The North American basketball league NBA wants to launch its own league in Europe from October 2027. This was stated by NBA Europe managing director George Aivazoglou at an event in Milan. They have also decided on twelve locations.
Two German cities, Berlin and Munich, are also there. In addition, Lyon and Paris from France, Athens from Greece, London and Manchester from Great Britain, Milan and Rome from Italy, Barcelona and Madrid from Spain and Istanbul from Turkey will be home to an NBA European League team.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently described a possible start of the planned league in 2027 as ambitious, but did not rule it out. He doesn’t want to wait much longer than 2028. “Now is the opportunity to do something like this,” he said.
Four more places up for grabs
Aivazoglou left it open which teams these were specifically and whether, from a German perspective, the BBL clubs FC Bayern Munich and Alba Berlin could be there. In addition to these twelve teams, four other teams should be able to qualify for the NBA European League: through the FIBA Basketball Champions League or the national leagues.
“One point that we will address fairly quickly after the league opens is to install a new tournament,” Aivazoglou continued. Accordingly, teams from the NBA European League could compete against teams from the NBA itself.