By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
After the joint conference between the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, for some months, the public discussion around NBA Europe has gone quiet.
However, in the past few days, the American executive has spoken on numerous occasions about such a project involving basketball on the Old Continent.
Following his words on NBA Europe during the annual news conference before the NBA Finals, he touched once again on the topic after an event by NBA Cares in Oklahoma City.
“We’re so early in the process. It’s a little hard to put a specific timeline on it now. So, we’re at least a couple of years away from launching. It would be an enormous undertaking,” the NBA Commissioner suggested, pointing at the 2028 Olympics as a likely starting point.
“While we want to move forward at a deliberate pace, we also want to make sure that we’re consulting all the appropriate stakeholders, meeting the EuroLeague, its teams, European players, media companies, and marketing partners. So, there’s a lot of work to be done,” he also added.
“Either way, we continue to feel there are an enormous number of underserved basketball fans in Europe and that there’s a strong opportunity to have another league styled after the NBA,” Silver said.
According to the NBA’s piece on the matter, “some of the cities that are expected to have interest in being part of the new venture include London, Manchester, Rome, and Munich.”
Adam Silver also commented on having potential new teams from scratch. “We haven’t had direct conversations yet. But there have been several organizations that have come forward and said they would be interested and potential owners in operating in those major markets in Europe,” he said.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images