Garbajosa and Gherardini on NBA Europe: Balancing Club and National Basketball for a Sustainable Future in Europe
Jorge Garbajosa, president of FIBA Europe, spoke about the state of European basketball and a potential groundbreaking change with NBA Europe.
“Something is coming that we need. We are not talking about changing basketball, which is beautiful all across Europe. We have the EuroLeague, which is a fantastic competition. But clubs struggle to reach financial break-even, which is important, even in national leagues. I was discussing this with Maurizio Gherardini [LBA president]: we need to find a balance between club competitions and national teams. Putting all of this together is not easy. But we need to find that balance to take a step forward for basketball in Europe.”
Maurizio Gherardini, during the press conference, commented on NBA Europe:
“I focus only on certainties. As a league, we can know what the media writes, starting with the NBA Europe project, which is extremely important for Europe and is moving forward,” Gherardini said. “The fact that they consider Italy one of the key countries and part of their geography is significant—it’s important to be part of a global phenomenon that represents success. We’ll see how things develop in the coming months, but this is a very important project also in terms of European order, to understand what might happen with the various competitions. If the NBA decides to invest in Europe and take on these realities, being part of it is a major added value for the domestic league. What will happen as a cascade, we’ll see in the coming months.”
The topic of sustainability is fundamental
“From the beginning of my term, I have focused on sustainability. We need to change the culture of club management: we should spend the money we generate, but not entirely on building the roster—which is, of course, very important. To grow as a movement, we must also invest in infrastructure. In this regard, we are a heterogeneous movement; this is the direction we need to work in. I always take as a reference a league that never was for us: Germany produces a national team that is world and European champion, with players in the NBA and college, and above all a healthy basketball movement that doesn’t face the critical issues we do.”
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