NBA is considering European expansion. Real Madrid, PSG, Man City, team in Germany are on the list

[azcatz11]

Reminds me of NFL Europe

[Mirotic12]

This proves the NBA is run by incompetent people. They clearly have done zero preparation at all for this league. Even the very slightest bit of research would have told them this is not the right way to build a league in Europe.

[durden_tyler]

This proves the NBA is run by incompetent people. They clearly have done zero preparation at all for this league. Even the very slightest bit of research would have told them this is not the right way to build a league in Europe.

Eh, it's not like Europe has quality basketball leagues anyway. LOL

[zimpy27]

I do think these teams could become part of the NBA at some point before 2030. The supersonic planes will.be used by NBA by then

[bkkrh]

It's a blatant cash grab by the NBA to use their licensing to make money. It's entirely trying to smash a square peg into a round hole. Silver is just obviously trying to convert some European Soccer fans into basketball/NBA fans by using existing brands. But that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how European Club fandom works. No one in the UK is going to care about the Manchester United Falcons or whatever dumb name Silver attaches to them. And many of these famous clubs will not spend the massive franchise licensing fee that Silver wants of 500m, they don't cash flow at that level (though I'm sure Silver is just hoping for the middle eastern blood money to come pouring in). What is the actual ROI on that 500m licensing fee when the fans aren't going to care? It's going to be the NBA taking all that money and then effing off.

It´s not even only about that. They very apparently have no clue about fan mindsets in Europe and especially not how many differences there are per country. To go with Germany, they haven´t said anything about associating it with a Berlin football club yet but even for Bayern Munich, which is a very success focused team, the fans will actively fight against the involvement of the NBA in any form if they see it as a risk to the club.

There is a 50+1 rule in German football, which means that there can´t be a dedicated owner of the club, since 51% of the team shares will always belong to the club itself and therefor will always be the majority owner. What unifies all traditional German fan bases is their hate for any kind of external investors. This includes sabotaging potential Billion Euro TV deals in the past.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9QWPUyyZIFo

Dietmar Hopp is one of the 10 richest Germans and used his money to turn his small hometown club into a 1st Division team. He gets hate by every traditional fanbase. There were countless actions against him by other fanbases. He tried legal actions, fans received stadium bans, games were interrupted and in one case both teams decided to stop playing and to just stand on the field until the game was over. Nothing of that had any impact on the fan protests, they just intensified from game to game.

So there is a pretty realistic chance that German football fans see this as a thread in the sense of the NBA pumping money into Bayern Munich and maybe one of the clubs from Berlin through TV deals and sponsoring, which then will also benefit the respective Football team. If so there is a very good chance that not only a huge part of their actual fan base will be against it, but that also fan bases from other teams will get actively involved to prevent this.

Most football clubs in Germany are sport clubs, meaning that besides football they also participate in countless other sports. In case of Bayern Munich they also have a handball team, a chess team, a table tennis team, a bowling team and so on. Nobody cares about that, because it´s semi professional, there is no money in it. Since the late 2000s they focused on turning their Basketball team into a professional 1st division team. That´s not an issue because there is simply not enough money in it for fans to care. The Euroleague works in that sense because there is not really much money to make.

That of course changes if the NBA will start to throw money around.

[ItsDanger]

Load management will reach new heights.

[peZt]

This proves the NBA is run by incompetent people. They clearly have done zero preparation at all for this league. Even the very slightest bit of research would have told them this is not the right way to build a league in Europe.

Ah so the right way would be to copy the eurolague? A failing competition and business that nobody cares about?

If you want to build a new league from the ground up and your priority is profitability, you chose cities like London and Paris, not Kaunas or Belgrade.

The nba doesn’t care about past and present basketball pedrigree. They only care about potential market and revenue.

And a team like Chelsea, from a 8 million metropolis and with millions of fans worldwide has a way bigger potential to draw revenue than a team like zalgiris. London has 3x the population of Lithuania alone

It makes 0! Sense to copy what the Euroleague does and then hope it becomes ansfhitn else than what the Euroleauge already is: a failure that is completely irrelevant outside of the cities that participate

[LuDux1]

Also, who is actually supposed to play for those teams? Will the UK teams just constantly be completely annihilated, since their national team doesn´t have a single player that plays in the Euroleague and recently lost to Germany 57-120? Or will they fill up the rosters with unsigned NBA free agents and foreign players?

5 players from Americas (4 from USA), 1 African player and 9 Europeans (2 from England), just like in current Euroleague

[KGtabake]

This proves the NBA is run by incompetent people. They clearly have done zero preparation at all for this league. Even the very slightest bit of research would have told them this is not the right way to build a league in Europe.

Eh, it's not like Europe has quality basketball leagues anyway. LOL

They play better basketball in Europe.
They don't have the quality of the players playing in the NBA but the game is significantly better.

