{"id":422279,"date":"2026-01-19T01:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:13:07","slug":"nba-europe-notes-alba-berlin-psg-barcelona-italian-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422279\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Europe Notes: Alba Berlin, PSG, Barcelona, Italian Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA is moving forward with its groundwork for its NBA Europe league, with an eye on launching in October of 2027, and Germany\u2019s Alba Berlin appears to have emerged as a frontrunner to be a tentpole for the new league, according to The Athletic\u2019s Joe Vardon (subscriber link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Vardon writes that one of the reasons that this weekend\u2019s Grizzlies\/Magic games in Berlin and London were so important is that those two cities are being eyed as possible anchor teams for the new league, with Alba Berlin expected to be the representative for the German capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, they are an exemplar of how a top-tier club should be run and organized,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. \u201c[With] their tremendous youth programs, they have deep fan support. They\u2019ve created enormous enthusiasm around the game. Look no further than the Wagner brothers, who were developed, as part of the Alba Berlin ecosystem. So, they are the model of the type of club that we would like to see in a potential European league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vardon writes that while Alba Berlin doesn\u2019t have rich parent organizations like Barcelona, it\u2019s considered to have one of the most impressive farm systems of any team in the world, with a network of coaches and employees around the city who are ready to train anyone who picks up a basketball.<\/p>\n

Berlin also has an easier path to joining the new league than many, given that it chose not to participate in EuroLeague this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuroLeague is not financially sustainable for the licensed clubs, and especially for the non-licensed clubs,\u201d said owner Axel Schweitzer. \u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s good or bad (for everyone), but for us, with the NBA and the potential to tap into the market \u2026 we feel it\u2019s possible to achieve much more than what\u2019s been in reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more updates on teams eyeing the NBA Europe league:<\/p>\n

Silver is hopeful that a partnership can be struck with French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, writes Javier Molero of EuroHoops<\/a>. \u201cThey play at the highest level of competition (in soccer), and they have the know-how to operate a basketball club at the highest level, if they\u2019re interested,\u201d Silver said. \u201cYes, it\u2019s a club we\u2019re talking to.\u201d\u00a0NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum expanded on the NBA\u2019s interest. \u201cThere\u2019s their ability to create a brand, a culture, their association with the Jordan brand (Michael Jordan\u2019s), which is linked to basketball,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for the right partners for our project, and PSG brings a very interesting level of expertise in terms of marketing, promotion, and building a global brand.\u201d
\nFC Barcelona is looking less likely to join the ground floor of the NBA Europe league, Alex Molina reports for EuroHoops<\/a>. Molina notes that Barcelona is expected to approve a 10-year commitment to EuroLeague at the end of this week, though he adds that this decision would not fully eliminate the possibility of Barcelona eventually joining the NBA\u2019s league should it prove to be a stable, long-term alternative.
\nSilver and the NBA are also hoping to land an Italian team. They have meetings scheduled with Olimpia Milano and AC Milan on Monday, per Kevin Martorano of Sportando<\/a>. Inter Milan will not attend the meeting, indicating that they are less likely to consider joining the nascent league. According to Martorano, the meeting will allow the NBA to illustrate what such a partnership would look like, economically and in terms of managing franchises within the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA is moving forward with its groundwork for its NBA Europe league, with an eye on launching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[7639,64,63,36287,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-422279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-adam-silver","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-mark-tatum","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}