The NBA and FIBA’s long-discussed push toward a new European league appears to be gaining real commercial momentum.
In an update on the project, NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Mark Tatum said the league has received strong interest from potential teams and investors for permanent franchise places, a sign that the concept is moving beyond abstract planning and into a more concrete bidding stage.
Tatum said:
“We have received significant interest from a range of prospective teams and investors for permanent franchise spots in a new league in Europe backed by the NBA and FIBA. The level of engagement and the scale of the bids reflect the marketplace’s belief in our proposed model and the enormous, untapped potential for European basketball.
We will now review the bids in more detail and shortlist the partners who share our vision and commitment to accelerating the growth of the game across the continent.”
NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Mark Tatum provides an update on the NBA and FIBA’s exploration of a new league in Europe: pic.twitter.com/ZuDaO0tRVj
— NBA (@NBA) April 1, 2026
The significance of that statement lies in what it suggests about the next step. Back in February, Tatum said the NBA expected initial responses from investors by the end of March, with the broader goal of advancing a European competition developed alongside FIBA. At that stage, the message was that interest was being solicited. Now, the language has shifted to reviewing bids and identifying preferred partners, which indicates that the process has moved from outreach to evaluation.
This also fits the framework the NBA has been sketching for months. In earlier comments, Tatum said the proposed competition could feature permanent franchises in major European markets, alongside a smaller number of merit-based qualifiers, with countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Greece seen as central to the model. The league has repeatedly framed Europe as a region with major basketball tradition but room for more commercial growth and more unified top-level structure.
What remains unclear is exactly which clubs, cities or investment groups will survive the next cut, and how this NBA-FIBA vision will ultimately coexist with existing European powers and competitions. Recent reporting has suggested that talks involving the EuroLeague ecosystem are still evolving, which means the final shape of any future league may depend as much on political alignment as on financial appetite.