[LuDux1]

5 players from Americas (4 from USA), 1 African player and 9 Europeans (2 from England)

So i based this stat on this article https://basketnews.com/news-213096-euroleague-players-nationalities-2024-2025-usa-44-countries.html
For example 88 players out of 278 were from Americas, so 88/278*15 = 4.7 = 5

Then I looked at Dubai roster this year and.. 4 Americans and 1 Canadian, 9 Europe and 1 Australian¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[UcanUwill]

This proves the NBA is run by incompetent people. They clearly have done zero preparation at all for this league. Even the very slightest bit of research would have told them this is not the right way to build a league in Europe.

Eh, it's not like Europe has quality basketball leagues anyway. LOL

They play better basketball in Europe.
They don't have the quality of the players playing in the NBA but the game is significantly better.

Game is subjective, but product is better. Way less stoppage, you just watch players play the game, crazy, right? But it also warries from league to league, Euroeague is great, but then I watch our local LKL thing, **** is as bad as the NBA, it is crazy how some leagues just have all that stoppage figured out and some just don't, even tho it has same teams even between leagues. But also atmosthphere is WAAAAAAAY better, I said this many time but I find so pathetic when NBA arenas play music during live play., crowd to me is half the fun if not more watching the game, for example I can not watch Isareli teams play in empty neutral ground now, there is jut no live in the game, it feels so sad, but thats how every NBA game feels. I find NBA games very very hard to watch, it is just not entertaining at all to me.

Thats why I do not see how Soccer fans will watch NBA product, Even I can't watch NBA product and I love basketball...

[-Luke-]

I can only speak for myself, but I don't think my opinion is that unique.

What I find attractive about the NBA is that the best players in the world play there. It's a battle between the best of the best. And that won't change with NBA Europe. The best European stars will still want to play in the NBA. Maybe guys like Giannis or Jokic would return to Europe when they are 33 or something and not 37, but players like peak Giannis and peak Jokic would still like to play in America.

What I find attractive about FIBA basketball and European leagues is that it's a better viewing experience. Less minutes, less time outs, less ads, less interruptions in general, more fan friendly.

If they have a European NBA league, it sounds like they would merge the worst parts of both worlds. I just don't think it will work.

[LuDux1]

Eh, it's not like Europe has quality basketball leagues anyway. LOL

They play better basketball in Europe.
They don't have the quality of the players playing in the NBA but the game is significantly better.

Game is subjective, but product is better. Way less stoppage, you just watch players play the game, crazy, right? But it also warries from league to league, Euroeague is great, but then I watch our local LKL thing, **** is as bad as the NBA, it is crazy how some leagues just have all that stoppage figured out and some just don't, even tho it has same teams even between leagues. But also atmosthphere is WAAAAAAAY better, I said this many time but I find so pathetic when NBA arenas play music during live play., crowd to me is half the fun if not more watching the game, for example I can not watch Isareli teams play in empty neutral ground now, there is jut no live in the game, it feels so sad, but thats how every NBA game feels. I find NBA games very very hard to watch, it is just not entertaining at all to me.

Thats why I do not see how Soccer fans will watch NBA product, Even I can't watch NBA product and I love basketball...

Europeans among themselves: EL sucks
Europeans among Americans: EL best thing ever

Watch on YouTube

[Mirotic12]

Eh, it's not like Europe has quality basketball leagues anyway. LOL

The EuroLeague is vastly superior to what this NBA Europe proposal would be.

Not even close. The NBA Europe proposal would be at best another FIBA BCL, and at worst another G League.

What they are proposing is laughable to most basketball fans in Europe.

They might be able to do something positive if they worked with the EuroLeague.

But this rival new version of FIBA BCL Europe, played under NBA rules, and based on football teams (soccer teams) is an absolute joke, especially when considering that it would still have to compete with the EuroLeague in Europe.

Anyone that has any real sense and understanding at all about economics, fandom, and sports culture in Europe, can see that this NBA Europe proposal has huge disaster waiting to happen written all over it.

[Mirotic12]

First thing that comes to mind is revenue for does big euro teams.
Real Madrid as football club is rich but im pretty sure our basketball team was losing money few seasons ago.
Like few weeks ago i was looking at best paid players in europe and i was kinda shocked.Mirotic got that big as.s contract that was then bought out or something.I was thinking numbers still should be big but then i saw that biggest numbers are around 4 mill and i was kinda shocked

The top salaries in EuroLeague over the last 7 years have been a base salary of €6 million euros net income (player take home pay after all taxes, all expenses, and all deductions) for Mirotic and Micic.

That's said to be equal to around a $22 million NBA gross salary with the current exchange rates and deductions.

That base salary pay doesn't include that EuroLeague teams pay the living expenses and costs for the players and also have large bonuses for winning league titles.

As far as the proposed NBA Europe league is concerned, we don't know yet, but previously there was a report that they were planning on the max salary being $1 million US dollars gross (the NBA way of listing salary), or €275,000 euros net (the EuroLeague way of listing salary).

If it's true that is the plan, then the max salary in NBA Europe would be lower than the average salary of a 12th man in EuroLeague. If it's correct, then the max salary in NBA Europe would also be 1/22 the amount of the current highet salary in EuroLeague.

