NBA thoughts and answer to when will we see a game in Greece

Cleveland hosted a flawless All-Star weekend, Sportish is on its way back but has packed its suitcases with information and data on a variety of issues that have been, are, and will continue to concern the league.

Adam Silver’s press conference left open questions, ‘unguarded corners’ that we had to search, we did and we will revisit the issue of the league’s visit to Greece in recent years.

Mission to Cleveland: Harris Stavrou

The last game the NBA played in Europe was between the Bucks and the Hornets in Paris in January 2020. That is, two years ago! Since then, Covid-19 has suffered and continues to plague humanity, making travel a luxury and the Commissioner adamant in returning to our continent. There was no point at Global Games with stadiums either closed or with limited capacity due to the pandemic. The NBA doesn’t work like any other league, it will never think”let’s do the chores“, has a clear plan in this regard and every action goes through a sieve, through an evaluation process that often lasts for years.

We met Adam Silver on January 15, 2015 at NBA Headquarters in London along with three other European colleagues for a chat exclusively about the continent we live on. And then the question itself was: “Greece is shortlisted for a game in the near or distant future; “.

The commissioner had told us that the presence of Giannis Antetokounbo – then a sophomore – had put our country on the league map as a possible target for a game at some point, but he had admitted it was a distant thought and not something , which was actually used at the time. Since then, seven years have passed in which Giannis has achieved everything. Literally everything.

If we look at the subject realistically, Greece was and remains a very small market for the NBA, however, the dynamism that the public has in our country, the way they consume the content about Giannis Antetokounbo and some very specific data “. It offers Americans now to make it an attractive target for the relatively immediate future.

No, we won’t see a game in the fall of 2022, although that possibility has been discussed, evaluated, and seriously considered by the league. The change in the leadership of the Hellenic Basketball Federation has also played an important role, other factors have also played an important role, such as the will of basketball players to strengthen such an endeavor, which is not just easy. And many months of preparation require financial resources and, above all, will from more than two parties.

Adam Silver was clear at the press conference on Saturday (February 19): “We look forward to returning to international travel. We know we have a world league and the ability to send teams to other continents, to new parts of the world is the opportunity we believe will help us grow the sport“It was the original position of the NBA commissioner, which went on to say, ‘We are currently evaluating the possibility of preseason games next season. I don’t think we’ll see regular season games in 2022/23, to be precise we certainly won’t see any. There is a possibility that we will consider pre-season games in Europe. You just have to get organized early enough. It may be difficult but Europe is such an important market for us and of course we love the opportunity to be there for the pre-season games“.

The dates for matches in our parts are very specific. London and Paris have always been a priority, with the French capital a step ahead of the English capital in recent years, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and Istanbul have previously worked with the NBA, Athens is willing and able to enter the discussion thanks to Giannis Antetokounbo and the huge interaction that exists for him on the league’s social media. The fact that Greece garnered 50% of the votes in the first year of the #NBAVote campaign, ie 2017, made Greek Freak a key player in the game we covered in New Orleans. Of course, the dates have changed since then and the Greek public remains very active, interested in results, reports, interviews and everything related to the best basketball league in the world.

The last time American basketball visited Greece was 12 years ago when Team USA played with our national team in OAKA before the World Cup in Turkey. “I will never forget a man who spat at me twice for wearing US basketball uniforms“An NBA man told us Sunday night he’ll never forget that…Dream Game with Durand, Rose, Westbrook and Lamar Odom. In our case, Greece ticked many, if not most, of the boxes on the list of what their league is looking for.

Logic says Silver and his staff, combined of course with the teams the commissioner will address, will discuss a game in Greece with a fall 2023 or 2024 background. Right now, the NBA is getting ready (yes, starting now). , to be precise, for over a year) his visit to Abu Dhabi. According to Sportish, the first game in the Middle East will take place on October 6, a few weeks after EuroBasket 2022.

Athens will have to wait a little longer, they really have to want to claim a game or more, in two stadiums with two teams, they will have to exploit the status of Giannis Antetokounbo and offer an experience to the country’s sporting world that will be remembered forever. The NBA will return to Europe, Greece is one of the destinations he definitely wants to visit, but people should understand that such a project is time-consuming, labyrinthine, has many expansions and requires patience and composure. 40 or 48 minutes takes years of discussion, negotiation and organization, but that’s why the NBA is decades ahead and will stay there.