Overview

• Adam Silver met with Real Madrid leaders in Paris on Thursday to discuss the club joining the NBA's planned European league.
• The NBA has held parallel discussions with Alba Berlin and is targeting new franchises in London and Paris.
• Silver's blueprint calls for a 16-team circuit mixing EuroLeague defectors with fresh franchises under an ownership model that grants investors equity stakes and could take two to three years to launch.
• An NBA executive told Sports Business Journal that league officials accelerated their Europe push citing fears that LeBron James and Maverick Carter could secure $200 million in Saudi funding to launch a rival league.
• League insiders view these negotiations as crucial to cement the NBA's presence in Europe and deter any Saudi-backed competitor.