NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has confirmed that the league plans to unveil a joint European basketball league that will be managed by both the NBA and FIBA in either 2027 or 2028.
Silver recently discussed this expansion and stated that the league aims to be “ambitious” with a 2027 start date, emphasizing the preference to launch the league within the next two to three years.
“I don’t think I’d want to go much longer than ’28,” Silver said, per the Associated Press. “The opportunity is now to do something like this.”
While discussing the reasoning behind the new league, Silver cited the growth of basketball and said that this is the best time to take advantage of the number of people who consume the sport.
“Basketball’s probably the fastest-growing sport in the world right now, and it’s a huge No. 2 sport in Europe behind soccer, so I think there’s a real opportunity,” he said, per AP.
This expansion into Europe comes shortly after the NBA signed a new 11-year media rights deal that pays the league $77 billion, which is set to begin during the upcoming 2025-26 regular season, per Forbes.
However, this announcement also coincides with decreased viewership during the 2024-25 season, as the NBA saw ratings decrease by 2% during the regular season.
Although there is still more planning that must be done before the league is operational, Silver said the NBA and FIBA have already discussed potential issues.
The biggest issue highlighted by the commissioner is the lack of arena infrastructure, with Silver saying that the league could use already existing arenas for a few years before the NBA finishes building more modern arenas across Europe.
Silver later added that another point of emphasis is making sure the league does not become too top-heavy, noting that this has been an issue with various soccer leagues in the past.
“As much as I’m an admirer of European soccer, we don’t want a top-heavy league,” he explained, according to Front Office Sports.
“We don’t want a league where there’s only a few teams where the perception is they are in the position to truly compete like the Champions League. We want to try to model a league after a system we know where it might not be a hard cap system but where you can regulate competition. There’s a sense that if you have a team, your team has a fair chance to win a championship.”
Evan Sidery of Forbes detailed the expansion process that will take place for the league, writing on social media that Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Fenerbahçe are “expected to join the NBA’s new European league.”
“Other soccer giants, Manchester City and PSG, will be joining with brand new basketball teams as well,” he added in the post.
Moving forward, it is unclear how many teams will be a part of the NBA’s European League and whether any more of these teams will be from already existing franchises across the continent.