Like the famous European league managed by the NBA, while remaining a fairly vague project, advances in the latest words from Adam Silver in Paris, the Euroleague must react. It began to do so via the contract extension with IMG until 2035/36.
“It brings stability. It's good to know that we have support and that we can work hand in hand to make the product grow ”, had then declared Paulius Motiejunas, the boss of the Euroleague.
And “make the product grow”, according to Basketballit would be to welcome two new teams. The Euroleague had gone from a competition of 16 to 18 teams in 2019 and could still grow in the next season.
Faced with the NBA, the Euroleague places its pawns
Currently, there are twelve permanent clubs in the competition, and therefore six places to win by season. Finding yourself at 20 clubs could therefore open doors, in the long term, to other clubs and thus prevent them from being seduced by the project of Adam Silver and the NBA…
The arrival of two new teams would also mechanically increase the calendar, perhaps pushing players to no longer be available for international FIBA windows in November and February.
This should not fix relations between the Euroleague and the FIBA, especially after having recently heard Jorge Garbajosa, boss of Fiba Europe, declaring that he was waiting for the NBA in Europe.
