Adam Silver Says NBA Is Still Exploring Opportunities for New European League

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the league is still in the exploratory phase regarding the possibility of creating a basketball league in Europe but believes the current 18-team Euroleague isn't maximizing the potential revenue the sport could generate on the continent.

"While Europe continues to develop some of the very best players in the world—many of our most recent MVPs, of course, are European—we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game," he told reporters. "And what we do at the NBA is we run leagues. We, of course, run the WNBA, we have the [Basketball Africa League], we have the G League, we have a 2K video league. So we operate five different leagues and we think it's an expertise we have. And so we are looking very closely to see if there's an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here to create a larger commercial opportunity."

Silver confirmed that the NBA has held meetings with potential partners while exploring the possibility of a European league.

"The tenor of the meetings have been very positive. It's not anti-anybody or anti any other organization," he said. "When we look at that opportunity and these potential partners, what they're telling us is they believe that from a commercial standpoint, in terms of the networks they represent or are part of, or those consumer companies that they represent, that they think there's a desire to connect with consumers, particularly young consumers, which is generally the fan base of the NBA, that they think that the market is ready to do more in this sport."

Such a venture would likely provide major competition for the Euroleague, currently the continent's top basketball competition. That league includes a number of prominent sporting franchises with well-respected clubs in soccer such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Fenerbahçe, Monaco, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos.