Adam Silver is thinking bigger than just NBA expansion in the U.S. The commissioner recently said it’s possible that top European clubs could one day face NBA teams in the playoffs, describing the travel as “very doable” compared to a typical cross-country trip.
“You could imagine teams from Europe, potentially Africa, competing in that tournament,” Silver said, via Sports Business Journal. “You possibly could see teams coming into our playoffs, top seeds from other leagues. I’m reading all the time about more opportunities in aviation. When I think of the flight from New York to LA, for example, there’s no reason that if we had four teams in Europe, you couldn’t travel, play the Knicks or Nets, travel to London, play three, four times in Europe, come back home. So I think it’s very doable in our league.”
The NBA is an American-based league, and the Raptors are currently the only team based outside the United States. While this was perfect for the early days of the NBA, times have changed, in that the game is more globalized than ever.
It’s why Adam Silver has been hard at work this season to develop NBA Europe this summer, an ongoing project to incorporate EuroLeague teams under a new umbrella. With franchise fees reportedly up to $500 million, the prospective league would involve six men’s and women’s teams playing in rotating cities around the world and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
It’s a major direction for the NBA, but an expected one given the growing popularity of the overseas market. Today’s top superstars, like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Luka Doncic, are from European countries, while the league’s reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is from Canada. That’s not to mention athletes like Kristaps Porzingis, Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, and Domantas Sabonis, who are also near the top of the NBA hierarchy.
With the league’s growing ties to Europe and beyond, it’s no wonder that Adam Silver has taken a vested interest in globalizing the game. While there are natural risks involved with this venture, the NBA doesn’t have to start from scratch to incorporate European clubs.
What Silver is imagining is a future midseason tournament in Europe that could create a worldwide “confederation” of teams from multiple continents, including North America, Europe, and Africa. From a commercial standpoint, he sees a unique opportunity with the overseas game that he wants to tap into.
Of course, the problem is that he’ll be competing with LeBron James and Maverick Carter. Recent reports indicate James has plans to launch a European league of his own, and the NBA reportedly sees it as “direct competition” to their own goals.
As ambitious as this is for Silver, he’s got other problems to address right now, including but not limited to the Kawhi Leonard Aspiration scandal, the state of the All-Star game, and the national ratings decline.
Still, if done right, NBA Europe could be the solution to everything, and Silver believes it’s only a few years away from becoming a reality. We’ll find out soon enough what kind of impact it has on the overall health of the league, but it would be unprecedented for traditional NBA franchises to face European clubs in the playoffs.
Clearly, Adam Silver is dreaming big, and NBA Europe might be the boldest vision yet. If it happens, it would forever change the playoff landscape and push the game into uncharted global territory. The NBA has always been a league of innovation, but this move could define its next era.
