Euroleague CEO Paulius Motiejunas claims that there is no sense in creating a new competition in Europe
Credit: Rodolfo Molina/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images
Euroleague CEO Paulius Motiejunas talked to SportsPro about NBA Europe expansion plans, sharing his clear stance on it:
"To read comments about another league in Europe, for me personally, doesn’t make any sense," said Motiejunas, speaking exclusively to SportsPro.
"We already have four different leagues. We, as EuroLeague, have the best product possible. I don’t think it’s something that should not be valued and understood and appreciated, because what the clubs and the league have achieved in 25 years, it’s amazing."
"I understand the NBA’s approach and I appreciate how big they are – it’s the number one basketball league in the world," said the Lithuanian, who has led Euroleague Basketball since 2023.
"But I don’t like the mentality that, 'oh, we’ll come and we’ll teach everybody how it’s done."
"Obviously everybody wants to listen to the NBA or wants to see what they can offer. But to have five leagues [would mean] we’re forgetting the fans. You turn on the TV and you don’t know what team is playing what competition."
“Now there’s going to be one more?” said Motiejunas. “Again, [it] doesn’t make any sense, not only for the fans, [but] also for all the revenues that we can get going to sponsors and offering the same investment. Again, difficult to understand.”
Motiejunas sees why NBA plans their regular season games in Europe, but thinks it's not necessary to create a brand new competition:
"If you think about NBA, Fiba and EuroLeague, I think we need to protect basketball, and we need to compete against other sports and grow the game of basketball," he said.
"I understand the willingness to expand and come and do the NBA games and so on and so forth. But we, together, need to protect basketball and if we compete with each other, between each other, then the other sports gain momentum; they get better than us and we are here to protect basketball."
