratch, one of the things we’re looking at is what are the best elements we can take of both systems,” Silver said.
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
