It’s no secret that the NBA wants to expand into Europe. However, it remains unclear what form this involvement will take. Former pro Per Günther is concerned that there may soon no longer be a single best league on the continent.
“If you take five great teams from the EuroLeague and pair them with Manchester and Rome, and then slap the NBA Europe label on them, that’s not a great product,” the former pro told MagentaSport. He was referring to recent rumors that some established EuroLeague cities are included in the NBA’s founding plans.
Instead, he prefers the current status quo in the EuroLeague: “I wish it could always stay that way. With the EuroLeague, we clearly have the best club basketball. All the big teams – except those from Russia – are under one roof.“ Nevertheless, Günther is not opposed to a new league per se; what is much more important, he says, is that the best teams can compete against each other – regardless of what the overarching label is called. ”If we no longer see these derbies on the big European stage, then we as basketball fans will simply lose something.”
However, Günther does not consider the fact that the European premier league has increasingly curried favor with the Middle East in recent years to be an exclusive argument against the EuroLeague. “Of course, there were things that made you shake your head afterwards. But I believe that even NBA Europe will have to make decisions at some point that are no longer so appealing.”