NBA’s plans for Europe now are dubious
Enes Kanter’s passport was revoked by his native land, and Turkey showed that it meant business by issuing a warrant for his arrest, declaring him part of a terrorist group. And then Kanter’s father was arrested by Turkey.
In that same fortnight, Islamic extremists twice struck in England, with a suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester, then a killing rampage Sunday on and just off the London Bridge.
So, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, about that expansion into Europe?
Seems like a quaint idea now, don’t you think, the idea that American professional sports need to migrate across the Atlantic? The idea that the world is growing closer, so that our cultures and our sports can meld into a common brotherhood, has been blown to the wind.
Just five months ago, Silver was in the United Kingdom for an NBA regular-season game matching the Pacers and the Nuggets. He extolled the virtues of the Global Games series and said the league hopes to play more games in more countries. Even talked how the expanded calendar, which added a week to the schedule, will help with European games.
One Denver-Indiana game in London now seems like a horrible idea. But a European-based franchise? Or four, as some have suggested?
Such expansion always was problematic. Silver himself talked about the issues, mostly from a rest standpoint. Traveling from Portland to Memphis wears on teams. Traveling from Phoenix to Great Britain is a different bird.
But travel is a minor irritant today in European expansion. As of today, the Thunder legitimately is not sure it can get Kanter into Toronto for a game against the Raptors. No way should the league be fine with multiplying the number of games that could be affected by international politics.
The NBA no longer is a league of 95 percent Americans and a few Europeans and South Americans. The NBA now is a worldwide league, which is why overseas expansion is so enticing but also why now it would not work. The NBA sported 113 international players when this season opened; that’s a full 25 percent of the rosters.
The Thunder alone had players from New Zealand (Steven Adams), Turkey (Kanter and Ersan Ilyasova), Spain (Alex Abrines), Lithuania (Domantas Sabonis) and France (Joffrey Lauvergne). Opportunity abounds for governments to make a splash by messing with a famous athlete. Turkey with Kanter is Exhibit A.
But player availability is not the biggest concern among expansion to Europe. Security is. Safety for all major sporting events has reached critical mass. Security has been upgraded at all arenas, but does the NBA really want to trust the security in foreign nations, even at a trusted ally like the British?
Some NBA players would be squeamish about playing across the Atlantic, and who can blame them? The Global Games are a major problem in the current climate.
As recently as last October, the Thunder played exhibition games in Spain. Now, that seems like a dubious idea.
As recently as October 2013, the Thunder played exhibition games in Turkey. Now, that seems like an absurd idea.
So is NBA expansion to Europe.