Friday, February 29, 2008
Stern Sets Sights on World Domination
David Stern wants to expand into Europe. I see several problems with this expansion beyond the normal U.S. players living in Europe, vale of the dollar vs. the Euro, and plane flights across the Atlantic, and I detail them here.
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2 comments:
I think that you completely miss your point.It is not that Europeans need NBA,NBA need Europe and Asia.The reason is simple, right now European basketball is even better than American.You can see that more and more NBA team adopting Europen style of basketball.Some examples to compre: shooting technique and metodology.Then How many Europen talented players was lost seatting on the bench and without Playing.They have got enough attention from coaches etc.NBA reaching point where is no more National Basketball Asoociation and it is high time to change in International Basketball Legue.In Europe is lot of sities ready to join NBA such as: London, Paris, Belgrade, Milano, Roma, Barcelona, Moscow,Madrid, Athens etc.I do not think that is problem to fly up to 8 hours.I would ask you how many km is from Moscow to Tel Aviv or Moscow and Vitoria etc.
First, I was responding to a column written by someone else suggesting that Europe needs the NBA. That was not my assessment.
Second, several of the best players in Europe, like Sarunas Jasekevicius and Arvydas Macijcaus could not even get off the bench in the NBA.
Third, I don't believe this perception that the NBA game is going more European. Everyone points to the Suns and Warriors as playing like European teams. They don't. Which European teams do they play like? The Jazz play like a European team, with their pick and rolls, horns sets and flex cuts, but that's how Sloan has played for 20 years. The difference is the zone defense rule which makes isolations more difficult. But, the idea that the NBA is going European is way overblown. It's not like Europe invented the pick and roll.
Finally, which of those cities have arenas which can hold 18,000 people and draw near sellouts 40 times a year? Which have potential owndership groups willing to spend $60million + for payroll? How is London ready to support an NBA team? It can barely support the BBL.
Also, there is a difference in travel because the NBA plays 82 games from November to the first week of May. The EuroLeague teams play once a week from October to May, which means they travel outside their country every other week, while their other games are all domestic games. So, Tel Aviv travels once to Moscow and has 3 days between its next game.
In the NBA, teams fly from Los Angels to NYC and then play in Boston the next night and then fly to Orlando and they do more than one of these trips per season. So, it's different.
The NBA is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. I don't think it needs anything to remain profitable, which, at the end of the day, is why it exists. The NBA is big business generating profits for businessmen through escalating franchise values.
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