Alba Berlin’s managing director Marco Baldi is aiming for training compensation for German talents who are enticed away by NBA franchises at a young age and move to the USA.
“One day I would like to start a small revolution there. In football there is a training compensation implemented by the world association Fifa,” said Baldi in an interview with the Berlin morning post.
However, the basketball counterpart FIBA, in cooperation with the NBA, would prevent such a system. “The NBA generates more than eight billion euros in sales per season. But there is no money for the training of all these players who come from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia? They are delivered free of charge,” said the 60-year-old further.
As an example, he cited Moritz Wagner, who was trained at Alba Berlin and is now under contract with the Orlando Magic. “He was educated with us from the age of seven. Then he went to college for three years, then to the NBA. We don’t get paid for it.”
In return, European clubs would have to pay transfer fees if they wanted to sign players from the USA. “Suppose Orlando would now move him (Moritz Wagner; editor’s note) to his development team in the G-League because they don’t need him right now – which hopefully never will happen. He would want to move from there to Alba Berlin , we would have to pay a fixed transfer fee.” It’s not about “any kind of logic and certainly not about sustainability. It’s about power,” says Baldi.
Baldi believes that the NBA should actually have an interest in continuing to attract the best players in the world. “I also totally understand that all players want to be there. But that’s a situation that I would like to take care of. Because I believe that the NBA must also have an interest in continuing to supply players of this quality.”
