The NBA is ready to take over Europe

The NBA has had its eyes on European basketball for years, patiently and ambitiously waiting for the right moment to get its hands on it. In the meantime, it has contributed ideas, words, and fresh visions. And now, it has even put its face to the project, publicly revealing a masterplan to create a league in Europe, managed in partnership with FIBA and shaped in the image and likeness of the American championship, tailored to the style and tastes of Europe.

This is no longer just a suggestion or a soft power strategy: now there is an action plan. Just a few days ago, Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, held a press conference with Andreas Zagklis, FIBA Secretary General, to outline the course of this venture. And first of all, to make the discussion public. “By publicly announcing that this is our idea, we can now openly talk about what we want to do, with anyone,” Silver said in front of the media in New York, on the sidelines of the NBA Board of Governors meeting—the governing body of American basketball, which includes the owners of the thirty franchises. “No more confidential discussions: anyone who wants to talk to us is welcome.”

And while the competition is still to be built - technical, sports, commercial, and logistical details will be explored in the coming months - the outlines of the masterplan have begun to take shape. With the NBA and its modus operandi at the center of everything, and with one designated victim from the start: the EuroLeague, whose struggle with FIBA is neither new nor a mystery.

The Project

“The fundamental premise is respecting the traditions of European basketball,” Adam Silver said, before revealing some insights on the possible format. “And for this reason, we are sure we want to maintain the FIBA format for games, because stylistically we know it’s a different game from ours, and respecting this aspect is a starting point. The tradition of open leagues, with promotion and relegation, is different from ours, but despite that, some teams are constantly competing to win. Our goal is to take the best of both worlds and maintain a consistent foundation, keeping alive the hope that everyone can win, which is the basis of the European model. We have the opportunity to start from scratch: how can we combine our experiences to make it the best possible?”

NBA and FIBA are no strangers to projects of this type, already collaborating in the Basketball Africa League and various global development initiatives, but Europe is another matter. This is a developed market, from which five of the last six NBA regular season MVPs have come. Yet, according to Silver, there is still a huge gap between interest in the sport and the structure of professional leagues. And now, bridging that gap, profitably, is officially the challenge of the next decade. According to Silver and Zagklis, the foundation should be twelve teams with permanent participation and four spots accessible based on meritocratic logic (qualifications, promotions, and relegations), for a total of sixteen teams involved each year. Not a closed league, then, but a hybrid between the European and North American systems, designed to maximize interest, competitiveness, and sustainability.

Beyond the format and regulations, however, the entire surrounding structure will be very different. Starting with governance and the approach to the sports product, but also the surrounding system in terms of media, commercial, and infrastructural aspects. “At the international competition level,” explains Andreas Zagklis, “we have been organizing competitions for decades, but the popularity of the game is not equal to the success it enjoys. Therefore, we believe in the opportunity to create one from scratch, with the NBA's know-how, which has been part of our board for eleven years,” Silver said without mincing words: “We think we can provide a more competitive and sustainable structure for European basketball, we’re here for that.” The goal is to transform a widespread passion—the second most popular sport on the continent after football—into an efficient system, with higher revenues and global visibility, and with management quality that meets the expectations of the modern audience. This includes investments in new arenas, youth academies, coach and referee training, and a project that looks not only at top clubs but at the entire ecosystem.

Teams and Cities

The plan follows two guidelines: collaborating with existing clubs and developing new teams in strategic markets. The first names to leak are those of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Fenerbahce, and ASVEL Villeurbanne, and according to The Athletic and L'Équipe, there have already been talks with football clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, and Manchester City to create basketball divisions within their organizations. The idea is clear: leverage the power of already global brands and existing infrastructure (arenas, fanbases, media partners) to open the basketball market to new investors. Paris, London, Milan, Berlin, and Monaco are among the cities considered key for initial development. “There will be discussions with existing teams,” confirms Silver, “that is, with brands that come with global fanbases. But we also want to test the market for new opportunities: virtually every major city in Europe already has a team, but others may be interested in creating one from scratch, building arenas where none exist. We look at the size of certain markets, areas of great interest in southern Europe.”

Will Italy be part of the project? Certainly, Milan represents more than just an idea and a ready solution. There’s Olimpia, there’s the Forum in Assago, and soon there will be a new arena—Santa Giulia, set to open with the 2026 Winter Olympics—that meets NBA standards. Then, there’s also Rome—an intriguing fanbase, but without a structure or a club ready to join in the immediate future—and Bologna, with Virtus and a city with a great basketball tradition, but also logistical, structural, and fanbase limitations. The logic follows what the NBA has done for decades: focus on populous cities to establish recognizable identities, with commercial appeal and potential for growth. At the same time, give space to emerging clubs through the open qualification system, to keep the connection with the continental sports model alive. “We want to build an open and transparent project, for the benefit of all European basketball,” Adam Silver emphasized.

The EuroLeague Left Out

There is one major absence in the New York press conference: the EuroLeague, currently the second-largest club competition in the world. As mentioned, it was never directly named in the press conference, and in fact, it was even referred to as “that league”, in a tone that left little room for ambiguity. The message from Silver and Zagklis is quite clear: the new league wants to position itself as a competitor. And the American giant’s decision to collaborate with FIBA and not Euroleague Basketball is political, as well as strategic: the relationship between the two organizations has been strained for years over calendar, governance, product development, future vision, and any other imaginable area. And now, one of the two has the NBA on its side.

Zagklis then emphasized the need for a leap in quality. “We don’t want to exclude anyone, but elevate the whole system. There is enormous room for growth, and the union between our international experience and the NBA's business acumen can create something unique,” he said. And apart from the EuroLeague, there don’t seem to be any other dissatisfied parties with this perspective. “We’ve discussed this with many stakeholders to take the game to the next level,” Silver recounts. “And the feedback we’ve received has been positive, from media partners and organizations like FIBA, and from teams excited about the opportunity to better serve fans in Europe. We’ve also received full support from our thirty owners. The starting point is the conviction that there is a huge gap between how basketball is run in Europe compared to how we do it: we’ve been talking about it for decades, now is the right time to take this step.”

And so, the EuroLeague risks being left isolated, while the more ambitious clubs will consider the possibility of switching to the new structure. Needless to say, losing teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid would be a massive blow to the current top European competition. With the fear that this could just be the beginning, in the face of a project that risks shaking up the continental balance.