NBA's planned Europe league with FIBA takes another step forward as timeline comes into focus

The NBA and FIBA on Monday announced a major step forward for their planned European basketball league. In January, they will begin reaching out to prospective teams and ownership groups about the process of joining the league as the idea gets closer to becoming reality. 

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has long wanted to increase the NBA's global foothold, and an NBA Europe league is his biggest attempt at that to date. The challenge in Europe will be going up against the long-established EuroLeague, which has a rich history and is a competition fans care about deeply. 

NBA planning European league: Clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona could be involved, exec says

Jasmyn Wimbish

That's what makes landing established clubs so important for the NBA and FIBA's joint venture, as they will need some prominent clubs to get the kind of fan buy-in to make their idea work. The NBA's name doesn't carry as much weight in Europe and simply slapping it on a league with all-new teams would be almost guaranteed to struggle. 

The FIBA partnership is part of what they hope can lure teams away from the EuroLeague and into their new league. Teams will be able to qualify for the NBA's new league through the Basketball Champions League and other end-of-season qualifying tournaments. 

"The new league would offer every team in a FIBA-affiliated domestic league in Europe a merit-based pathway to qualify on an annual basis either through FIBA's Basketball Champions League (BCL) or an end-of-season qualifying tournament," the NBA said. "The league would also align its schedule with domestic league and national team schedules, allowing players to represent their club and national team year-round.

"As part of the new league, the NBA and FIBA would also plan to dedicate financial support and resources to the continued development of Europe's basketball ecosystem, including domestic leagues, club team academies, and the NBA and FIBA's existing programs to develop aspiring players, coaches and referees at all levels of the game."

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are three teams NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum mentioned last month as clubs that could be permanent members of the NBA Europe league. FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said earlier this month that the new league is planning to tip off in October 2027.

We'll learn early in 2026 how successful they are in getting big name clubs attached, which will determine whether the NBA is able to take hold of the European market in the manner they desire. In any case, the league appears to finally be going from an idea to an actual entity that will be a major piece of Adam Silver's legacy in either success or failure.