NBA Europe set for step forwards as league chiefs near green light
Today in a New York hotel, the NBA’s executive and representatives of all 30 teams’ ownership will hold the third of their three scheduled annual meetings.
On the agenda will be various matters of concern to the world’s biggest basketball league, but the most intriguing item is its plans for the sport in Europe.
Subject to approval from franchise owners, NBA Europe is slated to begin in the next two years, with 2027 widely considered the most likely start date.
While sources close to the organisation insist no vote will take place today, it could nonetheless represent another significant step towards the project’s realisation.
Recent months have seen a marked ramping-up of activity around the project, a joint venture between the NBA and Fiba which would effectively replace the latter’s existing Champions League and, it is hoped, its rival EuroLeague.
In late July NBA commissioner Adam Silver and deputy Mark Tatum embarked on a European roadshow of sorts, calling in London and Paris.
Joined by European bureau boss George Aivazoglou, they shared their plans with a view to garnering support and ensuring politicians at the highest level remained well briefed.
They are understood to have been encouraged by a meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Downing Street, which followed discussions with London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
As well as European giants Real Madrid and Galatasaray, Silver and Tatum held talks with potential investors in NBA Europe franchises, including CVC Capital Partners, RedBird, Bridgepoint, KKR and HongShan.
JPMorgan and the Raine Group have been engaged as co-advisors, with the former leading on financial structuring and execution, including courting investors. Raine, fresh from its role in attracting £500m of investment to cricket’s The Hundred, is supporting strategic planning.
NBA Europe: What we know so far
Current thinking is that NBA Europe would launch with 14-16 teams, most of whom would be permanent members from both Western Europe’s capitals such as London, Paris and Berlin and Eastern Europe’s basketball hotbeds, like Athens and Istanbul.
A minority of spots would be open to qualification via domestic competitions, a move designed to ensure compliance with the European sports model and nip any legal disputes in the bud. The NBA also believes its proposed model is more transparent and merit-based than current ones.
Other cities in line for teams include Barcelona and Madrid, as well as Manchester, who it was announced earlier this summer will host a regular-season NBA game for the first time in 2027.
NBA Europe was conceived as a means of connecting the sport’s burgeoning popularity and talent pool on this side of the Atlantic with a more commercially viable local product.
While some of the biggest current stars in the US are European imports, such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyama, basketball has just a one per cent share of the continent’s sports media rights market.
Back in New York, Silver is expected to deliver an update on the plans to media on Wednesday afternoon. But the green light may be sooner than some think.
Potential franchise owners are anticipating progress in the next few weeks, while a vote of NBA owners is thought unlikely to be held back until the next scheduled board meeting in early 2026.