Mark Tatum spoke on the sidelines of the Commissioner’s conference, who indicated the end of January as a possible turning point for the project
NBA Europe is also on the agenda in Las Vegas. The League is moving quickly towards an official announcement which could also arrive soon with Commissioner Adam Silver maintaining his usual diplomacy, while making it clear that there will soon be important news. “There are no favored groups at the moment – Silver underlines during his press conference – we are naturally talking with some large basketball players, with the ownership of football clubs but also with other entities. We want to tell any potential investor to contact our banking partners, JP Morgan and Raine. I think that towards the end of January we could start to have more in-depth conversations with groups interested in investing in NBA Europe”. JP Morgan also enters the scene, the group, and perhaps it is no coincidence, which had tried to give birth to the Superlega project, which never took off and was immediately put back in a drawer.
Tatum’s words
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If Silver prefers not to go into details in the press conference, his deputy Mark Tatum, who is the NBA’s point person for its European league project, takes stock of the situation exclusively for the Gazzetta dello Sport, also trying to clarify his statements from mid-November during the SBJ Dealmaker conference in New York. Tatum, in fact, had mentioned the properties of Milan and Roma as the most likely candidates to take over the leadership of the two Italian NBA Europe franchises. “The situation is the one described by Adam Silver – says Mark Tatum – I had only given an example by mentioning Milan and Roma, but we are also talking with various parties interested in those two markets. At this moment I cannot say that there are favourites”
So Olimpia Milano is also still in the running?
“Yes, of course, I repeat when I spoke about Milan I just wanted to give an example. I also recently discussed it with Ettore Messina, we are on the same wavelength. We are talking with different groups”
How important will it be for Italian franchises to have an arena that meets NBA standards?
“However, it is something that we consider fundamental for the future given that we know well that there are few high-level structures in Europe. But the potential of building an arena suitable for NBA basketball is certainly also an incentive for potential investors.”
So could the basic idea for any franchises in Italy be to play in existing arenas at the beginning and then move to new arenas later?
“Yes, that’s the plan. We know it will take time and for the first few years we will adapt to the existing situation. But certainly in the future we need to play in adequate facilities.”
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