Stern Says Regular Season Games In Europe Could Be Coming Soon

The Associated Press reported Monday, that NBA Commissioner David Stern told reporters Sunday, that regular season NBA games in European venues could become a reality in the not too distant future. Stern spoke to the media from Rome site of the NBA Europe Live Tournament in which the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors participated in.

The league this year has increased their Pre-Season games in Europe dramatically. Toronto heads to Spain this week to take on Real Madrid, while Boston is winging to London to face the Minnesota Timberwolves in London’s O2 Arena, a new facility which emulates USA arenas. Stern mentioned the O2, as well as new arenas in Berlin, a proposed new arena in Rome and a new facility in Madrid as perfect venues for regular season games. Stern said that he believes the “time is coming closer” for regular season games held in Europe to become a regular NBA staple .

Stern has for many years talked about the “Global reach of the NBA” and unlike American football and Baseball that are not widely accepted outside of the America’s (North and South America plus surrounding areas such as the Dominican Republic) Basketball seems only to be growing in popularity on a world wide basis. NFL Europa was put out of it’s misery after the last season, always playing at a major disadvantage to soccer. Baseball while big as I said in Central, North, and South America and some Asian countries is really looked at with ignorance and disdain by most Europeans.

However one only has to look at the international competition since the millennium started to see the hold that Basketball has created on a Global basis. Not too mention all the foreign born players who now play in this country in the NBA. The team that is almost a “virtual United Nations” the San Antonio Spurs lapped the rest of the NBA last season sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals.

Basketball has for many years held great appeal in Eastern Europe, as those countries really proved to be the first credible threat to the USA in dominating the sport. They also made up most of the first wave of foreign players that migrated to the NBA. However over the last decade, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, as well as many Central and South American countries have raised their standard of play dramatically.

When will the real next step take place when there are actual teams based overseas? Although it is just conjecture on my part, I truly believe that Commissioner Stern would like it be sooner than later. Although Sunday he said he did not know if the fan base was strong enough yet to support a franchise, who knows how sincere he is in his beliefs. If the league ever wants to expand outside of Oklahoma City, there really are not many untapped markets left in the USA. Although there has been periodic discussions of Las Vegas in the last few years, that option after the Donaghy fiasco that was revealed this Summer will probably never happen.

So with the talk that the Super Sonics want to leave Seattle, could we possibly see the London Super Sonics, or the Berlin Hornets any time soon? Maybe not as bizarre a concept as you would think at first glance. Let’s remember that before the late 1950’s there were no MLB teams west of ST. Louis, nor NBA teams west of Minnesota. But the burgeoning markets on the West Coast plus the improvement of air travel made it viable for expansion. What’s to say that it can not work in the opposite direction going East rather than West?

In order to do it, you would need to have at least two teams located in Europe to make it feasible. For teams located on the Eastern Seaboard, it really would be no tougher travel wise than a West Coast trip. For teams further west just make it a once a year trip that could last long enough to get games against each team plus recovery time from the air travel. It really should not be that tough for the schedule makers to be able to figure it out.

The NBA will almost assuredly always be the third child in the USA, MLB has it’s tradition, and the NFL is the sport that has most prospered during the television age. However the NBA has a chance to do something that neither baseball or football can do, become a legitimate “Global Game.” And with that Commissioner Stern could truly have a legacy as an innovator and a man ahead of his time.