During his press conference, Adam Silver had to brush aside many hot topics such as the indictments of Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier, the expansion of the NBA and of course NBA Europe. He was notably questioned about the possibility for NBA players to invest in franchises in Europe. As is the case, potentially, of Kevin Durant, minority shareholder of PSG.
“Your question is based on several hypotheses: that PSG has a team, and that, if this were the case, Kevin Durant – who is an investor in PSG – could retain his participation. These are all subjects that we will have to examine” replied the boss of the league. “If we start from the existing framework in the United States, as you know, due to the ‘salary cap’ system, we do not allow players — by agreement with the players’ union — to also be investors in NBA franchises. We consider this a conflict of interest. On the other hand, they can invest in WNBA teams if they do not own an NBA franchise, and some players have already done so. »
For the moment, the NBA has not ruled on cases like that of Kevin Durant. “Once we have made a decision regarding Europe and we study who the appropriate owners would be, if a situation arises with a player having a stake in an ownership group, we should define a specific framework to manage these issues and work together with the players’ association. »
First contacts in January
Another journalist then asked if the NBA favored rapprochements with the biggest European football clubs, such as PSG, but also Manchester City or AC Milan. Are they favored for obtaining a license?
“I wouldn’t say there are favorites” replied Adam Silver. “As I’ve stated before, what we’re doing now with the JP Morgan firm and Raine is talking to everyone — and that includes soccer clubs, some that already have basketball teams, some that don’t, existing basketball organizations that might be interested in joining our league, as well as other organizations or individuals that don’t have any teams yet but might be interested if we expanded into Europe. We are therefore launching an extremely broad call, essentially saying to anyone interested: come and meet our advisory banks, explain to us why you are interested, how you perceive the opportunity, what resources you would be willing to commit to launch a team. We then collect all of this information and, probably towards the end of January or during the month of January, we will be able to begin more in-depth discussions with the most seriously interested parties. »
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