EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas spoke with athletics to discuss the future of the competition, because it involves a period of uncertainty with the interest of the NBA in creating its own competition in Europe. The NBA and Euroleague had a tense relationship, but there was recently a productive meeting when they determine if they could work together.
“Listen, it was a positive encounter,” said Motiejunas. “It was the first time in many years that everyone was sitting at the same table. And we have to thank Fiba for the fact that he is in the middle and tried to put everyone on the same page.
“What we heard is the same as what is publicly known, that they are in reconnaissance mode, and they try to see how and what. We said to them, as we publicly said, we do not believe that the new competition is something that would help the market.
“So we left with an open mind and said that we are ready to work together. And the question is, how and when. We continue to grow, and we continue to do our homework and maximize the basketball game in Europe. So I believe that only helps all sides.
“And if the next step, I believe we will have a meeting, I would say around September or in September to sit down again and hopefully to get a deeper discussion and analyze how we can work together.
“Because I repeat it and I said it before: we don’t need a new competition. We are doing really well. The competition is growing. We are happy to do NBA and use their strength to grow the basketball in Europe continuously. So we are open to that.”
Motiejunas was asked what a partnership with the NBA would look like.
“They have a very strong picture,” said Motiejunas. “They can help with TV deals. They can help with sponsorship. We can grow the cake larger if we work together. This is always the same message. We have to take care of the basketball, the basketball fan, and if we can better generate the game – and we believe that we can do it with the NBA – that is the power we can get to bring them, and that.
“But we have a big fan base. We have 25 years of history. This is what we said to them. Why not sit down and see how we are going to make decisions together, instead of just making a new competition and for them to start again? This is actually our message.
“And as I said, we are open to make decisions and throw together and work together to, firstly, grow the cake, and then, you know, the division section is easy. First you have to kill the animal to see how much meat is on the table to divide.”
Motiejunas believes that a rival competition would cause confusion for fans by the NBA.
“This new competition would cause confusion,” said Motiejunas. “It would create division and on simple conditions you go to the sponsor and you say,” I am now this new, you know, NBA League. ” And then we go: “Well, we are Euroleague.” And then, oh, there is this Champions League;
But if we all want to grow together to sell this product, you would turn on the TV and you have no idea if it is a top competition, a second -class or third row. That is what I mean, we can lose the potential to grow the product and let the fans follow us because we really have the best basketball in the world on the field. “
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