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Associated Press

European basketball often is a hot mess of passionate fandom, heated rivalries and financial problems, and holding some powerful fiefdoms together is the EuroLeague.
The European competition is not thrilled about the NBA’s plans to create a new competition on the continent. It is not concerned either.
“We’ve only heard the plan or the fireworks of how amazing it will be, how much potential there is,” EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas said of the NBA’s proposed league. “But having a theory is one – and making it work is two.
“We’ve been here for 26 years. We know how Europe functions.”
With clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the EuroLeague is considered the best men’s professional competition outside the NBA. The 20-team league comprises 13 “shareholder” clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation.
The NBA, in partnership with world governing body Fiba, is eyeing a 16-team model with 12 permanent members – with a target start of October 2027. It has identified Athens, Istanbul, Paris, Lyon, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Manchester as potential host cities.

Attention is currently on three EuroLeague shareholder clubs that have not renewed their 10-year licences: Real Madrid, Fenerbahce in Istanbul and the Tony Parker-owned ASVEL near Lyon. Parker has signalled his support for the NBA.
Recent holdout Barcelona had indicated it would extend for another 10 years beyond this season.
Motiejunas was confident all 13 clubs would stay.
“The NBA has been announcing and announcing things for a year but still it’s nothing that you can grasp on,” Motiejunas said. “As businessmen, these are team owners, they also begin to see it’s a little bit of a broken record of ‘we will announce later’ … The ’27 start is already around the corner.”
EuroLeague clubs reportedly have a €10 million (US$11.6 million) exit clause, but Motiejunas would only say that through “consequences and legal teams” contracts can be broken. There is no NBA opt-out, he added.
NBA vs EuroLeague?
The EuroLeague claims to still be open to some type of relationship with the NBA. But in the meantime, it sent a letter to the NBA warning of legal action should talks with EuroLeague shareholders continue.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver shrugged off the threat on Thursday in Berlin ahead of the Orlando Magic’s 118-111 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA’s first regular-season game in Germany.
He also shrugged off the EuroLeague more generally.
“If I thought that the ceiling was the existing EuroLeague and their fan interest,” Silver said, “we wouldn’t be spending the kind of time and attention we are on this project.”
Media reports indicated the NBA was looking for at least a US$500 million franchise fee. Silver noted that any investors would have to be patient because “it will take a while, I think, before it is a viable commercial enterprise”. He added it would be “multi-decades in the making”.
Silver cautioned that “potentially” starting a new league was an “enormous undertaking” and described talks with Real Madrid and other Spanish clubs as “more in the category of fact finding”.

Silver sees potential because basketball is the No 2 sport in Europe after football.
“Rather than think of us as taking share from football, I look at the commercial side of basketball as it exists now in Europe, and it probably represents about one per cent of the commercial sports marketplace,” he said.
In a revenue boost, the EuroLeague last season took its “Final Four” championship outside Europe – to Abu Dhabi – for the first time. EuroLeague also granted a multi-year licence to a newly created Dubai team and recently extended its partnership with global sports marketing agency IMG.
“We focus on ourselves,” Motiejunas said. “We will be able to adapt, there’s no question about it, and we will continue to fight.”


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EuroLeague boss slams NBA’s ambitious European plan as a ‘bit of a broken record’

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was in Berlin on Thursday to watch the Orlando Magic (blue) beat the Memphis Grizzlies 118-111 at Uber Arena. Photo: dpa

Real Madrid (in white) have not renewed their EuroLeague licence but Barcelona have. Photo: Xinhua

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Barcelona’s Tornike Shengelia (right) and Partizan’s Dylan Osetkowski in a EuroLeague game. Photo: EPA

Sport

Basketball

‘We know how Europe functions,’ says league CEO as US body starts pitch to investors, clubs with a target start of October next year


‘We know how Europe functions,’ says league CEO as US body starts pitch to investors, clubs with a target start of October next year.


Fiba (International Basketball Federation)

Adam Silver

EuroLeague boss slams NBA’s ambitious European plan as a ‘bit of a broken record’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘We know how Europe functions,’ says league CEO as US body starts pitch to investors, clubs with a target start of October next year

‘We know how Europe functions,’ says league CEO as US body starts pitch to investors, clubs with a target start of October next year