Important Euroleague news: no more NBA Europe Live Tour

January 16, 2008

In a recent interview with the CSKA president about the Euroleague board meeting from last 15th January for the Russian website basketball.ru, a lot of very important decision have been taken and we will present those to you right here already before their official announcement by the Euroleague.

The format of the Euroleague will probably be changed in order to have more quality games. This means that probably we will see a 4 groups of 6 teams schedule instead of the actual 3 groups of 8. This means that the first phase will have less games and the intense Top16 games will increase. On the other hand, this means also less games for the smaller teams.
It is very probable that one of the next Final Fours will be played in Berlin in the brand new O2 World.
For the 2008 Final Four in Madrid, 7000 tickets will be sold from which only 3000 will be available online. Good luck for anyone who wants to get one. Every qualified team will have the right for 1000 tickets. And because of higher VAT(16% vs. 7%) in Spain, the ticket prices will be (even) more expensive than for last year’s edition.
The board also decided that no Euroleague team will be allowed anymore to play preseason games against NBA teams. The exact reasons for this are not known but some guesses are the "independance" of the Euroleague from the NBA. On the other hand, there may also have been some pressure by the NBA that does not want to come to Europe to lose games.
Unfortunately, there has not been any decision on Server capacities of the Euroleague website. At least, the president of CSKA did not talk about it. However, the board was happy about the 260 million visitors of www.euroleague.net.

Jan 16, 2008ballineurope

This post was published on January 16, 2008

Comments: 23

JohnZ
17 years ago
“there may also have been some pressure by the NBA that does not want to come to Europe to lose games. ”

It would probably be more fair to say “these games wouldn’t mean anything to the NBA teams, and would mean a lot to the Euro teams”

You aren’t missing anything, preseason NBA games are garbage. The good players barely even play.
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simeon
17 years ago
when will we finally see a mini tournament of the top 2 nba teams vs the top 2 euroleague teams similar to there’s a club championship in soccer?
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belalik
17 years ago
I, for one, really like the nba-euro teams, no matter if they play in europe (with euro rules) or in the US (with nba rules) …

I dont care who wins, if pao was beaten badly and obradovic was pissed of, technical fouls, or if the NBA loses its prestige (does it, really?) …

Remember, they are PRE-SEASON games, no reasonable conclusions can be drawn from such games, they exist solely for fun – and I do find them amusing and interesting, seeing these two different ‘worlds’ on the same court…

I really see no reason why they should be stopped..
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jasper
17 years ago
Hey, wher do you find this amount “260 million visitors”.
It should be since the Euroleague website is online…;)
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madmonkey
17 years ago
260 visits yeah right lololol
who can believe those numbers…
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TheDude
17 years ago
Sure thing. If the NBA teams get whooped, its because they didnt even try. If the euro teams lose, its due to the greatness of NBA players.

Same old story, right? World championships? They didnt really try. OK, they sent their best players, Melo, LeBron, Wade etc., but – they got owned – so they must not have really tried! Olympia? Same story.

Have i ever met such sore losers as american basketball fans? I think not.
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Busy B
17 years ago
Hey TheDude, the only time the Americans sent their best players they did win by alot, and last year was the closest they came to sending their best and they won every game easily. It’s not being a sore loser when it’s the truth. They year they sent Melo, Lebron and Wade those players were in their first seasons and they did not have Kobe Bryant or Tim Duncan or Garnett.
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Francy68
17 years ago
I think theDude is right…too much excuses and the wrong ones.
The only thing you can really say is that 30 teams are too much, so talent is excessively divided.
About national team I think that the mean reason is the gap betwen european coaches and american coaches, the level of american coaches is terrible (only think that last year the award for coach of the year was given to the awful sam Mitchell…) and americans team are really unable to defend like a team. Player’s fault (basket is not only playground) and coaches MAJOR fault (teams may apprend to play, well, like teams…).
In fact, I don’t buy the “they didnt even try story” the only addiction was Kobe Bryant and surely is a great addiction, but just because you’re sayin’ this, well, I think you have to understand that there is a problem.
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Busy B
17 years ago
The only “addiction” was Kobe? Addiction to what? But anyway look at what happened when the Americans sent their best players, they beat everyone by several points. What is YOUR excuse for that?
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Calvin
17 years ago
Euroleague.net has to be making some serious bank, most likely over a billion. The nba big advantage was that it could pay more for it’s superstars that will most likely change.
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Francy68
17 years ago
Hi Busy, I have a simple one: the contenders were not so strong and the only (theorically) strong one was depleted and demotivated.
Anyway, I always have been a big nba fan (at these days I only watch nba) but I think that there are major issues that need to be fixed, first of all the arrogant idea that Usa team can play basketball not payin attention to leaster issues like defense and teamplay only because their players are more athletic than the others.
So, imho, they lose because are too arrogant to play together and to listen to their coaches (coaches -by the way- that I still think are lesser skilled than the european elite ones), any other considerations sound just like excuses.
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Alexander Chernykh
17 years ago
Thanks but Basketball.ru actually just copied the news by AllSport news agency citing the source.
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vengeanced
13 years ago
I need to write it down here because i saw it one of my friends tweets. Turkish Airlines is making an application about the Euroleague final 4. They are paying for everything 🙂 I mean tickets flights and hotel. AND it is in Istanbul!!!! Hurry. Cause for every match there is just one winner !!!http://bit.ly/FansoftheMatch
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ernie banks
17 years ago
wait? there is basketball in europe?

David Stern tells us that the US brought b-ball to the world in 1992 and that it singlehandedely introduced the game to the savages abroad.

