By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
It’s no secret that the NBA, in partnership with FIBA, is preparing to establish a new league in Europe in the near future. This project, called NBA Europe, is expected to include Galatasaray, as announced by President Dursun Özbek.
But some teams won’t make it to this new league, as NBA will prioritize big cities from Europe.
Antonio López Nieto, Unicaja de Málaga’s president, talked about his team’s aspirations.
“We will never be an NBA franchise. Those franchises will be in very large cities, which is their idea for cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Istanbul, London, Paris… Those are the teams that would make up the 12 permanent franchises that have to pay, they say, approximately 500 million over 10 years with a television contract. Then there are 4 spots that the rest of the teams that compete in the Basketball Champions League or in the national leagues might be able to access each season and occupy one of those 4 places”.
López Nieto also talked about the need of finding a solution to this situation.
“There can’t be four or five European competitions. People are confused, we divide interests, players are overloaded with games, and injuries are very frequent. And with so many games, it’s very difficult to get people to attend. It’s not economically viable; it’s madness. It’s a problem of egos, and all parties should sit down and use common sense to create a logical basketball system with one major competition that has, let’s say, financial control and a real return. And a second strong competition that could allow entry into the NBA or EuroLeague, or whatever it’s called. That would be the logical thing to do with a more coherent structure”.