What Adam Silver said in Berlin about the NBA Europe project in collaboration with FIBA, and about the latest from the Euroleague.
The press conferences of Commissioner Adam Silver at international events they always present fun dynamics. An introduction by the protagonist in the form of a monologue prepared rhetorically and with attention to detail is what we start from. This year, for example, to get to talking about the golden age of German basketball he started from the presence of James Naismith at the 1936 Olympic Games. The problem is that no one listens to him.
As Silver speaks, you can almost hear the gurgling of barely restrained vocal cords from dozens of local journalists, all focused on one question: the arrival of the NBA in Europe in collaboration with FIBA. And with good reason, God forbid, it would be (will it be?) a revolutionary event that will upset the European, if not global, basketball panorama. The problem? Always the same questions, always the same answers.
This year the hope was that the recent updates from the Euroleague would add some spice. There has been talk in recent days about how the American league has been threatened with legal action by its European counterpart, should discussions on the project continue with the clubs that have already committed to EL for the next ten years. News has arrived about a split in the rivalry between Real Madrid, more inclined towards the NBA, and Barcelona, which appears to have renewed with the Euroleague. There is movement in the EL structure regarding clubs asking for a permanent license or membership, an issue that also involves Naples and Virtus Bologna (we talked about it HERE).
In short, a lot of irons in the fire, many microphones passed here and there, and in any case zero answers. Or almost. Something new, perhaps, has been discovered regarding what will prove to be the financial infrastructure of the project and the timing for its development. The parallel is with the WNBA, which took thirty years to get to where it is now in terms of finances and popularity, starting from prospects that were anything but profitable in the long term.
“The funding could come, at least initially, from the league’s member clubs. As in any start-up venture, the participants would be the investors and, over time, would hope to achieve a return on their investment.”the very first explanation, even a legitimate one, since Silver himself then specified that the American funds will be used mostly for promotion and infrastructure – the latter a theme which could trivially also involve an Italian city like Rome, to name one of those mentioned. And from here we move, necessarily, to the question of timing.
“I think if we can successfully launch this new league, it would take some time for it to become a profitable business venture. I think all participants recognize that it is not an initiative suitable for those with a short-term perspective.” – and here perhaps the question becomes a little more complicated.
A word dear to Adam Silver is that of ecosystem. Here, let’s say that in terms of revenue and promotional funds, the great European powers do not necessarily all do very well, therefore it will not be easy in this respect to rely on existing teams. For this reason, the rumors speak of more and more teams directed towards remaining in the existing system, where Partizan and Red Star are pending, where ASVEL has pulled a nail with the handbrake although it seemed to be directed at full speed towards the new tunnel opened by NBA and FIBA.
Hence, the attempt to expand to other destinations, other horizons, other partners, such as those of football clubs. This is what is not easy to understand, what is shocking about this ecosystem – just think of the Italian one, possibly, which we talked about HERE – and which however the commissioner finally attempted to clarify as best as possible, reiterating the same concepts.
When Silver jokes that the EuroLeague letters will be handled by the lawyers and that a fight doesn’t necessarily have to arise, he is genuine. The intention, at least on paper, should be to unite European basketball. Not to promote the power of friendship, but to bring out another financially profitable product for everyone, the NBA first and foremost – being the main investor.
For this reason, if there were any doubts before, the Berlin conference (available in full WHO) confirmed that the date of 2027 involves only a simple bugaboo, a deadline that takes on heuristic value to give a start to a project that will take decades to develop, and which will aim to gather all the great European powers, old and new (that will be born), under the same umbrella, regardless of how many ten-year licenses they can renew.
This is the NBA and FIBA project, this is Adam Silver’s project. To understand if it is sustainable, well, you will probably need to get older.
