Euroleague is miles better.

No one cares about FIBA.

FIBA is the international basketball federation (similar to UEFA for football). Until 2000 (if I remember correctly), it organized all European club competitions. Then, a split occurred when the richest and most important clubs broke away to create Euroleague Basketball, a private company that now manages the EuroLeague and the EuroCup.

FIBA continues to run its own cups (the Basketball Champions League and the FIBA Europe Cup), but the level of competition is lower than those organized by Euroleague. The main difference is that qualification for FIBA competitions is generally based on sporting merit, whereas the EuroLeague operates as a semi-closed league.

The various domestic leagues—in which EuroLeague teams also participate—continue to be organized by the national federations affiliated with FIBA.

Generally speaking, European fans mostly care about the competitions their own team is playing in. However, when it comes to the overall quality of play, the EuroLeague is undoubtedly at the very top.

It’s not or the other. Euroleague has the best clubs (which aren’t many considering Europe’s sports pedigree in general) under contract and they share a big part of basketball’s revenue in the continent.

Fiba has been trying to run its own league (named basketball champions league lol), but it simply doesn’t have teams that come close to euroleague’s level.

People care more about the euroleague untill it’s time for national teams when the euroleague refuses to allow players to show up…it’s a shit show, not a fan of corporate colonialism but in this case …fuck the euroleague. The sport needs a unification

Okay this answers my immediate question of “why did the NBA and FIBA put out this nothingburger of a statement”

The consumer you mean. It’s us the fans fitting the bill ultimately when price hikes continue.

The consumer you mean. It’s us the fans fitting the bill ultimately when price hikes continue.

They’re bringing in $10+ billion in outside investment.

Good luck with that, Europeans aren’t going to fall for that. Especially since basketball isn’t as popular in Europe. On top of that, why would Europeans pay more for an inferior product when they can enjoy the Euroleague instead?

Ding ding ding

and 30 4-minute timeouts

They don’t have dumb Americans in Europe. Fans there at least riot.

Which will not be part of the project.

Why were you a fan of this at all in the first place? Never met or spoken to a European that was positive about it in any capacity.

That has been known since forever tho

Euroleague is basketball with ads, NBA is ads with basketball. Let’s not fool ourselves with what is better for a fan.

In most industries, sure. In sports? There’s really only one talent pool. Euroleague can generally get the best players outside the NBA. An alternative league which (let’s assume) pays the same wages showing up is absolutelt going to cut into their talent pool, lowering the quality of play.

Like imagine if some giga billionaire suddenly set up a competitor to the NBA and was paying NBA salaries. The current top stars probably stay, but guys like Duren, Kuminga, etc. who can’t get the maxes they want in the NBA could jump ship, which would weaken the talent pool and the overall product .

TLDR;

The continent’s top teams at the time (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Fenerbahce, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Panathinaikos, CSKA Moscow and others) were unhappy with being unable to run the top division at the time in Europe, the **FIBA** Euroleague. ULEB, an association of various top domestic European, seized the opportunity to pry away control from FIBA, agreeing with said top teams to establish a new, *closed* League (closed as in no promotion or relegation for the most part, similar to the NBA), which they would have absolute control over, with the top teams being the owners through common shareholding.

To add insult to injury, FIBA had not copyrighted the term “Euroleague”, allowing ULEB to take it over and use it for their new league, creating further enmity, which was only strengthened after ULEB was sidelined after 2009, with “Eurolegue basketball” being established as a company instead. FIBA tried to tempt back the major clubs in 2015 with a large financial offer but they were rejected, before the Euroleague stole their proposed format (today’s league system instead of the groups which were used until then) for themselves, with FIBA threatening to ban the countries from which the teams originated from participating in the Eurobasket, while it did suspend various leagues (like the pan-Yugoslav ABA League) as punishment.

Today FIBA is still holding a grudge against Euroleague, while the latter and the clubs under it very frequently dismiss and demean FIBA competition (the Champion’s League) as “amateur”, a sentiment shared by top coaches and players, who follow similar rhetoric.

Fiba managed the Euroleague very poorly. It was bankrupting the league and the teams with its mismanagement.

The teams left it and formed their own league, where they themselves own and run the league.

Fiba had tried several times to get control of the pro club basketball on Europe back. But they failed miserably with each attempt and new league they started.

They are trying to get NBA to do it for them now, out of desperate measures.

Because everything from the team ownership systems, the rules, the brand of basketball and the culture is different.

It’s not just a US bad issue.

Also, why would they just give up control? Euroleague is a big enough brand, sticking an NBA label on it won’t make it bigger.

The US system (draft, salary caps, new franchise-based clubs) is alien to Europe and would’ve to built from the ground up, throwing things like domestic leagues in complete chaos.

If pre-existing major clubs don’t abandon the Euroleague en-mass, which so far seems unlikely, you’ll end up with a bunch of brand new teams, without any history, either in places with pre-existing major teams on places where basketball simply isn’t popular (for example England).

Yuck

Genuinely asking. Why?

Beyond Jokic being the face of a local gambling company you mean? FFS, wake up! :D

Maybe not Shai.

Shai

Got outplayed last year by an amateur team

Jokic

Stuck in mountain range purgatory

They offered 448 million.

Euroleague is worth about 20 times that at least.

Let’s be honest, the Champions League’s true competition is the Eurocup.