[Frank Dux]

Silver can’t even manage the current state of the NBA with the betting scandals, and the richest owner actively circumventing the salary cap.

We don’t need an expansion. We need the league to be cleaned up. Silver needs to go.

[dhsilv2]

Also, who is actually supposed to play for those teams? Will the UK teams just constantly be completely annihilated, since their national team doesn´t have a single player that plays in the Euroleague and recently lost to Germany 57-120? Or will they fill up the rosters with unsigned NBA free agents and foreign players?

Why on earth would the teams be filled with just locals?

[pwayknicks]

so that means that guys from California would have to fly out to Germany to play games? Isn't that like 16 hours on a plane?

THey prob would fly out and stay few days there before games and would play more then one game there.
Or Cali teams would go there after they play east conf games.

Also it’s 11/12 hours … sucks sure but they fly 6 to get to games on the east coast today and even longer to get to Florida etc. they are flying in luxury, and will play multiple games out there before heading back home. It can work… only question really would be players wanted to play / live in Europe but they do in Canada sooo it’s not that far out the realm.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[UcanUwill]

They play better basketball in Europe.
They don't have the quality of the players playing in the NBA but the game is significantly better.

Game is subjective, but product is better. Way less stoppage, you just watch players play the game, crazy, right? But it also warries from league to league, Euroeague is great, but then I watch our local LKL thing, **** is as bad as the NBA, it is crazy how some leagues just have all that stoppage figured out and some just don't, even tho it has same teams even between leagues. But also atmosthphere is WAAAAAAAY better, I said this many time but I find so pathetic when NBA arenas play music during live play., crowd to me is half the fun if not more watching the game, for example I can not watch Isareli teams play in empty neutral ground now, there is jut no live in the game, it feels so sad, but thats how every NBA game feels. I find NBA games very very hard to watch, it is just not entertaining at all to me.

Thats why I do not see how Soccer fans will watch NBA product, Even I can't watch NBA product and I love basketball...

Europeans among themselves: EL sucks
Europeans among Americans: EL best thing ever

Watch on YouTube

Every NBA timeout is like ref review or longer, ref reviews really is not a big deal in EL at all, especially if you compare to our LKL, where by 4th quarter refs seem to be able to review anything they want, and they do. LKL games have become totally unwachable, EL games are great and how many ref reviews are even there, a couple per game max. Clutch games take few minutes to play out compared to NBA where last minute can last for 25 real time minutes, its uncomparable experience.

I jsut checked 4 random games of last EL round, how much it took from tip off to the end :

Barca v Real (1 hour 56 minutes)
Partizan vs OLY (also 1 hour 56 minutes)
Žalgiris vs Valencia (1 Hour and 52 minutes)
Efes vs Milan (1 hour and 55 minutes)

EL games do not last 2 and a half hours, its just a flat out lie. Also, Basketnews is embarrassing news outlet, just look at their every Lithuanian news headline, it is edited by imbecile who thinks synonyms are smart, I hate that site.

[LockoutSeason]

Game is subjective, but product is better. Way less stoppage, you just watch players play the game, crazy, right? But it also warries from league to league, Euroeague is great, but then I watch our local LKL thing, **** is as bad as the NBA, it is crazy how some leagues just have all that stoppage figured out and some just don't, even tho it has same teams even between leagues. But also atmosthphere is WAAAAAAAY better, I said this many time but I find so pathetic when NBA arenas play music during live play., crowd to me is half the fun if not more watching the game, for example I can not watch Isareli teams play in empty neutral ground now, there is jut no live in the game, it feels so sad, but thats how every NBA game feels. I find NBA games very very hard to watch, it is just not entertaining at all to me.

Thats why I do not see how Soccer fans will watch NBA product, Even I can't watch NBA product and I love basketball...

Europeans among themselves: EL sucks
Europeans among Americans: EL best thing ever

Watch on YouTube

Every NBA timeout is like ref review or longer, ref reviews really is not a big deal in EL at all, especially if you compare to our LKL, where by 4th quarter refs seem to be able to review anything they want, and they do. LKL games have become totally unwachable, EL games are great and how many ref reviews are even there, a couple per game max. Clutch games take few minutes to play out compared to NBA where last minute can last for 25 real time minutes, its uncomparable experience.

I jsut checked 4 random games of last EL round, how much it took from tip off to the end :

Barca v Real (1 hour 56 minutes)
Partizan vs OLY (also 1 hour 56 minutes)
Žalgiris vs Valencia (1 Hour and 52 minutes)
Efes vs Milan (1 hour and 55 minutes)

EL games do not last 2 and a half hours, its just a flat out lie. Also, Basketnews is embarrassing news outlet, just look at their every Lithuanian news headline, it is edited by imbecile who thinks synonyms are smart, I hate that site.

Here are 4 random times from yesterday’s NBA games:

Bulls vs. Bucks (2:08)
Warriors vs. Nuggets (2:10)
Raptor vs. Hawks (2:14)
Spurs vs. Rockets (2:17)

And this is with NBA games playing 8 more minutes per game than Euroleague.