Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA are looking to expand … to Europe. That’s not exactly breaking news, but it appears the league has taken a fairly big step.
Per Aris Barkas of Eurohoops (via Hoops Rumors), the NBA has sent EuroLeague a proposal to collaborate on its European basketball plans. As Barkas noted, the NBA intends to launch a European league ahead of the 2027-28 season. Fittingly, EuroLeague is looking to expand.
“(EuroLeague and NBA officials) have both publicly stated that we believe collaboration is the best way to grow basketball in Europe,” EuroLeague CEO Chus Bueno told The Athletic last week, “and I think there is a shared understanding that the European basketball ecosystem can create more value by working together rather than fragmenting the market.”
EuroLeague management and its clubs are expected to discuss the proposal ahead of an Oct. 5 owners’ meeting in Italy, Barkas reported.
Silver and Bueno have both said they would prefer to work together in Europe. A joint league may be the most ambitious version of that idea, but terms of the NBA’s proposal aren’t public. The question now is whether the two sides can agree on what working together would actually look like.
And yes, the NBA is still looking to expand domestically (here’s looking at you, Las Vegas and Seattle). We have the latest on that here.
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