NBA Europe is coming but British basketball is bitterly divided. What will it mean?

New York Times

3 days ago

There is potentially little more than a year before the NBA launches a new professional basketball league in Europe in partnership with FIBA, the sport's governing body — and the United Kingdom is prominent in their sights.
'I'd say it's the single biggest opportunity (in Europe),' said George Aivazoglou, the NBA's managing director for Europe and the Middle East (EME), speaking on stage at SportsPro Live at London's Kia Oval last month.
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Details of the proposed new league are not yet fully defined, but the NBA's laser-like focus on having teams in major European cities has been clear from the outset. In the UK, London and Manchester are being earmarked for representation in a 16-team competition that could also feature teams from Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Milan and Istanbul, according to Aivazoglou, when he spoke to EuroHoops.
Many of those continental European cities are already home to teams that compete in EuroLeague, which has established itself as the second-best basketball league in the world since breaking away from FIBA in 2000. But no British team has ever competed in it. This season, the UK does not even have a representative in EuroCup, regarded as EuroLeague's second-tier club competition.
No wonder, then, the UK is regularly referred to as the sleeping giant of European basketball. This almost total lack of relevance at the elite professional level jars with soaring levels of interest and participation in the sport among the general population.
Basketball is the second-most popular team sport in the UK behind football, according to Sport England's most recent Active Lives survey. Data compiled by the NBA indicate the UK is its second-largest merchandise market in Europe behind only France, and home to more current subscribers to NBA League Pass — the league's premium live game subscription service — than any European country other than Germany.
Virtually everyone with an interest in basketball sees fertile ground for growth in the UK, and the establishment of two NBA Europe franchises in London and Manchester in 2026 could be genuinely transformative. But as things stand, the hypothetical giant that is British basketball is not simply sleeping. It is stuck in a self-destructive nightmare.
Sunday, May 18 was the flagship event of the British club basketball season, as 13,401 spectators attended the O2 Arena in London to watch the inaugural Super League Basketball (SLB) play-off finals. You would be forgiven for being unaware; while the women's and men's finals were available to watch live for free on DAZN, media coverage of the event was scant.
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The action on the court was not elite, but it was fast, physical and compellingly competitive (for the most part — Leicester Riders ultimately blew out Newcastle Eagles 105-74 in the men's final). The arena experience would be familiar to NBA fans: pumping music and dancers during breaks in play, cheerleaders at half-time, presenters trying to get the crowd going, and even a 'kiss cam' on the giant screens dangling from the roof.
Much of the crowd skewed very young, with a multitude of schools represented. The abiding impression was of a fun, family friendly day out, and a reasonably priced one at that, with lower tier seats for the afternoon priced at £48 ($64) for adults and £34 ($46) for children and cheaper tickets available higher up.
That might have been enough for the day to be viewed as a success by Super League Basketball. The league was formed last summer by the nine professional clubs left standing amid the wreckage of the British Basketball League, which had its operating licence terminated by the British Basketball Federation (BBF) in June 2024 due to the liquidation of Miami-based minority investor 777 Partners.
At that time, the BBF worked closely with the clubs to ensure the 2024-25 season could take place, granting SLB an interim licence to operate the league and even stepping in to help save several clubs including the London Lions, who were also owned by 777.
But the absence of any BBF representatives at the O2 Arena highlighted the tensions that have boiled over between UK's basketball governing body and its major clubs since January.
The BBF awarded a 15-year licence to operate the men's professional league to a group of American investors led by Marshall Glickman, formerly a Portland Trail Blazers president and acting CEO of EuroLeague.
SLB clubs declined to make a rival bid while questioning the legality of the BBF's tender process, and subsequently raised their concerns with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), UK Sport and Sport England, who have pledged a combined £4.5million in funding to British basketball over the next four years. The British Basketball Federation strongly denies any wrongdoing, and the DCMS and UK Sport are not investigating any issues.
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The clubs have also refused to engage with GBB League Ltd (GBBL), the company set up by Glickman and his fellow investors to run the new league.
At its nub, the dispute is about control. The consensus view among SLB club owners is that the BBF has essentially sold their commercial rights to a third party without their consent and their clubs are not financially viable in any league that the clubs do not own. Several sources within SLB, speaking under the condition of anonymity to The Athletic, said the clubs have collectively invested more than £20million in the league's first year of operation, adding that a number of league and team commercial deals have been scuppered by the BBF's decision to award the long-term licence to GBBL.
'The BBF hasn't sold the clubs' commercial rights,' BBF chair Chris Grant tells The Athletic. 'The only thing that BBF has, in inverted commas, 'sold' is the right to operate a league.' A source within GBBL insisted that the company only controls the commercial rights of the new league.
