Unlike in the Euroleague, in the NBA almost all of the 30 teams have an operating profit, with 25 out of the 30 teams not losing money.  The New York Knicks lead the way with a annual profit of about $96 million.

David Stern, the former NBA commissioner, helped grow the NBA into a world-wide powerhouse in his 30 year tenure with the NBA.  If it weren't for the NBA's growth, Euroleague would not be anywhere close to the level it is at today.

The NBA drives the basketball landscape all over the world, and with the interest in basketball growing so immensely in the United States, it has caused a growth in Europe.

The past NBA season was the most successful in a business standpoint, with an average of $23.7 million operating income across the board.

For a more intensive look into the money making machine that is the NBA, check out this article in Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2014/01/22/as-stern-says-goodbye-knicks-lakers-set-records-as-nbas-most-valuable-teams/

Question: Do you think if the NBA was not as successful as it is, that the Euroleague would be growing at the rate that it is?  Does the NBA have a major impact on the goings on over in Europe and around the basketball world?

Dr. Chris O'Hanlon
-Avid Sports Blogger and Amateur Magician

A Players Perspective

Josh Childress discusses his 5 main differences between the NBA and Euroleague back in 2009

Comparing NBA to Euroleague Salaries

As Euroleague continues to grow in popularity in Europe, player salaries and talent continue to rise at an impressive rate. While the pay scale of Euroleague may never compete with the NBA, take a look at how much top salaries have increased in the past two years. 

During the 2010-2011 season, there were 24 players in Euroleague making over 1 million Euros, with the highest paid player making 3.5 million Euros. Notable players on this list including former NBA players Bostjan Nachbar and Allen Iverson, as well as Spanish standout Juan Carlos Navarro.

During the 2012-2013 Euroleague season, there were over 40 players making over 1.15 million Euros. Notable players on this list included former US college standout Nick Calathes, and former NBA players Jordan Farmer, Rudy Fernandez and Nedad Kristic. 

While the overall salary increases in the past couple of years haven't brought tons of NBA talent to Europe, there is an increasing trend of NBA players spending one year in Europe and going back to the NBA. The 2011 NBA lockout year helped solidify this trend, as 90 NBA players went to Europe during the lockout. The vast majority of these players returned to America with the lockout was over, because Euroleague teams simply could not pay them their market value in salary. However, the Euroleague is increasingly becoming a solid option for fringe level NBA players who can now leverage their bargaining rights in the NBA with competitive Euroleague contract offers. 

When taking a look at NBA salaries for the 2012-2013 season, there were 278 players making over 2 million USD, with dozens of players making over 10 million USD. In the near future Euroleague teams will have no chance at signing top NBA talent, but are increasingly entering the market for basketball players seeking low 7 figure contracts. During the 2012-2013, four teams had budgets over 30 million Euros, while the bottom eight teams had budgets under 10 million Euros. If team payrolls in Euroleague were able to all reach the level of CSKA Moscow 42 million Euros, I bet you would see a lot of top notch American players flock to Euroleague

The reason I decided to focus on salary in this post is because I believe having higher payrolls is the quickest and more surefire way for the Euroleague to generate more interest in the world basketball community. The bottom line is more money to spend equal better players and better players equals more fan interest. It will be interesting to see how the salaries and payrolls of Euroleague teams stack up to their NBA counterparts in 10 years.

Lucas Cohen

-5 time All-Pro Sports Blogger

Surging Interest in Euroleague

The fan base of Euroleague has continued to grow during the 2013-14 regular season. In an article posted by Euroleague.net they said that based off of data collected from 10 regular season games, there was a rise in attendance as well as heavy traffic on the leagues website.

In a total of 120 games throughout the season, attendance was up 5%.

Euroleague consulted with G2 strategic to help launch the Euroleague Basketball Ticketing Program two years ago.  Because of this program and the growth of the sport in Europe, 10 teams reported increased ticket sales.

This past year Euroleague.net brought in more than 100,000 new visitors to their website.  The growth of the game has led to a Greek, Sport24.GR's, and Italian, Gazzetta dello Sport, versions of Euroleague.net

Currently there are 195 countries worldwide broadcasting Euroleague games.  Standard viewership has also risen in large part to moving a one of the game days to Friday fromWednesday to combat when Football(soccer) matches are played in Europe

My Take:

Basketball is growing all throughout the world.  It is now the second most popular sport in the United States, distancing itself from Baseball.  Currently in many countries in Europe it is either the number two sport behind football(soccer) or in some cases like in Eastern Europe it is number one.  

Euroleague is now even featured in the extremely popular video game NBA 2K14 and they play friendlies in the United States occasionally, which shows the growth of the European game.

With the growth of the internet and social media platforms, I think the global awareness of Euroleague will continue to grow because of how easy it is to access information. I do not think, however, that any basketball league/entity can ever come close to threatening the NBA.

The NBA is king, but maybe Euroleague can be his queen...

Dr. Chris O'Hanlon

-Avid Sports Blogger and Amateur Magician 

What if the NBA and Euroleague Merged...?

What if the NBA and Euroleague merged? It sounds really crazy but is it possible? Throughout sports history, every major sports league from beginning of time has merged, just never over two continents. 
It is actually becoming easier for these organizations to merge due to technological advances in transportation and media as well as the organizational rules. 

The Atlantic Ocean will create quite a divide between the areas even though a flight from Boston to London or LA is virtually the same. Can fans get over the transportation divide to make this happen? 

Recently the international game has been changing and adopting more and more to NBA rules including:
1) jump ball to decide possessions
2) courts to be wider and longer
3) three point line is going to be moved to 7.25 m (like the NBA 23' 9").
4) technical foul will give one free throw and the possession
5) “foul bonus” rule established

What is Euroleague's motive in mirroring the rules of the NBA? 

Personally, I do not see this happening anytime soon because of scheduling conflicts and broadcasting times making it nearly impossible for fans to watch their team live with the dramatic time changes. It might be possible to create a Champions League / World Cup, however, could European champions ever compete against the NBA Champion?

- Curtis "Tell em wat ya think boii..." Businski

What if You Don't Make it to the NBA?

Many athletes dream of making it into the NBA and becoming one of the best athletes on the planet. But what happens to all those players who never make it to the NBA?  What happens to those elite players who play in top division college basketball but just aren't good enough to make it to the next level?  The truth is that most of these players basketball careers will end in college, but some will get a second chance...

The NBA draft usually only consists of two rounds, which means that only 60 players will get a chance to play in the league.  Even some of these players will never see playing time on an NBA court and will end up in the D-League or being released.  

However, some players will get a chance to play in the European Leagues.  This allows players to continue on with their playing careers and continue to profit from playing basketball.  Also, it allows players a chance to improve their skills and then a few years down the road enter into the NBA draft.

So the question is, would you give up everything you know, go to a foreign country and virtually begin a new life to chase the dream of making it into the NBA?

Check out this link to see 50 American Collegiate Athletes currently playing in Euroleague: http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2012/11/06/mitnick-top-50-american-players-in-euroleague/

-Bradley Williams

Pro Sports Blogger