Will the NBA expand Internationally?

[Scout200]

There's been a lot of talk about the NBA expanding to Europe... Do you think the NBA will give up home games in order to reach out to a larger base? How do you think this will impact the NBA?

[Green4ever]

Personally I wouldnt like it. It cant be called the NBA then because it is no longer national. I cant see any reason in changing something that is working. I think with more expansion we give up real basketball for a show.

[greg683x]

I dont think it's a good idea.  With all these star players leaving their teams to go play with other stars, creating these super teams, you're gonna have more and more awful teams that are just non-existant.   Theres no need to create more of them.

[mgent]

The INBA.

[slamtheking]

the travel to/from Europe would make it difficult for players to perform well.  there's a significant time difference.  besides, the NBA couldn't make it in Vancouver for crying out loud.  There's also major US cities that have no teams that are certainly large enough to support them: San Diego, Seattle, St Louis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco (Golden State doesn't count because it's in Oakland), Tampa, Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore (hey, other sports can support a team in Washington AND Baltimore).

Get the NBA to show it can put a quality team in some of those towns and perhaps get into Montreal or support their franchise in Toronto and maybe they can realistically consider a separate set of teams in Europe.

I know, Europe supports a lot of teams but those teams are already established with their own sets of stars and methods for staffing those teams.  NBA would have a helluva a time building a separate league there without trying to steal talent from the other leagues or watering down their own product in the states by taking talent from there.

[Junkyard Dawg]

yeah I've thought about this.  it sounds pretty cool in theory but I dunno if it'd work.  another thing i've thought of is kind of a "Champions-league" style tournament where you play a home-and-away every few weeks in the midst of the regular season.  no way that could work, unfortunately. 

you see it sometimes with the NFL, a player has a sore knee they think is healing well, get on a 6 hour flight to london and it swells up.  trust me, happened to a guy on my fantasy team.

[Eja117]

I'm pretty sure they'll follow the money.  Although you better be careful where you expand.  You don't want to find out Glen Davis is being held in a jail in ABu Dhabi facing execution for being found with 6 chicks in his bedroom without their veils on and that Melo is yelling "Stop snitchin!" from a cell in Turkey where he faces having both hands cut off over the bricks of weed he was found with.

Just gotta do your research first cause things can get hairy quick sometimes

[fairweatherfan]

I could see the NBA trying to start a separate Euro league as a kind of minor league.  Cross-promote with the Euro players at All-Star events and stuff, have the champions play an exhibition game, things like that. 

But no way do they actually put a few franchises there.  The logistics of travel are just too serious, and sooner or later you'd have some visa nightmares popping up.  I can't see how they'd do it without cutting the number of games or ending the regular season a couple weeks later.  Too messy.

[dpaps]

Personally I wouldnt like it. It cant be called the NBA then because it is no longer national. I cant see any reason in changing something that is working. I think with more expansion we give up real basketball for a show.

People seem to have forgotten the Toronto Raptors, and the one time Vancouver Grizzlies. The league is ALREADY international.

I don't think they'll put a franchise in Europe because of travel concerns, the trip from LA to London or Paris would be brutal, but with improvements in travel technology it could come in time.

[greenpride32]

You can't compare basketall in Canada to Europe; it's very popular in Europe already.

I think the NBA will have a hard time competing with the leagues that are alraedy established in Europe.  It would also be very difficult to schedule road trips back and forth.  I'm sure the players are strongly opposed.

What I could see is an NBA Euro league and perhaps some type of yearend showdown between the US and Euro champions. 

[Green4ever]

Personally I wouldnt like it. It cant be called the NBA then because it is no longer national. I cant see any reason in changing something that is working. I think with more expansion we give up real basketball for a show.

People seem to have forgotten the Toronto Raptors, and the one time Vancouver Grizzlies. The league is ALREADY international.

I don't think they'll put a franchise in Europe because of travel concerns, the trip from LA to London or Paris would be brutal, but with improvements in travel technology it could come in time.

I knew someone would bring that up, but I decided to leave that out because there is a significant difference from Canada (for one it is in the same continent and close in proximity) and Europe. Lets be serious here, this whole concept would only hurt the competitiveness in the NBA by creating various subpar teams that role player will go to (attempting to be stars) for a bigger payday.

[Eja117]

It's tough cause you'd have to add a few teams not just 1 or 2....then maybe make the season longer at the expense of the preseason.

But it's already long. And then what are the Euro teams going to do? Play 30 games in the US? So they have like 2 15 game road trips?

You need Rain Man to figure this out.  

A Euro game just doesn't work like any other game.  In the US worst case scenario is flying 3 hours across country.

Flying to Europe is nothing like that.  

This is like having a team in Hawaii.  It's like that.  It's like if there was a huge earthquake in LA and the Lakers are Clippers were like "We're relocating to Honolulu this year!'

You're like "Whaatttt?"

It makes more sense for us cause we mostly live on the East coast and we're thinking "Welllll flying Logan to London isn't that bad. I could do that and play a game the next day and fly back and play again the next day. Wouldn't want to, but I could"

Yeah.  BUT.  Could the LA Lakers do it?  Hell no. Hell no.

You gotta think of LA to Rome, not Boston to London.

That's what we're up against.    LA to mid Europe is like trying to ask Utah to play a bunch of games in China, Korea, Japan, and Australia......good luck on that.


Granted I'm pretty sure Stern would punch his frail grandma in the teeth to expand his dictatorship so I'm pretty sure this will happen some day provided the Euro officials are as crooked as his.

Do you think Russians will put up with Dick Bavetta?

[Eja117]

Come to think of it if Joey Crawfraud, Violete Palmer, and Dick BaVetta ref games in Russia I'm 100% positive some Russian and Belarussian gangsters will have them turned into dog food and their heads will show up in a gutter somewhere, and we'll see David Stern publicly wet himself after getting some "phone calls" from Vladimir Putin about some of the awkward calls that went against the Russian team when Kobe was guarding his favorite players.

I am now 100% in favor of Euro expansion.   

[Scout200]

Personally I wouldnt like it. It cant be called the NBA then because it is no longer national. I cant see any reason in changing something that is working. I think with more expansion we give up real basketball for a show.

People seem to have forgotten the Toronto Raptors, and the one time Vancouver Grizzlies. The league is ALREADY international.

I don't think they'll put a franchise in Europe because of travel concerns, the trip from LA to London or Paris would be brutal, but with improvements in travel technology it could come in time.

Good point!  I'm split on the idea...

Travel would be awful but expanding the NBA into Europe makes sense considering the amount of talent that is continually being produced. Names like Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker, all of whom are from Europe, are now NBA superstars.

[dark_lord]

personally, i wouldnt like it. the league is watered down enough.  if anything, i think the league would benefit from eliminating a couple teams to make the league more balanced and competitive.  as far as adding international teams....i think teams in canada, mexico, or caribbean would be ok, but nothing beyond that.