The league is exploring options.
The National Basketball Association’s Board of Governors, also known as the 30 franchise owners, has apparently decided to go ahead and try to figure out how to establish an NBA circuit in Europe. About two decades ago then NBA Commissioner David Stern was exploring a way to create a European conference but Stern concluded at the time, Europe lacked early 21st century state-of-the-art venues and that the league could not succeed. The NBA Board of Governors will work with FIBA, the international governing body of basketball, in an attempt to build a league. But the timing of an American-owned sports league in Europe is coinciding with a possible trade war between the United States and the European Union. There are people protesting in Europe about the views of the present American administration. An American-owned league might be a difficult sell in countries with the population centers needed for the circuit. Those countries include France and Germany where the NBA presumably would like to place franchises in cities like Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is of the thought that the NBA could build a league of 16 teams, with 12 permanent members and four spots available to play into or be tossed out of the group each season. There is nothing set in stone at this point and Silver admitted that. “One of the things I’m fascinated in exploring,” Silver said, “is to the extent we have the ability to create a league from scratch. How would we do things different based on 79 years of learning in the NBA and based on decades of learning for FIBA?” There is an established Europe league and established well known European teams. Building a league might be easy but jumping over the hurdle of geopolitics might not be as simple.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
