Adam Silver dropped a bombshell regarding the proposed NBA Europe league this week.
On the heels of reports suggesting that the league will tip off in either 2027 or 2028, Adam Silver has thrown out the idea of the NBA Playoffs going global one day.
In addition to NBA Europe teams potentially crossing the pond to compete in the NBA Playoffs, Silver also mentioned Basketball Africa League (BAL) teams as well.
During an on-stage appearance at Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum at the United Nations this week, Silver explained:
“You could imagine teams from Europe, potentially Africa, competing in that tournament. You possibly could see teams coming into our playoffs, top seeds from other leagues. But over time, I think, for example, certainly in Europe as plane travel gets faster… I’m reading all the time about more opportunities in aviation.
“When I think of the flight from New York to LA for example, there’s no reason if we had four teams in Europe, you couldn’t travel, play the Knicks or Nets, travel to London, play three, four times in Europe, come back home. So I think it’s very doable in our league.”
Adam Silver Drops New Details About Cities for NBA Europe
While Adam Silver and the NBA still have to iron out the details regarding a potential NBA Europe league, the expectation is that both London and Paris will wind up with teams.
As Silver went on to explain at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum, despite Europe being home to massive football stadiums in various countries, the NBA would focus on major European capitals:
“There are not many state-of-the-art arenas in Europe. It’s like even for those who were over in Paris last summer for the Olympics, we had fantastic basketball competition in the Bercy Arena in Paris. They revitalized it to a certain extent for the Olympics.
“But if you’re in the industry, everything seems fine if you’re in the seats and watching the competition on the floor, but it doesn’t have the suites, the restaurants, the back of house room to do larger events… London has the O2 [Arena], which has been a great advancement in Europe, but that arena is now already old and they’re looking at a new development. So we think there’s the opportunity to go in the major European capitals, again with a joint proposition, both arena development, a multi-use facility and all the opportunities around it.”
Mark Cuban Talks NBA Europe
Amid all the talk of the NBA going global, former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban weighed in on the NBA Europe talk, saying that at the end of the day, it all comes down to execution.
During a virtual sitdown with Rich Kleiman, Cuban explained:
“It depends how they do it. Do they work with the Real Madrids and kind of become part of them and supportive? Or do we say we’re creating a whole new league and you’re either in or out and we’ll compete with what’s going on now with Euro League, Euro Cup, etc.
“That that’s going to be tough because, you know, as like you talked about football, you know, and their football the teams are the same. Real Madrid soccer and Real Madrid basketball are part of the same club. It’s just a whole different beast and you know you’re gonna have to ask them to upgrade facilities and spend a lot of money or we spend a lot of money. So I understand the goal.”
As Cuban pointed out, it will be interesting to see how the NBA handles things in the years to come.