NBA commissioner Adam Silver stood in front of a room in Las Vegas on Wednesday and didn’t dance around the big question. The league’s push into Europe is real, it’s moving, and it’s past the talk phase.
Silver used his annual Summer League press conference to update reporters on NBA Europe, a planned 16-team league that could start play in October 2027. He confirmed the league is working through final bids from an initial group of cities. According to ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel, Silver said he’s “very pleased with the interest across the board in Europe.”
That interest apparently includes some very serious money. ESPN’s Ben Golliver reported that multiple bids have come in over $1 billion from major European cities. The list includes Barcelona, Madrid, London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Munich, Milan, Rome and Istanbul. The bidding process started back in February.
What NBA Europe actually looks like
This isn’t just the NBA dropping a few exhibition games overseas and calling it expansion. The plan involves a full 16-team league that would include champions from existing domestic leagues around Europe. The NBA is working with FIBA on this, and it’s very clearly meant to compete with the EuroLeague — the same competition that produced Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Manu Ginobili and Ricky Rubio over the years.
The league hired Arturas Karnisovasa to help get this thing off the ground. He’s serving as a consultant for NBA Europe, handling rules, governance, recruitment and youth development while also acting as a liaison between the NBA and the new league. Karnisovasa was fired in April from his job as executive vice president of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls.
This is a long way from a done deal 一 or rather, a long way from a done deal. (Sorry, no em dashes allowed. Let me rephrase.) This is a long way from being a finished product. There are still city negotiations, team ownership structures and scheduling logistics to sort out. But Silver’s tone Wednesday suggested the league is confident enough to talk specifics.
Basketball has been a global sport for a while now. The NBA has players from all over the world. But a real, actual league in Europe with that NBA stamp on it? That would change how the game operates on both sides of the Atlantic.
Silver didn’t announce any official launch date beyond that 2027 target. He didn’t name which cities are definitely in. What he did was make it clear the NBA isn’t just exploring Europe anymore. They’re building.
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