When the 2025-26 NBA season tips off with a doubleheader Tuesday night, they’ll be doing so with the most international talent on rosters in league history. There is a record 135 international players on rosters as the season opens, which represents roughly 30% of the total players in the NBA. It’s the clearest example of basketball’s ever-expanding global interest, and as more international talent enters the NBA, the league continues to try and tap into that expanded market.
Each year, the NBA holds international games both in the preseason and regular season. The 76ers and Knicks just got back from a pair of games in Abu Dhabi. The Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies will head to Berlin and London for a pair of games in January. Orlando has a trio of German players on their roster in brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner, and Tristan da Silva.
But holding games overseas is just small potatoes compared to what future plans the league has on deck. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has already detailed plans of an NBA Europe league that could start in 2027 or 2028. There’s still much to figure out about that concept, but certainly one of the biggest thoughts that comes to mind is will this new league compete with the NBA in nabbing international talent? Silver doesn’t seem too concerned about that possibility.
“I think if some of those international players decided to either end their career or prolong their career a bit by playing in Europe, I think that would be fantastic,” Silver said on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I think for the foreseeable future, the NBA is so big, is so global, the pay is so high. I think it’s highly unlikely that any of these players would choose to forego the NBA to play in Europe, and I think that’s kind of the case right now.”
Given that the concept of the European league is still new, certainly there’s no danger of the NBA losing any of its top international talent in the first few years of operation. But we know how much pride these international stars have for their home country. There’s been reports that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo plans on moving back to Greece as soon as he retires. Three-time MVP Nikola Jokić spends pretty much all his free time in Serbia during the offseason riding — and racing — his horses. Luka Dončić is an ambassador for Slovenian tourism.
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That’s not to say these guys will leave the NBA immediately with the creation of NBA Europe because, like Silver said, the amount of money to be made in the NBA is difficult to beat. But whose to say the next generation of international players won’t opt to play in the NBA’s European league? Or two generations from now? Silver said there’s already been ownership interest from “a lot of well known wealthy European families, American families and institutions,” who would like to see this take off, so if you manage to find a league’s-worth of owners with deep enough pockets, you could certainly start to rival the compensation the NBA is offering.
We already know the interest in basketball is there. It’s is the second-most popular sport across Europe behind soccer, and Silver mentioned the NBA alone has 50 million fans in the continent. The issue has been the resources and marketing poured into the sport over there. But with the backing of the NBA and everything that comes with it — money, marketing, infrastructure — there’s real potential to create a league that’s capable of replicating what we have in America right now.
It won’t be immediate, but if that happens, you’d have to think that would be a very appealing option for some international stars down the road. That could create a problem for the NBA later on, as they wouldn’t be the only league vying for the top talent in the world. They’ll control both leagues so they’ll reap the benefits either way, but splitting the talent pool across two leagues feels like finding a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
