As International Stars Rise, the NBA Explores a New European League

The NBA is looking at expanding across the pond—and it’s not just for a few friendly exhibitions.

Commissioner Adam Silver told the Associated Press that the league is having “much more serious” talks with FIBA, basketball’s governing body, about expansion in Europe, either with a tournament or even a league. 

Talks between the two sides have ramped up since the NBA finalized its media-rights deals last month. Silver has said before that the NBA would look to expand once its broadcasting negotiations were finished, though the belief was that the league would focus on adding to its current crop of 30 franchises.

“We certainly haven’t made any definitive decisions,” Silver said. “I continue to believe there’s enormous opportunity here. It’s not something where we’ll transform a league structure in the short term. But I think that there’s an appetite among our team owners for additional investment in global basketball.”

Global League

The NBA has launched several initiatives across different countries and continents around the globe. In 2016, the league opened the NBA Academy, which is a development camp for high school prospects in Senegal, Mexico, and Australia. NBA players like Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels have participated in these camps, and in June, Cameroon’s Ulrich Chomche became the first player to be drafted directly from the NBA Academy.

In 2019, the NBA also launched the Basketball Africa League, which could be a model for the NBA should it decide to open a league in Europe. However, it will face stiffer competition in Europe, as the continent holds the EuroLeague, the second-best pro basketball league in the world.

“We have a huge initiative in China. We have a huge initiative in Africa,” Silver said. “Given the quality of the basketball here in Europe, it would seem to make sense that we should be doing something here as well.”

The NBA has been looking to improve its initiatives in Europe for a while. The league played its first game in Europe in 1984 and has regularly sent teams for preseason and regular-season games since 1993. European clubs have also returned the favor by playing some NBA teams in the U.S. during preseason as well.

The World’s Finest

The next few years may be the best time for the league to expand in Europe. There were 125 international players on NBA rosters before the start of the 2023–2024 season, including 64 from Europe. The last two No. 1 overall selections in the NBA draft were from France, while the last six MVP awards were won by international players.

The 2024 Olympics have shown that the U.S. is still a basketball juggernaut, but many of the league’s brightest and most popular American stars are in their twilight years, including LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant. European stars like Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are in the prime of their careers, and the young Frenchman Victor Wembanyama (above) could be poised to take the crown from James as the face of the sport.