February 14, 2008
…And David Hasselhoff is singing the national anthem at the request of Dirk Nowitzki. Seems crazy right? Not so much. Why is it possible? Because the commish, David Stern, is looking to take the NBA to Europe! From SI.com,
The current idea would be to create five new teams in major markets to form a “European” division within the NBA. The teams would play the full 82-game schedule and compete for the NBA championship. But the proposal is new and many factors will influence the eventual outcome, the league source said.
Questions abound, questions abound. First off, who is going to play on these teams? I assume that these teams will have some sort of derivative of baseball’s Rule 5 Draft, but even with that in mind it seems the NBA would be creating 5 iterations of the Memphis Grizzlies. So, where do the players come from? The ABA? No. I’m not convinced that I couldn’t beat some of those guys. The D-League? Possibly, but I doubt there is enough premium talent. College? Yes, I guess a few more college kids that wouldn’t make it to the NBA would make the league, but will that be enough? The most likely answer, at least to me anyway, is that the NBA will see an even larger increase in foreign players breaking into the league. Up and coming foreign players who haven’t made the jump to America, or others who weren’t necessarily willing to come play in America, might be more willing to play in the NBA if they can play their home games in their home country.
But the idea of NBA-European basketball brings up a second point, which is touched on in the SI article,
…it’s much easier to do business in emerging basketball markets than in Western Europe, where government regulation as well as the basketball organizing bodies — the complex network of old-world federations that run the sport in each country and throughout Europe — have choked off attempts to turn European basketball into a profitable enterprise since the opening of the Berlin Wall almost 20 years ago.
Does Stern truly have the negotiating skills to sift through the old-world rules and unite Europe so that it can be a 
welcoming NBA atmosphere? An even better question, How popular is the NBA Brand in Europe? Yao Ming has single-handedly made basketball insanely popular in China (See: Sports are going global) but there are still very few indications that European interest in the NBA is strong enough to support an NBA franchise. I mean, lets be honest…interest in the NBA can wane even in American cities (*cough* Seattle *cough*) and they don’t have to compete with the most popular sport in the world being played in their backyard (if you’re saying “What about the MLS!”, you aren’t being fair to yourself).
Of course, I’m sure that David Stern has thought about all of the issues that may arise with NBA expansion into Europe. More importantly, he is continually trying to expand the NBA brand, and he knows that he has all but run out of space here in America. With a nice sized talent pool, fairly short distances between countries and some new NBA-sized venues, it appears that Europe is Stern’s most viable option.
That covers globalization for the NBA and the NFL…Baseball, you’re up next.
…and yes. I’m still laughing at the fact that I have a picture of David Hasselhoff in this post.
SI.com: NBA considering five-team European expansion
Sports Business Digest: Sports are going global
6 comments
Spot on. Also, doesn’t the travel seem a bit absurd? Will the Warriors play the Madrilenos? The sheer time it takes to get from our west coast to Europe alone should make this difficult, but add in the jetlag and 82 game schedule and it’s got to be nearly impossible…unless Stern has secretly bought 60 or so Concordes under the radar.
he should expand in europe, australia, asia, south america, antartica, everywhere.. haha!
You know I’m busy trying to build borders around this country to keep all of our pro sports inside. Just another example of spreading yourself too thin. Sell ‘em jerseys and televise the games to ‘em but don’t send the players over there…
I was going to mention what Brandon said about the travel time. I mean what if Seattle, opps um Sacramento had to play in Germany and 2 days later play in Dallas. That is a lot of travel time and jet lag. Yeah not really sure about that one. And yes I think we could have done without the hasselhoff photo but it was funny!!!
A picture like that makes me want to go back to the ’80s when chest hair was sexy. I think the travel issue really is the problem here, unless you make the game into the NBA East and NBA West where teams don’t play each other but a few times per year, or you lengthen the season to allow for extra travel days. Either way it’ll be a tough choice, but perhaps economically viable. I think you could definitely get five teams out of Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey, etc. Oh, and just fyi, I changed my site to http://www.thesportsbeat.today.com.
i am a bulls fan derrick rose yea but come on what if the lakers went to go play the nazis and come back home the next day. i would realy consider a las vegas team
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