Basketball-We need a solution with the NBA, says Panathinaikos owner

Europe’s biggest basketball clubs must find a way ​to work with the NBA, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos said on Wednesday, a ​day after they rejected a proposal from the U.S. league ‌to ​join up for a new continental competition.

On Tuesday, the continent's top clubs turned down an offer from the NBA, raising the prospect of a battle for Europe's teams, players and commercial riches. Sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters that the Euroleague's shareholder clubs rejected a ‌collaboration offer from the NBA in their meeting in Italy, though the door on a deal was not yet closed.

"All together we have turned the sport we love into a competition where the NBA, I repeat, the NBA, the top league in the world wants to invest and make Euroleague a part of their world," Giannakopoulos said in a social media post. "With huge respect ‌but also proud of what we have finally ... achieved we must together find a solution," he said.

His Athens-based team are seven-time European champions and one of the Euroleague heavyweights. The ‌Euroleague is eager to press ahead with expansion and it is unclear whether the NBA will submit a revised proposal. A senior sports executive told Reuters any collaboration was unlikely to begin before 2028 because it would be difficult to organise a new competition in time for the 2027-28 season.

Although the clubs rejected the current proposal, talks with the NBA could continue. ONE LEAGUE

"Whatever happens, it's the union of these 13 clubs that will, I believe, create ⁠the value for ​developing a product," Gaetan Muller, Deputy chairman of ⁠ASVEL, the Lyon-based Euroleague club, told Reuters on Wednesday. "As for the NBA, we know their product is ultra bankable, well marketed, with massive TV rights. I hope that, in the long run, a common path will be ⁠found.

"For us, a strong league is a single league. It's obvious that NBA Europe and the Euroleague would be much stronger together," Muller said. "The ideal would be to have one single product, clear and simple: ​with the strength of Euroleague on the sporting and fan side, and the strength of the NBA on the marketing and bankable brand side. "But all of this can't ⁠be done just any old way. There have been 26 years of (Euroleague) history, and that doesn't just get erased."

The clubs on Tuesday agreed to convert into franchises but stopped short of formally approving an expansion of the competition from ⁠20 ​to 24 teams, delaying that move by a month. The decision to go to a franchise model will give the clubs a more permanent stake in the competition than their existing long-term licences. Spanish radio network Cadena SER reported on Wednesday that the rejected proposal included an offer of 520 million euros ($582.14 million) for the Euroleague’s shares.

The NBA did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment. NBA Europe's managing director, George Aivazoglou, is due to speak at a conference in London on Thursday. "They have a clear path to launching in ⁠27-28, a year from now. And they can launch ⁠their league without poaching any of those clubs," said Daniel Kelly, associate dean and clinical professor at NYU's Tisch Institute for Global Sport.

"But the better deal is to align with Euroleague and bring in some of those clubs because then you have a critical mass ‌of fan bases and you're not ‌starting from scratch." ($1 = 0.8933 euros)