# NBA in Europe by end of decade?



## J-MAC (Jan 26, 2003)

On hoopsworld.com it says that Stern is again investigating the idea of possibly introducing a European division in the NBA, or an NBA sponsored league in Europe, by the end of the decade.
I think it would be great for the game. A Europe division could look like this:
London
Paris
Madrid
Berlin
Rome
Athens
Istanbul
Moscow

Each of the North American teams could take two trips to Europe and play four consecutive European opponents on each trip. The European teams could play each North American team once in Europe and once in North America and play other European teams 3 times. Think of the potential for extra sponsors from Europe to help the NBA. Also, it would encourage players who would prefer to stay in Europe to get on board and sign with European NBA teams. That way fans in North America would get to see them at least once during the regular season (Twice if the major networks did coverage in Europe).

There would have to be some juggling with schedules, but it could be done. The only question mark is, how would they work out the playoff format to include the European teams?

Any suggestions?


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## italianBBlover (Mar 5, 2003)

Yep, I read this news today morning.

Well, the thing is very exciting, but we must see how this Europe's NBA will work with the national leagues and Euroleague.

The above-mentioned cities have already good NBA-like arenas ( maybe London,Paris and Moskow must make news ) and the basketball love above all in Spain,Italy, Greece and Turkey is second only after U.S.

Gretz


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## guilherme.rcf (Mar 4, 2003)

Would be nice. How about a pre-playoffs. Something like the college format, the best 2 europeans play against the 2 worst playoffs teams, the 8th seed from east and west. then the 2 winners go to play in the american playoffs.


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## Carl English (May 29, 2003)

I'm really glad that Stern is the NBA commisioner because he has great respect for the international game. This has been his dream for a while... to make the NBA international. We probably never would have gotten teams here in Canada if it wasn't for Stern. Even though the Vancouver Grizzlies failed due to braindead management Stern remains determined. There has also been talk of a team being placed in Mexico City. The Dallas Mavericks (with Mexican Eduardo Najera) and Utah Jazz will play a pre-season game there next year. 

As for the European cities I can't see London being a viable place. It is a wealthy city but I can't see them being able to draw enough sponsors and attendance to make it worthwhile. Despite the problems in Israel I think Tel-Aviv would be a good place considering their incredible fan devotion.


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## italianBBlover (Mar 5, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Carl English</b>
> As for the European cities I can't see London being a viable place. It is a wealthy city but I can't see them being able to draw enough sponsors and attendance to make it worthwhile. Despite the problems in Israel I think Tel-Aviv would be a good place considering their incredible fan devotion.


Mmm, that's quite true ... in England maybe there isn't a so great love 4 basketball.
But this can be a good reason to make promotion ...

However the "sure" place be Madrid, Berlin, Athens, Rome (or Milan, where the basketball love is a bit higher), Istanbul, Paris, Moscow and,why not, Stockholm or Oslo (Scandinavia).

Gretz


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## Marco Mitis (Dec 17, 2002)

No former Yugoslavia towns in? Hey, that's the Indiana of Europe!
Ljubljana? Most competent crowd, but maybe is too small.
Zagreb? a bit of the same.
Beograd? Must be included IMHO.

And what about a country like Lithuania where where BB is 1st sport (and many players have given to clubs this and that side of the Atlantic)?


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## SEOK (Apr 3, 2003)

I don't know how successful could be a "NBA Europe" in these towns and countries where basketball has already strong stems: I mean, for example: could the "Bologna Towers" have the same interest that actually the two teams of Bologna have playing in the Italian leaugue or in the Euroleague? I don't think so. 

The same for "Barcelona Ramblas" or "Madrid Royals" or "Athens Byzantins": in such an environment basketball is already in the heart of people, but Barcelona, Real Madrid, Panathinaikos, Olympiakos are too much strongly part of the fans culture that I don't think an NBA team, composed by some European players and some 2nd level American players could be followed. 
I think that NBA should make its promotion where there's not an high level basketball, but where there's a hidden passion. I mean towns like Amsterdam, London, Wien, Stockolm, Helsinki, Lisboa. There are already big arenas, and there are thousand of bblovers that are used to watch the "fantastic" Dutch or Portuguese league. 
The Amsterdam Tulips could have 10.000 people at their home games, but the Bologna Towers, considering there are already two teams in this town, playing at least 50 games each season, considering the prices of tickets and season tickets, would have a sold-out maybe for the first games, just a "curiosity", but then it would be basketball in the desert... I guess the same would happen in Milan and Rome. In Athens, the "Byzantins" would play with 200 spectators in the hall...


