Today, Money Means Everything

Here are two images showing the top paid players in both the NBA and Euroleague from 2013. Right off the bat, it's clear that the NBA players blow the Euroleague players out of the water, and probably off of the planet as well with their massive annual salaries.

Aside from the 1st rank Kobe Bryant from the LA Lakers with a whopping $30.45 million salary, the next four down the list average at around $21.75 million a year, which is still an insane amount of money. 

Contrasting these numbers to those of Euroleague's, it's almost comical. Aside from the 1st rank Theodoros Papaloukas on Olympiacos with a salary of 3.5 million euros ($4.85 million), the next four down the list average at around 2.4 million euros annually. These numbers are 10 times less than those of the NBA.

 This shouldn't come as a surprise though. It's like comparing sprouts to fully grown trees. Because of this gigantic gap between them, it's clear that the Euroleague will virtually never surpass the NBA in terms of popularity and growth, which is why they should seek to learn from them, if their objective is to grow as the NBA has in the past, and continues to today. 

Do you think their collaboration for Euroleagues benefit will result in positive outcomes? Either recognition wise or financially? Or both? 

Do you think that the NBA would use or exploit Euroleague just to infiltrate the European market for their own personal gain?

Euroleague and the NBA

The Euroleague is the collective best group of basketball teams in Europe who come together to compete in a league outside of the leagues that they compete in inside their home country. On the contrary most European teams in the Euroleague are losing money and the NBA is involved with capturing financial success wherever they can. So this raises the question of to what level the NBA would be interested in being involved with the Euroleague. The best possible outcome for both sides would be for the European league to allow the NBA to take it under its wing and utilize it as a seperate entity but under a different name.

The NBA is a global power and one of the if not THE most well known sports leagues in this world thanks to the exposure and they love that it brings to people from all over the world. The arenas and infrastructure are quietly becoming reality and Adam Silver, commissioner, of the NBA recently said that the NBA could look to expand not to Seattle or Las Vegas but instead to European cities.

"The American league would prefer to deal directly with big clubs which will be ready to invest into new arenas, or modify existing ones according to the NBA standards, and create franchises from scratch only where they are needed, practically only in Paris and London."(Barkas). This would not be expansion of the Euroleague but expansion of the NBA onto European soil something that ex-Comissioner David Stern took very seriously but his predecessor Adam Silver recently stressed that a potential division in Europe is highly possible and something he's is taking into consideration. What exactly would this mean for the Euroleague if the NBA took away some of their biggest markets with NBA expansion teams?

http://www.eurohoops.net/2014/02/dribbling/41691

Matt Vine