By Stefan Acevski / info@eurohoops.net
Adam Silver spoke to the media during the Las Vegas summer league and also elaborated on how the NBA Europe process is unfolding.
Silver, who also announced that he will have important talks about this project on the day of the World Cup final, spoke about his relationship with Euroleague CEO Chus Bueno and what each side is trying to achieve in the negotiations.
Asked about the talks with the EuroLeague by Spanish media “Mundo Deportivo”, Silver replied: “I won’t be too specific about certain points of friction with EuroLeague other than this: Chus Bueno, who is now a friend and a former colleague in the NBA, is doing his job, of course, in representing those clubs and organizations. Mark Tatum and I continue to have back-and-forth discussions with him. It’s very understandable what he wants in these discussions, which is to preserve the value created by the EuroLeague over the years.”
A large number of cities have come forward with a desire to take part in the NBA Europe project, especially those the organization had hoped would be interested.
However, as Silver pointed out, they are still not in the stage of “binding agreements.”
“Yes, we began on this path going forward, regardless of where EuroLeague stood. It was always our hope to create some sort of consolidation of European basketball, and we are optimistic that we can accomplish that. In terms of bids, yes, we did receive multiple bids from the cities, initial cities, we hoped would want to launch. We are not at the point of binding bids yet; I would call them initial expressions of interest, and we are complete with financial information. However, everyone needs to know that once those initial bids came in, there will be ongoing discussions before we reach the point where we are going to bind agreements. We are not at that point yet.”
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