Silver: NBA still exploring separate Euro league

PARIS -- Speaking on European soil Thursday in the midst of a weeklong celebration around a new European star in Victor Wembanyama, NBA commissioner Adam Silver made clear he has serious interest in an American-led invasion of the continent's basketball business.

For the past year, the NBA league office has been investigating the concept of starting a new standalone European league separate from the NBA. In his most expansive commentary on the matter, Silver made it clear he believes the current top league, the 18-team Euroleague, is leaving money and growth on the table, and the NBA sees an opportunity to move in.

"While Europe continues to develop some of the very best players in the world -- many of our most recent MVPs, of course, are European -- we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game," Silver said before the San Antonio Spurs played the Indiana Pacers in the first of two games at Paris' Accor Arena.

"And what we do at the NBA is we run leagues. We, of course, run the WNBA, we have the [Basketball Africa League], we have the G League, we have a 2K video league. So we operate five different leagues and we think it's an expertise we have. And so we are looking very closely to see if there's an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here to create a larger commercial opportunity."

This is an explosive story in Europe, an effective declaration of war on the legacy league that was founded in 1958, just a decade after the NBA. But for the NBA's main business at home, this is a signal that Silver and his top lieutenants are focused much more on conquering new territory than expanding their current league in America to places such as Las Vegas and Seattle as had also been a recent consideration.

Silver still has to convince his bosses, the 30 team owners, to green-light this venture. Multiple ownership sources told ESPN there are still many questions and uncertainties about the plan that have to be answered before it can be ratified. Silver implied Thursday a decision about moving forward could come after a planned March owners' meeting.

An issue for owners, sources said, is these other leagues the NBA operates have not been routinely profitable. In addition to generating revenue via media rights, a new league could generate substantial money via expansion fees, sources familiar with the concept said.

Most of the league's top executives have been in Paris this week for meetings with potential teams, media partners and sponsors as the league is putting on a full-court press on the matter.

"Our plan all along was to spend time here [last] summer when we were here for the Olympics to have a series of meetings, and we were on the ground here for roughly two weeks to watch basketball ourselves," Silver said. "[Then] go back, do some additional work, always knowing that we would be here for this week in January to set a set of meetings here and take advantage of that opportunity. We have an NBA board meeting in late March, we'll be giving an update to our bosses, in essence."

Last fall, the secretary general of international governing body FIBA, made a presentation to owners in New York about partnering with the NBA on a European expansion. In November, sources told ESPN, NBA managing director of Europe and the Middle East George Aivazoglou made a presentation to a committee of owners that included in-depth plans about what cities the league would seek to place teams and other projections.

Over the past year, the NBA has reached out to potential investors and team owners gauging interest, sources told ESPN. Additionally, the league has reached out to some major soccer clubs in Europe to discuss the possibility of them creating basketball teams for the league, sources said.

"The tenor of the meetings have been very positive. It's not anti-anybody or anti any other organization," Silver said of meetings with possible partners. "When we look at that opportunity and these potential partners, what they're telling us is they believe that from a commercial standpoint, in terms of the networks they represent or are part of, or those consumer companies that they represent, that they think there's a desire to connect with consumers, particularly young consumers, which is generally the fan base of the NBA, that they think that the market is ready to do more in this sport."

As part of this effort, the NBA seems ready to plan NBA games in different areas of Europe. After playing regular-season games in Paris over the past three years and London prior to the pandemic, the league has held conversations about playing regular-season games in new locales such as Manchester, U.K., and Berlin in the near future, where possible expansion teams for a European league could be located.