NBA Europe, Adam Silver: “A project forever”

In Europe to stay, not to just try. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver clarified how important his project of a league on the Old Continent is, which he is trying to set up with FIBA, in a round table of over 40′ with a dozen European journalists in a hotel in central London, a meeting to which La Gazzetta dello Sport had exclusive access for Italy. The number one of the US league, with his deputy Mark Tatum sitting on his right and George Aivazoglou, managing director for the NBA in Europe, on his left, clarified the progress of the project and the ideas that guide it. Here are the 5 most important things that emerged from the meeting.

“PROJECT FOREVER”

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The NBA does not land in Europe to test the waters and then eventually leave, but to stay there and build something lasting. “For us this is a forever project – said Silver -. It is a unique opportunity to have NBA franchises in the main European cities”. And then he reiterated several times a concession already underlined on Thursday in Berlin, where the NBA played the first of two regular season games in Europe this season: “The success of this project will be measured over several decades: it is not an investment for those who expect a quick profit, also because initially any profit will be reinvested in the growth of the league and basketball in general.”

“WE ARE NOT AT THE FINISH LINE”

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The idea that the NBA has always talked about is that this new league will play its first season in 2027-28. Silver confirmed that plan (“It’s an ambitious but totally doable idea”), but denied the notion that the NBA Europe project is anywhere near the finish line. “I don’t want to go into details, but we are not at the finish line. However, we are at the point where we always thought we would be – he explained -: we are talking with potential teams, with potential owners, and there will be other announcements in the coming months”. Silver described the NBA’s progress as something of a learning process, one of trying to find the right balances so that this is a long-lasting and successful project.

“LETS TALK ABOUT MILAN AND ROME”

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On the Italian question, the meeting confirmed the NBA’s desire to have franchises in Milan and Rome (the league will be made up of 12 permanent teams, which will also play in the national championships, and 4 which will qualify every year, coming from the Champions League and an ad hoc end-of-season tournament). “In Rome it could be a football team or someone who, since there isn’t a basketball team, sees a great opportunity for the type of market it is, one with many fans in which to create a structure from scratch, a new brand – explained the NBA number 2, who also sits on the FIBA board – And in Milan, we are talking with all the interested parties (Milan, Inter and Olimpia, ed.) and these parties are also talking to each other. The important thing for us is to make sure we bring basketball of the highest level possible in these cities of global interest: we want to identify the right partners and make sure they invest in infrastructure and help us grow community interest in basketball.”

“ARENAS ARE PART OF THE BUSINESS”

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Infrastructure is an important issue, in which the most business part of the entire project is probably hidden. Because the NBA wants to manage a new elite basketball league, at the highest level for Europe and second only to the NBA itself, but it also wants to make sure that in its cities there are arenas up to the NBA ones. “The interesting thing here is that our teams will indeed be the main tenants, but as happens in the US they will only occupy a small part of the available dates – he explains -. The NBA arenas in the US host events of all kinds, from political conventions to other sporting events, to concerts and entertainment. I think that managing all these events and bringing facilities of this type to cities where they don’t exist at the moment could be one of the things that attracts a certain type of investors”.

“A SUSTAINABLE AND COMPETITIVE LEAGUE”

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Silver says that, as in his NBA, the model that will guide this new league is to have teams that are sustainable from an economic point of view and competitive from a sporting point of view. “We want to create a league in which every team, if managed well, has the opportunity not only to compete to win, but also to be sustainable, to operate economically in a way that encourages investment and allows the team to be profitable. We want fans in every market to think that their team can fight to be the best, but we also want to respect the European traditions of promotion and relegation and offer teams that are not permanent in our league but who qualify to play in it the chance of competition real.”