Recently, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that he was looking into establishing a new European league that could begin play as soon as 2027 or 2028. Now, he has suggested that he will take things a little further.
He said that teams in that European league could face off against NBA teams, possibly even during the NBA playoffs. It would certainly be a huge change in the playoff format for the world’s preeminent basketball league.
“Over time, certainly in Europe, as plane travel gets faster … when I think of the flight from New York to L.A. for example, there’s no reason if we had 14 teams in Europe you couldn’t travel, play the Knicks or Nets, travel to London, play three, four times in Europe, come back home,” Silver said, per CBS Sports. “I think it’s very doable in our league.”
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The NBA’s current playoff format was established in 1984. It features 16 teams, eight in each conference, facing off using a traditional bracket formula. The first round of the playoffs was initially a best-of-five series, but it switched to a best-of-seven format in 2003.
Some have suggested over the years that the league should utilize cross-conference matchups in all rounds, not just during the NBA Finals. It is a suggestion that has apparently never been seriously considered.
If the NBA were to include European teams in its postseason, it would mean not only more traveling for players, but also more jet lag. It will be interesting to see if this idea is met with any sincere resistance from the National Basketball Players Association, the labor union that represents individuals who play in the league.
The league has already been holding regular season games that take place overseas for many years. This season, three games will take place outside of the United States — the Dallas Mavericks will play the Detroit Pistons in Mexico City on Nov. 1, and the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic will face off in Berlin on Jan. 15 and in London three days later.
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One idea Silver has tossed around is having existing European pro basketball teams join his new league across the Atlantic. He reportedly talked to Real Madrid, one of the most prominent teams overseas, about entering his European league once it tips off.