NBA Commissioner Adam Silver met with the media forward of the NBA Paris Video games and confirmed the league nonetheless has curiosity in creating a separate European League, that wouldn’t be as an enlargement of the NBA itself.
In his most detailed feedback on the matter so far, Silver thinks there may be cash and development being left on the desk by the Euroleague and thinks the NBA can step in.
“Whereas Europe continues to develop a number of the easiest gamers on this planet — a lot of our most up-to-date MVPs, after all, are European — we expect that the industrial alternative has not stored tempo with the expansion of the sport,” Silver stated.
“And what we do on the NBA is we run leagues. We, after all, run the WNBA, we now have the [Basketball Africa League], we now have the G League, we now have a 2K video league. So we function 5 completely different leagues and we expect it’s an experience we now have. And so we’re trying very intently to see if there’s a chance to professionalize the sport to a different stage right here to create a bigger industrial alternative.”
He additionally confirmed that NBA franchises usually are not high of thoughts.
“We would ultimately have NBA franchises right here, nevertheless it’s not our precedence proper now,” Silver stated. “That’s not one thing we’re discussing in the meanwhile. We’d want supersonic jets to make it work.”
Silver went on to say it’s not going to be one thing that league rushes into and needs to do all the things accurately and correctly.
“We’re shifting slowly to make sure that something we do is accepted by the prevailing basketball ecosystem,” Silver stated. “We’ve been having direct conversations with stakeholders this week. We wish to respect the traditions of European sports activities, it doesn’t matter what course we take.
“We’re speaking a few competitors – in all probability an unbiased league separate from the NBA. It will be a European league. What type it takes continues to be being explored. We’re talking with varied teams to know what alternatives exist.”
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