NBA Europe: NBA and FIBA Press Ahead for 2027 Launch After EuroLeague Says No
Two days after EuroLeague shareholders rejected the NBA's collaboration offer at Villa d'Este, the NBA took its case public in London and made clear the project launches with or without them.
Per Reuters (Oct. 8), a joint NBA-FIBA statement issued Thursday said: "The NBA and FIBA remain committed to moving forward with a new professional men's league in Europe and helping build a stronger, more sustainable basketball ecosystem alongside partners who share our vision of growth, opportunity and the core principles of the European sports model." The same statement held out hope for unity — "A partnership between the Euroleague, FIBA and the NBA to unify the European basketball ecosystem would unlock the game's enormous potential across Europe" — but Reuters notes: "In parallel, the Euroleague says it is moving forward with its own expansion project, which brings with it the prospect of competition between the two bodies.1"
The timeline gap is the story. A senior sports executive told Reuters that any collaboration is "unlikely to begin before 2028," and EuroLeague shareholders will meet again within a month to decide on the allocation of long-term EuroLeague licences. Meanwhile, at the Leaders Week conference in London, NBA Europe managing director George Aivazoglou said the league is "moving ahead with plans for a launch next year" (per the Guardian, which framed the venture as a "$10bn plan that has football clubs queueing to join"), and per the AP urged would-be partners to share the NBA's diagnosis: "We're always there to have discussions provided we share the same assessment of what are the main reasons why European basketball hasn't reached its full potential and then how do we solve it."
What it means: the 16-team league remains on track for fall 2027, the door to EuroLeague unity is formally open but realistically a 2028-and-later conversation, and European basketball now faces the prospect of two competing elite competitions. Next marker: the EuroLeague shareholders' meeting on long-term licences within a month.
-
An instance of A richer league's invasion leaves incumbents to join, sell, or counter-expand. — The incumbent competition rejects collaboration and counter-expands as the capital-superior NBA presses ahead with or without it. ↩︎