Isnt that what the NBA tour was about? Introducing europeans to a game called basketball thanks to such legendary tacticians such as Doc Rivers and Sam Mitchell to help the less knowledgeable coaches there learn from them.

I gotta give you folks credit, youve really caught on pretty well since 1992.
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andrew
17 years ago
CSKA president must be outta his mind..Euroleague commissioner said that it’s not true there won’t be any other NBA-Euroleague games..not only that, more and more euro teams will play in the U.S. during the NBA preseason
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andrew
17 years ago
Anyways, I guess we’ll know more about it next month when NBA commish David Stern will held the state of the league address during the nba all-star weekend..they generally use the all-star weekend to announce future NBA games in Europe
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Federoy
17 years ago
“the level of american coaches is terrible (only think that last year the award for coach of the year was given to the awful sam Mitchell…) and americans team are really unable to defend like a team. Player’s fault (basket is not only playground) and coaches MAJOR fault (teams may apprend to play, well, like teams…).”

How do you even qualify an ignorant statement like this?
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Federoy
17 years ago
“So, imho, they lose because are too arrogant to play together and to listen to their coaches (coaches -by the way- that I still think are lesser skilled than the european elite ones), any other considerations sound just like excuses.”

Accusing Americans of “arrogance” has become so typical among Europeans that to argue otherwise is considered abnormal. You obviously know nothing about the differences between the NBA and FIBA game. The issues affecting USA basketball’s international play have absolutely nothing to do with arrogant players playing for themselves and poo-pooing coaching instructions. Recent losses have more to do with the fundamental differences in how basketball is played and intrepreted in the NBA vis-a-vis FIBA. The NBA game emphasizes and promotes individual skill, usually to the detriment of team basketball. Isolation plays, limited or no zone defenses, clogged inside lanes, and “special” no-calls–like travelling and palming–which are common in the NBA no longer exist in FIBA, making it difficult for NBA players to adjust to international play. Even as highly skilled as Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan are, the shortcomings of the 2004 team serve as a prime example of what happens when you throw players together and expect them to simply *click* against teams that understand the FIBA system, play with better chemistry and are better organized defensively and offensively. These aren’t excuses, they’re legitimate reasons why the US has failed in recent years.
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davidson
16 years ago
What’s truly funny is that you Eurofans actually think European players even have a fraction of the talent and skill that American players possess. That truly is hilarious.
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Ted
16 years ago
“…there may also have been some pressure by the NBA that does not want to come to Europe to lose games.”

Cite your source.
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Ramiro
16 years ago
I can’t see a reason why euroleague teams shouldn’t play against nba teams, i don’t know if the nba don’t want to lose outside the USA. The fact is that, no matter who wins, the NBA Europe Live Tour was to gather up the best teams of the supposed best leagues, to have friendly matches.

It doesn’t matter if the european teams win everytime or if the nba teams win everytime or wether any team win by a lot. It’s something entertaining and it’s because it’s something different. The same thing happens with football and the Intercontinental Cup that was the best european team against the best southamerican team, now they changed it into the best teams from all the continents that it seems more rightful for the winner to say that it’s the world champion, but this Live Tour it’s friendly matches to entertain the audience while showing NBA teams playing with totally different teams. It dissappoints me that they are going to end it.

Oh, and for those that say that american are not arrogant. The 2002 World Basketball Championship, everyone said to the USA team the “dream team”. What happened? they ended up 6th. 2004 Olympics, again they marked them as the “dream team”. What happened now? bronze medal. They are not the best players on the world, neither they have the best league teams or the best national team. Everyone think that they are so great just because of the NBA and the media: television, movies, etc. They have great teams but they are not gods that’s what i mean. Not just because they came from the USA they are the so called “dream team”. And a true fact, the USA teams want the world to adjust the way they play, if they can’t adjust to international rules then they should be the ones not playing against european teams.
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barragan
16 years ago
“On the other hand, there may also have been some pressure by the NBA that does not want to come to Europe to lose games.”

Are you kidding me? Why should the NBA be afraid of losing games in Europe, especially with the shitty b-ball you play over there? I have never seen such talentless and overrated hacks as the ones that come from Europe. Your international rules were plainly crafted to handicap U.S. players seeing as how our guys are so much better than your pathetic players. Adapt to international rules? Why don’t you try adapting to NBA rules and start trying to play basketball the way it was MEANT to be played? Or is it too hard for your pansies? Face it, when it comes to basketball – Europe SUCKS HARD. The U.S. has, does, and always will rule over you when it comes to b-ball. You can have your bragging rights when it comes to soccer though, seeing as how no one in the U.S. in their right mind would play that boring, womanly game anyway.
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Billy
16 years ago
There was a recent article postedon NBA.com that Utah Jazz and Real Madrid will play in Spain this fall, so it looks like the differences between Euroleague and NBA have been resolved.

What I am amused by is all of the tough talk poted here in these comments. Americans: settle down. There’s a reason that USA didn’t win ’04 Olympics and ’06 Worlds: bad chemestry. These national teams never really layed a lot of games together but were expected to beat fundamentally sound South American and European teams. The USA took gold last year because they combines size, power, speed and finnesse with better training.

Both sides of this board,Americans and Euros: you are not basketball fans, you are big mouth blowhards. you are jingoistic pseudo-patroits. Every time an American team suits up with a another team outside US/Canada, it is nothing but good for the sport. Can’t wait for the FIBA World Clubs Championship to jump off.

P.S. GO LAKERS!
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