By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Adam Silver is in Europe, and he has already met with Real Madrid, among private equity funds, political figures in the UK and Paris, plus more clubs and officials from the Arabian Peninsula.
The talks for NBA Europe have once more heated up, and according to NBA podcaster Bill Simmons, the plan currently on the table includes already mentioned cities, plus a Greek team, which can be either Olympiacos or Panathinaikos.
As Simmons said in his podcast: “I think this goes London, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Berlin, and a Greek team as your definite seven better in this. I think Adam Silver has those seven in his pocket, and I don’t know who the Greek team is yet. Maybe you could add Tony Parker’s French team. You could add the Istanbul team. You could add Manchester City. All sudden, I’m at 10. Maybe there’s an Israeli team down the road. Maybe there’s a third Spanish team. Who knows? But they could take this right away”.
Simmons mentions that the NBA can do a better marketing job than the EuroLeague and the new project may tip off in the autumn of 2026: “They could offer the sponsorship expertise better, TV deals. They could shoehorn some of the TV stuff into their things. They could do the schedule so that it complements the NBA schedule correctly, and I think this is going to be like, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised that this was going in the 26-27 season”.
According to Simmons, the NBA will not expand yet in the US, and that’s why making a move in Europe makes sense: “I mean, the owners don’t need to give up the media money for expansion fees because they made so much. I think this is the apple of their eye right now, and I think that’s why the reports are coming out this week. That’s why Adam Silver is very publicly meeting with all these people, even though it’s private, but it’s not stuff’s leaking out, and I think this is going to happen in a real way”.