NBA Wants to Launch European League in ‘Next Two Years’

The NBA has a target for the launch of its aspirational European league.

“Our goal is to launch in the next two years,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said in an international media call Tuesday. “Obviously, that’s pending NBA and FIBA board approval.” 

The timeline confirms what NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit last month that the prospective league would launch in “two to three years.”

Tatum said that the next step for the league is to finalize its investors and team owners. He mentioned that there have been “positive conversations” with potential stakeholders, but more formal discussions are expected in the coming weeks.

“Over the next, call it, eight weeks or so, I think we’ll have a really good sense of where we are in terms of the level of interest,” Tatum said. 

Tatum said the league is looking at 10 to 12 markets for its first set of teams, in line with the initial plan Silver mentioned in March, when he officially announced the NBA’s intentions to start a European league, that stated the league is expecting 16 teams, 12 of which will be permanent while the remaining four would be rotating clubs. 

Tatum named five countries the league is targeting for its first set of teams: UK, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. He also mentioned Turkey and Greece were also mentioned as possible candidates. According to Tatum, the make up of the league will be “a combination of existing clubs, potential new clubs that don’t exist today, and maybe there are some football clubs who don’t have a basketball team, but who want to invest in a basketball team.”

In March, The Athletic reported that Real Madrid, Barca Barcelona, ASVEL Basket of Villeurbanne, and Fenerbahçe Istanbul were a few of the clubs that would potentially move to the NBA’s league. 

NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker, who owns ASVEL, spoke positively about the possibility of an NBA European league: “They are coming, and it’s going to happen. … I think the NBA can be very helpful to help elevate the game’s profile in Europe.”

Last week, ESPN reported that Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak,  the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s department of Culture and Tourism and a key United Arab Emirates official, could be an investor in one of the league’s new clubs. The NBA has an ongoing relationship with the U.A.E., and is reportedly expected to finalize a deal that will guarantee NBA preseason games in the country for the foreseeable future. 

Best Across The Pond

Tatum added that the goal for the NBA’s European league is to be the “top-tier” basketball league in Europe—a mantle currently held by the EuroLeague—while the FIBA Basketball Champions League serves as the “second-tier” division. 

“There would be four open spots that teams across the continent would qualify for on an annual basis through a transparent, merit-based process, either by winning their respective domestic leagues and then playing into the Basketball Champions League, or we could create one big play-in tournament of the domestic champions,” Tatum said.

A top-tier professional league in Europe presents a threat that the NBA’s best European players may skip the U.S. league to stay home. The NBA boasted a record 71 European players on opening day rosters for the 2025–26 season, including former MVPs Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić.

Silver said Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show that he doesn’t expect NBA’s European stars to choose the European league over the NBA.

“I think if some of those international players decided to either end their career or prolong their career a bit by playing in Europe, I think that would be fantastic,” Silver said. “I think for the foreseeable future, the NBA is so big, it’s so global, and the pay is so high. I think it’s highly unlikely that any of these players would choose to forego the NBA to play in Europe.”

The NBA money may be hard to refuse for players like Jokić who sign hundred-million dollar deals, but Europe has already proven to be a threat to NBA role players before the NBA European league launched. Earlier this year, Lithuanian center Jonas Valančiūnas, Jokić’s backup in Denver who has two years, $20.4 million, was reportedly in talks with Greece powerhouse Panathinaikos in Greece.

Valančiūnas was reportedly offered a three-year deal worth about $13 million.