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"According to Alex Sherman of CNBC, senior NBA leadership hopes the EuroLeague and NBA Europe can eventually become partners.

Potential scenarios include the EuroLeague taking a stake in NBA Europe, an equity exchange between the two competitions, or even a full merger, per the report."


All seem unlikely any time soon but talking about it might help appearances for NBA or actually help NBA.

NBA has talked to 3 major media companies and one has expressed public interest. Going for non-binding bids with that? Bidders to bid based on NBA / banker projections and nothing remotely close to real active talks ir tentative agreements?

How many bidders are thinking this is ridiculous and unacceptable?

Euroleague approves 3 year business plan to grow total valuation from 1 billion to 2.5...

facilitated by a hoped for 2.5 billion capital infusion...

some friction there, even if successful.

Gulf state reaction to warfare may be to reduce discretionary spending / investments, including in west, including in sports...

EuroLeague head looks forward to talks with NBA... after "deadline for securing investments".

There is a proposed date for receiving non-binding bids, but securing investments is another thing. Setting up some pressure of NBA to show results in 3 weeks.

"The NBA-FIBA agreement has already been finalized and should be officially signed by the end of March, as Jorge Garbajosa (president of FIBA ​​Europe, ed.) confirmed to us when he came to Turin," Petrucci said."

That it hasn't happened yet is a bit surprising. Just a piece of paper until all the steps are taken.


What powers and money does FIBA get? Nothing notable has been said.

What happened in news today?

A report of a group preparing a bid. Not an official bid or official statement from group, an unsourced report of a bid on preparation.

Also a team "in continuing discussions" about the opportunity.

Maybe next week or the week after there will meaningful news?

Expansion process vote before NBA Europe non-bidding bids are due / in. Curious flip in staging.


At least several bidders appear likely to want to build new arenas over paying big franchise fees or at least the full initial ask. How the tradeoff will work is a big part of negotiation.

11 days left for non-binding bids.

Will bidders go low and continue to talk / compete or go high enough to try to get NBA to agree or agree to exclusive final negotiations?

What information will NBA release and not release? Number of qualified bids? Maybe if high enough. Actual bids amounts or rough range? Probably not.
Immediately or later?

What will they do? Juggle all discussions at once or finalize a few as precedent and confirmation of going forward and proceed? When do they want all decisions to be final? When will they be final?

Project B says it is moving forward to start a men's tour next fall with signings expected in summer. Maverick Carter is officially back involved.

Plan involves pairing big name / older NBA veterans with European youth.

No connection with LeBron stated at this time.


Is this in connection with additional fundraising? Could be.

To come together with Euroleague, NBA Europe would need to accept more southern European teams. Possibly less play-in wildcards or a bigger league. Maybe just one team each in UK and Italy.

London, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Rome or Milan, 2 in Turkey, 1 to 2 in Greece, 1 in Serbia, 4 wildcards (probably including Lithuania, Croatia, maybe Valencia)

Project B is proposing 7 2 week tournament over 5-6 months. Looks like 1 week in between, maybe 2 occasionally.

How well that appeal to current or recently ex NBA players?

A November start would mean some players would know they are out of NBA just before and might become interested thereafter.

In July all options are at least temporarily open.

If season end in early April, it is possible some might look for a NBA playoff opportunity.


Project B didn't talk about trying to win Euroleague vets but that is another player pool. Salary offers could be made to entice or they might not get many offers. Marketability will be important factor.

Conceivably NCAA players (from draft or pre-draft) and just out of high school candidates could be considered.

Players from other league could be considered as well (China, Japan, Phillipines, Argentina, Brazil, Africa...)

Will they try to put players from different regions on each team, grouped them significantly or not use geographic considerations? Spread by age or stratify? 1 star per team? 2?

Spend for name head coaches or hire assistants or ex head coaches? Ex name players? Celebrities / wannabe Coaches?

How much for assistant coaches, player development, trainers, medical? Bother with analytics staff?

Any innovative or gimmick game rules?

Any playoffs?

"According to many sources close to the bidding process, the interest in the NBA project is coming mainly from US funds, which are aiming for the UK and Rome, while there’s also local interest in Paris. Due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, Arab funds are currently more reluctant. However, there’s money on the table, even if everyone agrees at this point that nobody is willing to pay a 500M fee to enter the new league."

$500 million to $1 billion franchise fees and taking 50% of league revenue always seemed like absurd demands to me, without media rights justifying and the caution that this is a long-term project and no intention of NBA shouldering development costs.

Reports of planned league to league negotiations come out, after league meeting and before bidding close or any reveal...