There is also serious scepticism within SLB that Glickman and his fellow investors have the money to make GBBL happen, and a concern that the BBF's decision may have been primarily motivated by the £15million that Glickman's group pledged up front to 'support operations and growth activities' over the first two years of the new league's operations.
On the question of GBBL's funding, a BBF statement issued to The Athletic said: 'GBBL's bid included letters of intent from their investors plus the necessary information for the BBF's independent expert advisors to be able to consider the source and sufficiency of funds to meet the up-front commitment and deliver their business plan.
'The decision to appoint GBBL as preferred bidder was subject to them ensuring that the proposed funding was formalised into legally binding commitments. GBBL also indicated that they were continuing to engage further reputable investors with a view to providing additional assurance and a longer runway for the development of the league beyond the fully funded first phase. All investors are subject to the BBF's owners and directors' test and required to submit legally binding confirmation of their funding commitments.'
A statement from GBBL added: 'We have provided proof of funds to the BBF and also recently announced the highly respected WestRiver Group (WRG) have joined the leadership of the GBBL investment group. They have advised, built and invested in a number of sports brands and have a very impressive track record.'
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Publicly announced investors in GBBL are Chris Dillavou, acting executive vice president and chief operating officer at Greg Norman Company, Arjun Metre, senior managing director at global investment holding company Tennor, and investment platform WestRiver Group, led by Erik Anderson. Sir Keith Mills, former chair of LOCOG, is an advisor to the group.
On the subject of the tender process, the BBF said: 'The tender documentation asked for a clear and compelling vision for the development of the league, along with a detailed and credible business plan showing how the bidder would support the development of talented British players; add to the already significant social impact of basketball in communities; contribute to the growth and success of the whole game; and create a platform to reach and delight more fans. The main financial consideration for the independent assessors and ultimately the BBF Board was that there was evidence of sufficient funding from reputable sources to deliver that plan. GBBL satisfied all these criteria.
'Putting the operation of the league out to open tender has confirmed a widely held view that, from an economic perspective, British basketball is worth a great deal more than it has previously generated. The fact that GBBL's investment will go into the central league infrastructure creates a stronger platform for individual clubs to boost their own growth and sustainability.
'We make no secret of the fact that the BBF will also benefit through an enhanced league licence fee. The huge progress we have made with the GB national teams and elsewhere has been achieved largely through the efforts of volunteers and a hugely committed but tiny core team. Alongside the recent award of performance funding by UK Sport — itself a vote of confidence in the BBF's governance — we shall now have the resources to do much more to delight fans across the whole of Britain and fulfil the huge potential of British basketball both on and off the court.'
Grant also pushes back on SLB's other objections. 'All we are trying to be is a federation,' he tells The Athletic. 'We're not trying to be an empire. We're trying to not be huge. I have this phrase that I use, which is minimum viable federation. What's the minimum viable capacity that we need to do our job? And our job is to get brilliant basketball on the court, to get great development for players and coaches.'
Grant maintains he does not know why SLB did not submit their own bid for the licence, and is bullish on the integrity of the public process that led to Glickman's group being chosen. 'We only had one bid, but the competition wasn't between bidders,' he insists. 'We got a 20-page analysis back from our independent panel with a review, and it was agreed that their bid cleared our bar.
'They had a humility but also a basic level of understanding around Britain-specific things (to do with the home countries) that convinced us that they could run a British league, and not simply parachute some North American idea of a league into this country.'
Glickman is full of ideas as he speaks from his home in Portland. The CEO of the newly minted GBBL enthusiastically lays out the broad strokes of his grand plan to raise up British basketball.
'A core part of our strategy is to showcase a limited number of games on free-to-air television,' he says. 'By following that strategy, we're not going to be able to command meaningful rights fees for free-to-air television, but we're not trying to. We want great viewership.'
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GBBL plans to launch in the 2026-27 season with 10 teams who will face each other home and away. 'But there's another core part of our strategy, a key pillar, which is what we're calling mini-tournaments,' he adds. 'We'll bring four clubs into a market for a weekend where there's a proper arena. We're having a kind of basketball festival, but more than that, it's really a communal gathering.
'There'll be art, there'll be culture, there'll be food, there'll be pubs and there'll be music big time. We're going to turn these weekends into something that people are going to want to be at whether or not they're a hardcore basketball fan. Hopefully we're going to turn them into basketball fans.'
These mini-tournaments would yield points that contribute to regular season standings and play-off seedings, encouraging all the teams involved to compete hard on both days. 'It gives us a platform to showcase the game in proper arenas with a great atmosphere, cool things like a glass floor, for example — things that really make it pop.'
