Adam Silver has been the commissioner of the NBA since 2012 and a lot has changed under his tenure. He introduced a new in-season tournament. The All-Star game format has undergone multiple transformations. He and the league office worked with the NBAPA to completely overhaul the “superteam” landscape in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement. While there haven’t been any new teams added yet, expansion seems right around the corner.
But his biggest project to date is only beginning to take shape: NBA Europe.
In 2025 Silver announced the NBA would be working with FIBA to launch a new league in Europe, a competitor to the existing Euroleague. Since then the commissioner has spoken a few times about the initiative and painted in broad strokes as far as particulars. The NBA would be targeting big European countries to host new teams. Those new teams could number from 12 to 16 and no matter what will include a hefty entry fee. There may be pathways for other teams to quality for admission through FIBA’s Basketball Champions League. Reports have already emerged that current and former NBA players are interested in getting involved on both the ownership and leadership sides.
There is still much to be nailed down, as you can see. Last month Silver noted October 2027 has been the working start date for the new league, though, so things have to get formalized soon. On Thursday, a new report detailed the NBA’s targets for one of the most important first steps: which cities will play host to these new teams.
Alex Sherman of CNBC reported the NBA is looking at eight cities as homes for permanent NBA Europe teams: London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Istanbul and Berlin. All cities had been loosely mentioned previously as possibilities but the league is starting to narrow its focus and these appear to be the top choices. The report further states there will be 10 to 12 teams overall and Silver is hoping the new organization will be formed not just by brand-new teams, but by existing European clubs agreeing to join NBA Europe as well.
The named places above make sense as targets for the NBA. Each city resides in the major markets of Europe the NBA wants to enter—the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Germany. Most of those countries already have Euroleague ties in some capacity so there is an established basketball fanbase beyond just international NBA fans.
While the new league will be mostly connected to the NBA by name only, American fans have reason to keep an eye on it. Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum raised the possibility of including NBA Europe teams in the in-season tournament. And while Sherman reports there will be no official affiliation between an NBA organization and an NBA Europe organization like the G League, Silver’s stated hope is to create a formal pipeline of European talent that will start with NBA Europe and end in the NBA across the pond.
There’s still a long road ahead before the details of Silver’s international vision can be fully realized. Finding host cities is a great start.
Why the NBA wants to create a European league
The movitation for this endeavor has been pretty clear from the outset: Silver believes there’s a huge opportunity to make the NBA a worldwide sport, especially with some of the league’s best players coming over from Europe in recent years.
“We’re the fastest-growing sport right now in this country,” Silver said while speaking in Germany earlier this year. “There’s, in essence, a golden era, I would say, of the sport … The 1936 Olympics here in Berlin, that’s when basketball was first introduced into the Olympic movement. In fact, James Naismith came here to Berlin for those games and purportedly tossed up the ball for the opening tip of the Games. So, there is that long history here.
“I would just say we continue to be enormously excited about it. We’ve been meeting with clubs that are interested in participating in our league. We’ve been in discussions with other potential stakeholders, including media companies that would like to cover it, potential media partners and traditional sponsors who want to work with us on the league. We’re looking at the opportunity to grow the arena infrastructure, not just here in Germany but throughout the continent. It’s something that we’re enormously excited about.”
It’s a complicated situation, though, given the European basketball structures (both FIBA and Euroleague) already in place. Silver addressed that concern in Germany as well.
“I think it’s critically important that we respect the traditions of European basketball … We’re trying to find the best combination of the old and new, tradition and innovation,” he said. “I think frankly, that’s what the NBA brings to the table. I think it’s also why it’s important not only to have FIBA as our partner but existing basketball organizations who understand the culture of European basketball, understand the traditions, the history, what makes European basketball unique in so many ways.”
It’s Silver’s most ambitious undertaking to date as commissioner. It seems his dream is on its way to becoming reality, one step at a time.
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