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Sources: EuroLeague members reject NBA offer to merge into NBA Europe
Confirmed
In Short: Sources say the EuroLeague clubs, who met on Lake Como in Italy, rejected the NBA's proposal to merge and form a single NBA Europe league.
The NBA's plans for a 16-team league, which could start as early as the 2027-28 season, will proceed despite the rejection.
According to high-ranking European basketball officials, a significant number of the 13 permanent EuroLeague teams expressed interest in joining NBA Europe, but negotiations are expected to continue.
The model proposed by the NBA would allow teams to compete in their national leagues on weekends and play in NBA Europe during the week.
NBA owners are fully behind the new venture, viewing it as a long-term play to create value, with one owner telling ESPN, 'This is a 20-year project.'
The EuroLeague's rejection of the merger offer was not unexpected, as the clubs are considering their own expansion plans amid the NBA's planned entrance into the European marketplace.
While the EuroLeague has rejected the NBA's initial proposal, it remains open to further discussions.
The NBA has received lucrative bids on expansion franchises in cities across Europe, including Paris, London, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Istanbul, Milan, Munich, Berlin, Lyon, and Manchester.
At least six EuroLeague teams are considering making the move to NBA Europe, but the decision to launch the league by October 2027 remains uncertain.
The NBA's proposal would have been contingent on the EuroLeague maintaining its current structure and not expanding, according to reports.
The decision by the EuroLeague clubs to reject the merger offer marks a structural shift for the competition, which has operated since 2000 as Europe's premier top-tier professional basketball tournament.
The outcome of these talks could determine whether the NBA's European ambitions proceed in direct competition with EuroLeague or through some form of collaboration.
What's confirmed
- The plans for NBA Europe will go forward, despite the rejection of the merger offer, with the intent of forming a 16-team league that could start as early as the 2027-28 season, sources told ESPN.
- According to high-ranking European basketball officials who have been involved in the negotiations, a significant number of the 13 permanent EuroLeague teams have expressed an interest in joining NBA Europe.
- But negotiations are expected to continue, sources said.
- The model the NBA has been interested in creating would allow teams to compete in their national leagues on desired weekend days and play in NBA Europe during the week, sources said.
- Front Office Sports first reported EuroLeague's rejection of the NBA's proposal.
- Members of the EuroLeague rejected a formal offer from the NBA this week to merge and create a single NBA Europe operation, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
- The decision was made after a rare meeting among the clubs on Lake Como in Italy after the NBA had submitted the offer following more than two years working on creating the new league.
- The NBA has received lucrative bids on expansion franchises in cities across Europe and plans to create teams that could directly compete for fans, media rights and sponsorship dollars with the EuroLeague.
- According to the announcement, the club owners in attendance agreed to move forward with converting the 13 current shareholders to permanent franchises and to continue the process of expanding Europe’s top basketball league from 20 to 24 teams for the 2027/28 season.
- The statement didn’t include any mention of the NBA’s recent proposal to merge the EuroLeague with the NBA’s new European league, but according to Aris Barkas of Eurohoops, the EuroLeague’s shareholders decided to pass on that offer.
- That doesn’t mean the EuroLeague is closing the door entirely on collaborating with the NBA.
- “A few clubs are anti-NBA Europe, but a bulk of the clubs (just) didn’t like the proposal,” one European team executive told The Athletic.
What's still developing
- Sources: Euroleague members reject NBA offer to merge into NBA Europe | ESPN La Crosse 105.5 You are using an outdated browser.
- NBA owners, who were briefed on the progress of NBA Europe during last month's board of governors meeting in New York, are behind the new venture and are looking at it as a long-term play to create value.
- The next year, the leagues combined so that both could survive and the modern EuroLeague was born.
- They have to get past the government, and the government has said they will not approve it Why would Europe want anything to do with America right now?
- Anybody tell me what the NBA was actually offering yet?
- As Vardon writes, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his staff have insisted that plans for NBA Europe will move forward with or without the EuroLeague’s cooperation, with a launch tentatively planned for the fall of 2027.
- EuroLeague clubs rejected a formal NBA merger offer to create a single NBA Europe league after a rare meeting on Lake Como in Italy, sources confirmed to ESPN's Brian Windhorst on Tuesday.
- European basketball last split in 2000-01, when the ULEB broke from a FIBA-led league before the sides combined the following year and the modern EuroLeague emerged.
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- The gathering brought together representatives of the competition's 13 shareholder clubs to weigh the American league's offer.
- According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the clubs found the financial terms of the offer insufficient, a judgment that appears to have driven the decision to reject it in its current form.