Mark Tatum Confirms: “NBA Europe Is Not a Commercial Project”
The NBA is preparing to expand into Europe: a new league could launch in 2027, with teams in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom
Mark Tatum, NBA Deputy Commissioner, confirmed that plans to bring an NBA-branded league to Europe are taking concrete shape. The goal? To kick off the competition in the 2027/28 season, with 10 to 12 teams spread across the UK, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany, with potential expansions to Turkey or Greece.
During a meeting with the media ahead of the new NBA season, Tatum explained that the project is not “primarily commercial” but stems from the desire to grow European basketball under a new structure.
A New League, Not an Expansion
The plan involves creating an independent league, separate from both the American NBA and the EuroLeague, but carrying the NBA brand and organizational standards. Participation could include new franchises, existing European clubs (perhaps from the FIBA Basketball Champions League), and even football clubs interested in investing in basketball. Entering the league would cost between 250 and 500 million.
The NBA is in talks with historic organizations – not only in basketball – such as Milan, Inter, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Fenerbahçe, and Galatasaray, as well as with FIBA and EuroLeague bodies, to define a structure that ensures balance, sustainability, and competitiveness.
NBA Europe: “We’re Not Doing This for Money”
Tatum clarified the motivations behind the project:
The reason we are doing this is not primarily financial. Basketball is already the second most-followed sport in Europe, but leagues like the EuroLeague are missing key markets such as London, Paris, Rome, or Berlin. Our goal is to make this sport more accessible to all European fans
Mark Tatum
According to the executive, such a league would attract new investments not only in the competition itself but also in infrastructure, arenas, and youth programs. In other words, it’s a project designed to generate long-term resources and interest, rather than immediate profits.
Europe as a New NBA Horizon
The idea of an NBA Europe has been circulating for years, but it had never reached this level of concreteness. If everything goes according to plan, 2027 could mark a historic turning point: the arrival of an NBA-branded league in the continent where basketball is growing the most, but where a unified, high-level structure is still lacking.
One thing is certain: this time, the NBA seems to be serious.