NBA plans European expansion

David Stern, NBA Commissioner expects a five-team European division to be in the league within the next 10 years he told that while he was speaking with business leaders at a luncheon in Miami.

“It’s a wonderful topic, because 10 years ago, I said oh, it’s inevitable, it’ll happen in 10 years,” Stern said. “And now what I’m saying is, it’s inevitable, it’ll happen in 10 years. But in terms of globalization, we’re going to see a desire for franchises in Europe– and in about 10 years, you’ll send me a postcard.”

Stern who had always think positive to promote the games and spread it out all around the globe and now he is stepping up to promote NBA beyond the Atlantic Ocean, which would easily become the longest road trip in the league.

“I think it’s great,” said CSUF student Rostin Tehranian “How can the NBA say they have world champions when they just play here. If you really want to have world champions, I think you have to go to Europe.”

Stern was of the view that to come up with such plan is really difficult but with the players association has made little progress towards a new collective bargaining agreement, putting the league in jeopardy of having its first players lockout since the 1999 season.

The timing of Expansion is also peculiar because Stern stating to reporters a week before that contraction would “be on the table” between the league and the players association.

Some of the audiences were against this act because they think NBA would suffer by having a larger European influence.

“I don’t like it,” said Randie Baldwin kinesiology major. “Europe has its own leagues and the NBA seems to be doing fine here in North America.”

“I think it’ll be great,” Smith said. “It’s a different type of basketball and it’ll be nice to expose our type of basketball over into Europe. And I think it would translate into other sports as well, like soccer, bringing our sports and countries together.”

It’s an extravagant idea, but also an unlikely one. One of the biggest obstacles standing in Stern’s way of expansion would be the players’ issue with long travel. Travel from New York to London already takes between seven and eight hours, and weather conditions aren’t ideal for travel during the winter months.

Yet, Stern has been a visionary since taking over as commissioner 1984, having overseen seven expansion teams already. As the NBA globalizes faster than ever, he’s banking on that number growing to 12.