Euroleague and NBA to enhance collaboration

Euroleague NBA

Euroleague Basketball and the NBA will enhance their ongoing collaboration by developing several marketing and promotional activities in Europe to increase the awareness of basketball. This was one of the main conclusions reached in a meeting on Wednesday in London between executives of both leagues, headed by NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, the designated successor to current NBA commissioner David Stern, and Jordi Bertomeu, the president and CEO of Euroleague basketball.

In particular, NBA and Euroleague Basketball will combine to develop specific activities in the United Kingdom, with several that could be held during the 2013 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four London from May 10 to 12.

The collaboration announcement was made by Mr. Stern and Mr. Silver during a press conference on Thursday in London before the NBA regular season game between the Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks. The game was played at The O2, which is also the venue for this spring’s Final Four. A delegation from Euroleague Basketball reviewed the event’s production in advance of the Final Four.

At the same time, both organizations advanced preparations for the next edition of preseason games, to be played next autumn between teams from their competitions. Euroleague Basketball stated its intention to learn from the NBA experience in rules modifications, something to which the Euroleague has given a strong push in recent months by presenting FIBA with a proposal to modify some game regulations. The NBA offered the cooperation of its rules experts to help in this process, which is aimed at increasing the attractiveness, quickness, and excitement of the game on a global level while bringing the two best basketball leagues in the world closer.

“This is the natural evolution of our relationship with the NBA,” Mr. Bertomeu said. “David Stern has always demonstrated a great openness to mutual collaboration as part of a basketball globalization strategy. We both have the same objective of growing interest in basketball, especially in the UK, and of increasing the attractiveness of our game for our fans. Marketing and technical rules are two key issues we can use to address these objectives, and therefore these conversations will be held more regularly with the NBA in the near future.”

Euroleague Basketball and the NBA have maintained solid cooperation since 2006, as shown by regular NBA Europe Live and Euroleague American Tour games, which are bringing spectacular live games between teams of both leagues to Europe and America.

Courtesy Euroleague

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