The NBA may soon be significantly expanding its presence in European basketball, in the form of partnering with FIBA on a new league that the sides have been talking about for many years.
Specifics are few, with the initial target — for now — being that it would be a 16-team league. But the announcement made Thursday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis is a major step forward after a long process of the sides going back and forth with ideas about what might work.
The league would likely use FIBA rules, such as a 40-minute game instead of the NBA’s 48-minute model, Silver said. But much of the other details — who, when, where — will be determined in the months ahead.
“We feel now is the time to move to that next stage,” Silver said, noting that NBA owners offered “enthusiastic support” for such a move.
The NBA and FIBA, the sport’s global governing body, were in discussions for some time about adding either an annual competition in Europe or having an NBA-operated league there. It was a topic at a Board of Governors meeting this past September, one where Zagklis took part.
Zagklis was back for this meeting, and clearly things were trending this way since at least last summer if not even longer.
“Coming out of the most successful World Cup and Olympics ever, we also believe it is the right time to take the next step for club basketball,” Zagklis said.
In January, speaking at the NBA Paris Games — when the league took advantage of the trip to France to meet with European stakeholders on the topic of the future of basketball on that continent — Silver said he believes the NBA remains “on track” in the process of expanding its footprint in Europe. That was also when he said the league’s governors would be briefed further at the March meeting.
“The response we’ve gotten from the marketplace is very positive,” Silver said.
Zagklis said FIBA’s leadership also unanimously agrees that it’s the right time to partner with the NBA on a new league.
“Our role as a federation is to unite the basketball ecosystem,” Zagklis said.
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