The NBA won’t be joining forces with the EuroLeague, at least not yet.
Meeting near Italy’s Lake Como on Tuesday, the owners of the clubs in Europe’s top basketball competition voted unanimously to reject a potential collaboration with the NBA. Instead, EuroLeague plans to move from 10-year licenses to a permanent franchise model, which is expected to be ratified within the next 60 days. The league also agreed to continue the approval process for expansion clubs.
That doesn’t entirely rule out the prospect of the NBA and EuroLeague working together. But Reuters reported that any tie-up before 2028 is unlikely because of the organizational difficulties of putting together a new competition in time for the 2027-28 season.
The NBA declined to comment. EuroLeague declined to answer specific questions and referred to the statement it issued after Tuesday’s meeting, which did not mention the NBA’s offer.
For years, the NBA has explored the possibility of establishing a competition overseas. The league had been working with FIBA to launch a league in October 2027, with 12 permanent franchises and four clubs that earned rotating slots through other sanctioned circuits. Investment banks JPMorgan Chase and Raine Group were retained to assist with the process.
Meanwhile, the NBA has been in talks with EuroLeague for over a year to see if there was a way to work with the existing competition to realize its European basketball aspirations.
Sportico previously reported that more than 20 existing basketball and soccer clubs, including current EuroLeague teams, submitted bids in June that came in at $500 million or higher in each of NBA Europe’s 12 target cities—Athens, Greece; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin; Istanbul; London; Lyon, France; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, England; Milan; Munich; Paris; and Rome.
After the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings in September, commissioner Adam Silver addressed the media and said the NBA was continuing to explore the possibility of working with EuroLeague. He added that some version of NBA Europe would begin play in 2027 regardless.
EuroLeague’s decision is a setback for the NBA’s timeline. But earlier in the day, when asked about the status of NBA Europe, including the perceived pushback on the economics of the deal and its potential participants, Eric Menell, the global co-head of sports at JPMorgan, didn’t waver.
“I have the highest degree of confidence we will hit $1 billion for franchises in certain markets, a true $1 billion,” he said at Sportico’s Invest London event on Tuesday. “We have ongoing discussions with a variety of constituents, including global football brands with basketball teams, global football brands without basketball teams, existing EuroLeague teams and third parties that just want to participate.
“I have a high degree of confidence that we’re going to hit the benchmarks that we set out.”
(This story has been updated with the NBA declining to comment and to correct the time of when the NBA first started talking with EuroLeague.)