EuroLeague CEO Chus Bueno said that he is “set to talk to a high-ranking NBA executive later this week to start discussions on how the two leagues might work together going forward” amid the NBA’s push to launch a league in Europe, according to Mike Vorkunov of THE ATHLETIC. As EuroLeague “works to maintain its place in the sport,” the conversation between Bueno and NBA SVP & Managing Dir/Europe and Middle East George Aivazoglou shows a “newly softening relationship between the two sides.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last month said that he “hopes to cooperate in building basketball in Europe.” Vorkunov noted Bueno and Aivazoglou are “both set to attend” Turkish EuroLeague club Fenerbahçe’s game on Thursday, but the next set of official talks between the EuroLeague and the NBA are scheduled for April 28. Bueno said that he is “open to almost anything, from merging with the NBA’s European league or having it buy equity in the EuroLeague.” He added that he had “waited to talk to the NBA until after they had finished recruiting non-binding proposals for franchises in their league, at their request.” That deadline passed at the end of last month. Bueno said that his “ideal scenario” is if the NBA “merges with the EuroLeague, creating one giant league that marries his franchises with the dozen or so that the NBA intends to have” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/8).
EuroLeague CEO set to talk with NBA on potential partnership
