{"id":875089,"date":"2026-10-08T11:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875089\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T11:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:56:12","slug":"nba-fiba-reiterate-plan-for-new-europe-league-whether-euroleague-merger-happens-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875089\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA, FIBA reiterate plan for new Europe league whether EuroLeague merger happens or not"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIES, Switzerland<\/a> (AP) \u2014 The NBA<\/a> and FIBA indicated Thursday that they still hope to merge with the EuroLeague, which rejected an initial offer to join forces this week.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, the NBA and FIBA \u2014 who plan to launch a new league in Europe as early as next year \u2014 said a \u201cpartnership between the EuroLeague, FIBA and the NBA to unify the European basketball ecosystem would unlock the game\u2019s enormous potential across Europe for the benefit of clubs, players and, most importantly, fans.”<\/p>\n

The NBA and FIBA added they \u201cremain committed\u201d to the new league, which has been planned to launch in the fall of 2027.<\/p>\n

It seems likely that merger talks will continue, with Barcelona \u2014 a EuroLeague member \u2014 saying this week that the door remains open even though the first proposal was rejected. “Should that (merger) proposal be amended in the future, the clubs and the EuroLeague will reconsider it,\u201d the club said.<\/p>\n

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said multiple times, and as recently as last month, that he believes the new league would benefit from \u201cjoining forces with the EuroLeague.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to happen, but I think we all would be better off as a unified front in Europe,\u201d Silver said at last month’s Board of Governors meeting.<\/p>\n

The NBA and FIBA formally announced their plans for an NBA Europe venture in March 2025. The new league would have some permanent franchises, with chances for others to qualify based on performance.<\/p>\n

Many of the NBA\u2019s top current stars hail from Europe, including San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama (France<\/a>), Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic (Serbia<\/a>), the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Luka Doncic (Slovenia<\/a>) and Miami\u2019s Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, in terms of NBA Europe, we truly see it as a once-in-forever opportunity,\u201d Silver said last month. \u201cHistoric from our standpoint in terms of what this could mean, not just for basketball but the European sport landscape. And we want to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 20-team EuroLeague is comprised of 13 shareholder clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation. The NBA, in partnership with FIBA, has said it envisions a 16-team league.<\/p>\n

___ <\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIES, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 The NBA and FIBA indicated Thursday that they still hope to merge with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[594,4135,247998,2971,355,66615,80026,99,13646],"class_list":["post-875089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-france","tag-greece","tag-international-friendlies","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-nba","tag-serbia","tag-slovenia","tag-sports","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}