Adam Silver's European vacation

Good morning. We're taking a diversion to Europe. Not physically. Unfortunately. Let's basketball.

Adam Silver has spent the last few months slow-walking domestic NBA expansion more than ever while taking all sorts of meetings all over Europe as reports of the league's interest in forming a new continental venture build steam. The Athletic's Joe Vardon has been fully on top of this. A report from Vardon last week lists these teams as having had conversations with Silver or his deputies:

• Real Madrid
• Galatasaray in Istanbul
• Alba Berlin

... and lists these cities as places where Silver or his deputies have talked to deep-pocketed potential investors about either moving existing clubs into the NBA's European imprint or founding a new club:

• London
• Paris
• Manchester

... and Vardon lists these clubs as being rumored to be targets for the NBA:

• ASVEL Basket (Tony Parker's club near Lyon)
• Barca Basket in Barcelona
• Fenerbahce in Istanbul

The NBA recently announced its in-season Europe games for the next few seasons, which includes matches in Berlin, London, Paris and Manchester, where teams will play at an arena owned by the group that owns the Manchester City football club, which happens to be a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.

Five of the six teams mentioned above are permanent Euroleague members, with Alba Berlin having already left for FIBA's Basketball Champions League, which is FIBA's meek attempt to take on Euroleague. For its part, Euroleague management is worried about the NBA's foray into the continent; you can tell by the way they are downplaying Silver's ability to pull something together quickly, while the NBA is flush with cash coming out of its new media deal and while Euroleague is in a precarious place with Real Madrid and Barca apparently having licenses that expire next year.

The question around all of this, of course is simple: why? Why is the NBA interested in adding yet another sibling league to its portfolio along with the G League, the WNBA (which is growing in independence every year) and the Basketball Africa League? The WNBA took a couple of decades to get established, and NBA governors are the least likely parties to benefit from its boom since most are out of the business now. BAL is developmental (economic, cultural and player pipeline) in nature; the G League is the same (though much more focused on the player pipeline). NBA Europe would not be like that.

The answer, as it usually is: money. There has long been criticism of Euroleague as a two-bit operation that has failed to make its clubs world famous and overflowing with revenue. The fact that Euroleague, due to its structure or business capacity, has been unable to launch or land a team in London, the economic capital of Europe, is a telling symptom, even as Euroleague embraces sovereign wealth infusions from the Arabian peninsula. (Dubai Basketball, a club formed in 2023, has a spot in Euroleague this season.) Alba Berlin's chairman actually explained why the club left Euroleague after a quarter-century in the competition: Euroleague's financial model causes $200 million in annual losses for participants. That might particular to Alba Berlin and is certainly some flavor of exaggeration given the modern rule that wealthy folks usually lie through their teeth about their balance sheets, but it's relevant, because the NBA knows better than any basketball league on the planet how to make its members richer.

That's the gambit here: the NBA brings in its deep pockets to help set up the league and maybe a couple of well-placed teams, it brings its media partners to the table (remember the early WNBA on ESPN?) and forces them to broadcast or stream the competition, it coordinates schedules to fill gaps for North American audiences, it connects clubs and the league with the biggest consumer brands in the world to set up partnerships. (Alba is a German waste management company, if you're curious.) Eventually, the NBA – which has some American viewership problems, too – incorporates the European league into the NBA Cup, or creates a new international competition in the offseason, or tweaks its rules to more easily allow NBA teams to loan players to European clubs or vice versa. In exchange for all this help for European clubs to make money, the NBA gets an ownership stake in the overall league. Maybe a majority stake. This relationship then also gives the NBA more power over FIBA, which is something Silver and his mentor David Stern have long sought.

Euroleague is its teams, just like the NBA. But enough Euroleague teams seem exhausted by the league's inability to build a fortune for them, and so the NBA is swooping in at a pretty opportune time. With Real Madrid (the real titan here) coming up on license renewal, it's hard to imagine NBA Europe spinning up within a year. So it could be that Madrid, Barca and any other future NBA Europe with a near-term out lands temporarily with Alba Berlin in the Basketball Champions League until the NBA and FIBA can get whatever they need done. The fact that Silver has spent his summer talking to the European clubs and power brokers is telling. This where the NBA's priority is right now after buttoning up the media deal and seeing the Celtics and Lakers get sold.

Some Links

Here's what we've had for paid subscribers over the past couple of weeks:

• The echo in the Spurs' decision to pay De'Aaron Fox
• A take on the Knicks' championship window after extending Mikal Bridges
• On Jonathan Kuminga's Golden State handcuffs
• Asking whether the Bulls are happy with themselves (obviously yes)
• An assessment on which teams are tanking in 2025-26

Just a reminder: if you become a paid subscriber you get everything this newsletter produces and access to our subscriber-only Discord. If you are a free subscriber, you'll get a newsletter once every couple weeks.

Paul Flannery on Boston's Georges Niang trade and Chris Boucher signing.

Secret Base did a video on the DeAndre Jordan kidnapping. Still one of the more surreal experiences on the Basketball Internet.

Caitlin Cooper podcasted with Rick Carlisle, where he broke the news that Bennedict Mathurin will be the opening day starter alongside Andrew Nembhard.

Mike Sykes on Bad Bunny as the new celebrity entertainer serving as Adidas' muse.

Alright, that's the week. See you Monday. Be excellent to each other.