By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
During an appearance on the EuroLeague25 panel, tipping off the opening press conference of the 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four Abu Dhabi, Zeljko Obradovic addressed the NBA Europe project and shared his opinion on how Euroleague Basketball should react in the developing situation regarding the future of European basketball.
“I believe that we have a great competition. I’m sure that everybody will be working to make it even better. The fans are very important. The EuroLeague is a competition that everybody all over the world recognizes,” he mentioned during the discussion in Abu Dhabi’s Louvre Auditorium, “The problem is that we have the NBA that is very interested to come over here.”
“For some reason, they want to be over here. Rumors. We hear a lot of rumors. I don’t know what is true, but what is not true. We need to protect ourselves,” added the Serbian tactician, a nine-time EuroLeague champion, “We need everybody to understand that we have the best basketball over here in Europe. And let’s work in that way, everybody together.”
“We need to protect what makes us special,” Euroleague Basketball president Dejan Bodiroga agreed with the head coach of EuroLeague participant Partizan Mozzart Bet, “We are strong. We have the most passionate fans. We have the most competitive games. We have a really rich tradition. I think that we need to keep this. Maybe what we need to change is our ability to share this unique product with the world.”