NBA players cautious over European expansion
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) — New talk of adding European teams to the National Basketball Association within a decade has some appeal to the league's European stars, but they want to see the details.
NBA commissioner David Stern is expected to address the possibility of creating a five-team European division by 2018 here Saturday on the eve of the 57th NBA All-Star Game.
"The potential is definitely there," Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki of Germany said. "The arenas are there in the big cities. The knowledge is there. People over there love the sport. They follow the teams.
"There are plenty of opportunities. We just have to see how it plays out."
A Sports Illustrated website report earlier this week citing unnamed NBA sources said the league will explore expansion into Europe over the next decade, with a preliminary idea of five European clubs in a division.
Travel distances, a lack of NBA-level arenas and concerns over ticket prices being higher than European audiences now pay have been among some of the concerns about the idea, bounced around for years as a "what-if" scenario.
But with US dollar values falling compared to the Euro, it might not be such a stretch for European fans and corporate support. Add new television rights payments and the deal could be a winner on both sides of the Atlantic.
"We will have to wait a few years," Serbian star Peja Stojakovic of the New Orleans Hornets said. "We will have to see what happens."
The NBA has already gone global in a major way. An NBA-linked firm was created last month to handle NBA deals in China and regular-season games have been played in Japan and Mexico with exhibitions last year in Rome and London.
A new arena for 2016 Olympic host candidate Madrid could be a haven for Spanish NBA supporters still thrilled over winning a world crown in 2006.
The big headache is travel. European clubs would have several trans-Atlantic treks a season and US teams located beyond the East Coast could have epic journeys of five to 10 games in a European swing.
"I do understand the travel part is hard. Dallas to Germany is a seven-hour time difference," Nowitzki said.
"You can't just go over for a game and come back. You might have to stay 10 days or two weeks over there. You can't go back and forth."
