NBA/Euroleague Tourney?

[Kori Ellis]

This was in the NBA forum, but I thought it would be of some interest here.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/564783.html

Basketball / Euroleague and NBA planning joint tournament

By Eli Shvidler

The Euroleague and the NBA are in intensive talks to set up a tournament between the top teams in the NBA and the Euroleague ahead of the 2006/7 season.

The talks are being headed by NBA International vice president Andrew Messick and Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu, and could be the first step on the road to an NBA Europe.

The planned format is a series of mini-tournaments hosted by Europe's leading clubs, with two Euroleague clubs and one NBA team participating, followed by a Super Final with six teams.

The idea could be raised at today's Euroleague board meeting in Moscow. CSKA Moscow manager Sergei Kushnetzki, a member of the Euroleague board, told Haaretz yesterday that the project was "a very real possibility.

The negotiations are looking at sporting, marketing and technical issues. The Euroleague wants to achieve for its teams terms equal to those of NBA teams."

The CSKA manager said that one possibility being examined was to invite NBA teams with European representatives, such as the Utah Jazz with Andrei Kirilenko, the San Antonio Spurs with Tony Parker, and the Memphis Grizzlies with Pau Gasol, in order to attract maximum interest.

[timvp]

:sleep

Unless the wins count as regular season wins, these are just more games that wear down players. Doesn't make any sense to me.

[picnroll]

I wonder how, if/when there is an NBA Europe, drafting of US and international players would be conducted.

[Slo spurs fan]

:sleep

Unless the wins count as regular season wins, these are just more games that wear down players. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Don't be so selfish Timvp!
I think this could be great. I would cross more than 1000 miles just to watch NBA team vs Euroleague team.

I just can't imagine Spurs vs Olimpija (Ljubljana, Slovenia) :spin

Or Spurs (so called world champs) vs Euro champ! :elephant

[xcoriate]

^^ exactly, its for the love of the game :)

Would be great IMO

[MaNuMaNiAc]

I think if they do this, they're going to have to shorten the season by as much games as this Euro/NBA tourney lasts. 82+ games are more than enough to drain the players of energy without having to add 20 or so more games! TimVP is right.

[hendrix]

The McDonalds Open played for some years in the 90s got teams from South America, Europe and the reigning NBA champion. It was a good tourney to watch, though the problem it faced was NBA players reluctancy to play off-season. Hope this time they can "motivate" them.