Glickman describes GBBL as an 'innocent bystander' in the dispute between the SLB and BBF, and is clear that he wants the nine SLB clubs to be in his new league. 'We would like to see the Super League clubs be part of the future of British basketball,' he says. 'We fully embrace that and we continue to try reaching out.'
On the surface this appears to sit uneasily with Glickman and the BBF's desire to see more major British cities represented at the top-level of club basketball; a press release issued last month revealed that GBBL would issue invitations to parties interested in operating expansion clubs in Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Southampton/Portsmouth, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Coventry — none of which currently have SLB teams.
But the first right to join GBBL is reserved for the nine SLB clubs. 'If all nine clubs wanted to participate, then we'd only have one expansion club in the first year,' Glickman clarifies.
What does not appear to be on the table, however, is the level of control over GBBL that SLB clubs currently hold over their own league. 'Our governance will include board seats — observational board seats,' Glickman says. 'Which means full transparency and access to everything in the decision-making process, but non-voting, for two clubs on a rotating basis.'
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Glickman also wants to create a more attractive domestic alternative for the best young British basketball talent to the well-worn path of leaving for the American college system. 'Welfare standards need to improve, training standards need to improve,' he insists. 'Part of what we're going to do is really commit ourselves to being a player-centric league, and improve the conditions for the players and make it attractive for the best British talent to stay home.'
Home-grown player salaries would be exempt from GBBL's economic rules on sustainability and competitive balance. 'It has to make sense for them financially, but more importantly, it has to make sense for them in terms of developing and accelerating their career path,' he adds.
Then there is the NBA and FIBA's European project. GBBL is actively positioning itself as the natural home for any British franchises. 'The NBA coming to Europe from my perspective and from a Great Britain perspective is the best thing that could ever happen,' Glickman says.
'This is the sixth biggest GDP in the world. They need basketball in the UK to be lifted up. This is in everyone's interests. It's in everybody's interests to bring it up, to uplift it.'
In their efforts to establish new leagues from scratch, the NBA and GBBL are effectively operating in parallel with a view to potentially launching in time for the 2026-27 season — though in an interview with The Guardian last week, Aivazoglou declined to commit to that timeframe.
The summer of 2026 is the moment when EuroLeague's licence agreement with its 13 shareholder clubs expires, providing them with a window to opt out. Real Madrid and Barcelona are widely believed to be keeping their options open regarding a potential NBA defection, as is ASVEL Villeurbanne, the French club majority owned by San Antonio Spurs legend Tony Parker.
Last month, ALBA Berlin departed from EuroLeague after 24 years to join FIBA's Basketball Champions League, with the club's managing director, Marco Baldi, pointedly voicing his belief that 'the European competitions under the FIBA ​​umbrella will develop significantly in the coming years'. EuroLeague appears to be creaking, but it has also voted to expand from 18 to 20 teams for the 2025-26 season, with Valencia and Dubai expected to join.
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A collaborative solution that unites the top level of European club basketball does not seem entirely inconceivable. In a remote meeting with international media this week, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum cited 'very productive' discussions between NBA, FIBA and EuroLeague representatives at a meeting in Geneva last month and added that all parties will continue to talk.
There is no indication British basketball's bitter dispute will be resolved soon. The BBF and GBBL project total confidence in their path to this point and believe that FIBA is on their side. The SLB clubs are entrenched behind a cause they view as necessary and just, and have asked basketball's governing body for recognition as they prepare to operate outside the jurisdiction of the BBF.
A prolonged stand-off could even undermine the recent progress British basketball has made at international level, which has seen both the men and women's senior teams qualifying for Eurobasket this year — not least because the licence issued by the BBF to GBBL does not cover the women's league.
'In this day and age it's terrible to overlook women's sport,' Vanessa Ellis, coach of Sheffield Hatters, said after her team's 83-73 victory over Oaklands Wolves in the SLB women's play-off final at the O2 Arena. 'We know we're not in their plans — so what's going to happen to us? Nobody is going to support a women's league on its own. We haven't got that profile.'
A BBF statement on this point said: 'The women's league is operated under a separate licence, which runs through to 2028. The sustainability and development of the women's league is a key consideration for the BBF and something which we are discussing with Women's Basketball League Ltd — the company which holds the current licence.'
Glickman added: 'The licence is only relating to the men's league, but we're quite interested also in the women's side and believe in it. I hope that it unifies at some point.'
There is also the worrying precedent of Japan, which was banned from participating in FIBA competitions in 2014 for its failure to merge two rival professional leagues.
The uncertainty in British basketball is going nowhere, and when the time comes for the NBA to try to wake the sleeping giant of European basketball, there is no telling what they will find.