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## SEOK (Apr 3, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Marco Mitis</b>!
> No former Yugoslavia towns in? Hey, that's the Indiana of Europe!


If I'm not wrong, it's said that "Lithuania is the Indiana of Europe". And Lithuanians answer in this way: "no, you're wrong. It's Indiana that is the Lithuania of America". 
Maybe Zalgirinis could confirm me that.


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## Matiz (Jun 5, 2003)

Remember London Towers?- forget about basketball London...
:jump: Europe basket is just different then basketballl in Usa- we do not have Ncaa, high school is not worth to mention... drafting euro players could be a problem...
and about former yugoslavia... got best talents, got best players, got tradition, love for Bball, most crazy fan crowd attending games:rocket:


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## Marco Mitis (Dec 17, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>SEOK</b>!
> 
> 
> If I'm not wrong, it's said that "Lithuania is the Indiana of Europe". And Lithuanians answer in this way: "no, you're wrong. It's Indiana that is the Lithuania of America".
> Maybe Zalgirinis could confirm me that.



I think you are right, I would only point the fact that unlike soccer BB has a more "fractioned" culture.
England has no BB culture, while countries like former Jugoslavija and Lithuania despite their echonomical or social importance in Europe have made the history of European BB so could not be counted out.


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## J-MAC (Jan 26, 2003)

*Regarding the former Yugoslavia*

No offense, but I think things need to get more stable in that region before the NBA could consider putting franchises there.


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## brazys (Jul 17, 2002)

both serbia (former yugoslavia) and lithuania are crazy about basketball, but i don't see NBA team in belgrad because of economical reasons and lithuania is only 3.5mln market, where capital vilnius' population is only 600.000 and kaunas is 300.000. I am not sure we could gather 15-20 thousand for every regular season match with average ticket cost at 50USD. Current ticket prices are around 10USD for euroleague match.


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## 888 (May 25, 2003)

if nba really wants to promote its league, then they should expose themselve into places where basketball is still a new interesting item, such as asia, especially countries like india etc etc, just india alone has more population than half of european countries combine and almost theres no basketball exposure over there in the continent, it is nba's duty to bring the sports into the hands of more than 1 billion people there in the subcontinent, and nba should set up some teams in china also.

as you mentioned, europe already have a strong league and it already won everybody's heart and loyalty is too strong for nba to even promote itself, therefore its nba's best interest to bring the sports into a more remote area and brings more exposure to world wide


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## brazys (Jul 17, 2002)

*Asian nba team...*

it's really a good idea. Japanese NBA team would be a sellout, and chinese team for example in sanghai would be a total jackpot business-wise. i don't know how traveling and schedules would be managed though in this case.


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## Tommy_Heinsohn (May 29, 2003)

The Moscow Iron Curtain!

or 

The Moscow Sputniks!


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## italianBBlover (Mar 5, 2003)

Rome Gladiators :grinning:  :yes:


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## Tommy_Heinsohn (May 29, 2003)

The Moscow Red Wave!


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## starvydas (Jul 16, 2002)

Mmmm... NBA Europe... Why not after all? Obviously the L is generating huge amount$ of money around the world so I guess it would make sense on an economic ground. It would most certainly give Stern the opportunity to test the efficiency of his marketing approaches towards Europe, and prepare for an Asian NBA (remember guys that Japan and some parts of China are nearer to the US than Europe).

But that would be at the expense of the quality of play IMO for the reason that the more teams that play, the more talent you dilute between them. There are currently 29 franchises in the NBA and people like Calbert Cheaney or Scott Williams are starting for some teams. I can let you imagine what would happen when the number of teams go from 30 to 50. 

A consequence of this phenomenon: who would play for the Euro teams?

Local players? Then you can write off Lisboa, London, and Amsterdam right away as there is no basketball history in those towns. Even if you count on other nations to dispatch their talents throughout the continent, the reservoir of good (i.e. NBA-good) ballers in Europe is not deep enough (for the moment of course, it might change in 10 years).

US players? Could be possible, but I find it hard to imagine a dude born, raised and trained in, let's say, Alabama being drafted by a Euro franchise and not being reluctant to go to a country whose culture and, most importantly, language he does not know.


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