EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas spoke with The Athletic to discuss the future of the league as it enters a period of uncertainty with the NBA’s interest in creating its own league in Europe. The NBA and EuroLeague have had a strained relationship, but there was a productive meeting recently as they determine whether they could partner.
“Listen, it was a positive meeting,” said Motiejunas. “It was the first time out of many years that everybody was at the same table. And we need to thank FIBA for being in the middle and trying to put everybody on the same page.
“What we heard is the same as what is publicly known, that they’re in the exploration mode, and they’re trying to see how and what. We said to them, like we said publicly, we don’t believe that the new league is something that would help the market.
“So we left with an open mind, saying that we’re ready to collaborate. And the question is, how and when. We keep growing, and we keep doing our homework and maximizing the game of basketball in Europe. So I believe that only helps all the sides.
“And as a next step, I believe we’ll have another meeting, I would say around September or during September to sit down again and hopefully get into a deeper discussion and analyzation of how we can work together.
“Because I repeat it and I said it before: we don’t need a new league. We are doing really good. The league is growing. We’re happy to go and do it together with NBA and continuously use their power to grow the basketball in Europe. So we’re open to that.”
Motiejunas was asked what a partnership with the NBA would look like.
“They have a really strong image,” said Motiejunas. “They can help with TV deals. They can help with sponsorship. We can grow the pie bigger if we go and work together. This is always the same message. We need to care about the basketball, the basketball fan, and if we can monetize the game better — and we believe that with the NBA, we can do it better — that’s the strength that we could get them to bring in, and then it comes from that.
“But we have a huge fan base. We have 25 years of history. This is what we said to them. Why not sit down and see how we go and make decisions together, rather than just creating a new league and for them to start over? This is basically our message.
“And like I said, we are open to making decisions together and pitching together and working together to, firstly, grow the pie, and then, you know, the division part is easy. First you need to kill the animal to see how much meat is on the table to divide.”
Motiejunas believes a rival league by the NBA would create confusion for fans.
“This new league would create confusion,” said Motiejunas. “It would create division and on simple terms, you go to the sponsor, and you say, ‘I’m now this new, you know, NBA League.’ And then we go, ‘Well, we are EuroLeague.’ And then, oh, there’s this Champions League; oh, there’s this Euro Cup. For the hardcore fans, everybody knows EuroLeague, and everybody knows Europe. And we are not afraid to lose these fans, because we believe we have a better product right away on the court.
But when we want to grow all together to go and sell this product, you would turn on the TV and you have no idea if it’s a top-tier competition, second-tier, or third-tier. That’s what I mean, we can lose the potential to grow the product and get the fans to follow us because we really have the best basketball in the world on the court.”
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July 29, 2025 | 11:31 pm
