By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The meeting in Geneva was the first step, and the next one can be taken in September.
EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas explained, in an interview with “The Athletic”, that while a new European league backed by the NBA will “create confusion”, the moves made may ultimately lead to all major stakeholders, including EuroLeague, the NBA, and FIBA, collaborating.
As he explained: “I believe we’ll have another meeting, I would say around September or during September, to sit down again and hopefully get into a deeper discussion and analysis of how we can work together. Because I repeat it and I said it before: we don’t need a new league. We are doing really good. The league is growing. We’re happy to go and do it together with NBA and continuously use their power to grow basketball in Europe. So we’re open to that”.
Speaking about the EuroLeague itself and its expansion, the competition CEO added: “When you see that the teams are mature enough to play and to come and join you, this is an inevitable step. That’s why we took two steps. One is to expand, and the other is to give (multi)-year wild cards for the clubs so that they know that there’s some stability in it.
Especially about Dubai and the Middle East, Motiejunas added: “The first step was the final four. And because it was a success, because Dubai was a success in the Adriatic League, we think it’s the right step to open up that market. You know how sports are a priority there. There’s a lot of financial backing, whether it’s golf, whether it’s tennis, whether it’s football, you know, and we think basketball deserves to be there as well”.
Last but not least, speaking about European talent going to the NCAA due to NIL deals, Motiejunas is not worried that much: “I hope it’s a short-term problem. The goal of signing young players is to have them play in the EuroLeague and to play for the main team. Before, it was them staying inside (the club) and you being able to grow them. Right now, they take this path to go to the NCAA, but with a goal. Everybody goes there believing that they will play in the NBA, but we all understand that it will be a small percentage who make that. So I think eventually they will have to come back to Europe. And that’s why I say it’s a short-term problem”.