NBA Europe 2027 and the Silent Race: Why Turkish Basketball's Number Two Spot Is Shaking

In a league office in Athens, a television deal worth 21 million euros over three seasons has just been signed. Each of the 14 clubs in the Greek Basketball League will receive at least 700,000 euros per season, paid directly by the league. Seven hundred thousand euros. Enough to pay a mid-tier European star for a year, or to keep a small club alive through winter. But what kept me sitting for a long time in front of that news was not the figure, but the way it is distributed. This sum is larger than the average payout that the EuroCup and the BCL bring to their participants. In this profession, I have learned that money does not speak on its own. But the way it is divided does.

European basketball stands before a door opening in 2027. NBA Europe — a league backed by the NBA — will launch, and FIBA will publish its own ranking of European domestic leagues. That ranking is not merely honorary. It will determine which teams qualify for the end-of-season tournament competing for two spots in NBA Europe. From now until 2027, every national league competes no longer with inspiration, but with balance sheets, governance credibility, and market size.

My experience covering games across many arenas has taught me that leagues do not collapse because they lose on the court. They collapse because they run out of money, lose good administrators, or lose the trust of the fans. The map of European basketball is being redrawn along exactly those three axes. The biggest story this summer is not a transfer. It is the Monaco shock: the reigning French champion was pushed down to the third division due to financial difficulties. A champion in free fall, and that fall dragged the entire French basketball scene down two places compared with two years ago.

In France, they still have Victor Wembanyama — the greatest gift to French basketball in decades. But for most fans, basketball still means the NBA. That raw talent is pulled across the Atlantic too early, leaving a nationally fragile league financially. And in the middle of that, Tony Parker begins his head coaching career, drawing the attention of the entire basketball world. But attention does not pay the bills.

Two years ago, the ranking looked very different. Now it reads like an inventory of assets: Spain on top with advantages at every level over the rest; Turkey holding second; Greece pressing right behind; Italy returning after years of ups and downs; and France in free fall. The names lower down — Germany, Lithuania, Israel — have not changed much, and that itself is a story. What is most notable is that league organizers have begun to learn how to play the governance game. Italy placed Maurizio Gherardini — a long-time sports executive — in the league president's chair. The Adriatic League appointed Ibrahim Erkan, who is expected to leave the EuroLeague to take the newly created Sporting Director position. These are moves by league organizers, not clubs. And they tell a story: European basketball is shifting from part-time leaders to experienced professional executives.

I once witnessed a similar moment at another arena. A coach loosened the screws of fear one by one, and no one heard the sound. At the league level, appointing a sporting director is the same: it happens in silence, yet changes an entire system. The most frightening innovation does not begin with an explosion; it begins with a deliberate silence.

Let us look at what is actually happening, not at what is being praised.

Spain still leads, and its dominance comes not from on-court talent but from operational capability: advantages at every level make its number one spot safe in the short term. Yet even it admits it needs to generate much more revenue for its clubs — a wealth that remains more theoretical than real.

Turkey, with three EuroLeague teams and a series of compelling finals, holds second place through competitive strength. But the economy is struggling, and the BSL management needs to be more proactive in generating revenue. That second place is not secure if the cash flow does not improve next season. I have followed this kind of rise and fall long enough to know that a ranking held by aura fades easily.

Greece is the real story. It stands third but is already nearly level with the BSL, and it is rising at every level: a new TV deal, the best-rated management, and Olympiakos — the EuroLeague champion — as a springboard. AEK received an offer from NBA Europe, while Aris and PAOK harbor EuroLeague ambitions. A league no longer confined to a duel between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos.

Here is where I want to press the point: the Greek model — a centralized league guaranteeing a minimum payout to each club — may be a template for mid-tier leagues seeking stability. The 700,000 euro per club figure, small by NBA standards, provides predictable revenue. And predictability is precisely what allows long-term planning — an advantage leagues dependent on volatile continental prize money do not have.

Italy returns in a different way. Two projects bringing clubs to Rome, tied to the names Luka Doncic and Francesco Totti, represent a model of league development built on star power and market size. I have never seen a European basketball league attempt this at such scale. If it succeeds, it could be replicated by leagues wanting to break into the top tier without traditional basketball infrastructure.

Adriatic is the most complex case. The league covering the former Yugoslav countries has just expanded to include Dubai BC — last season's champion — along with representatives from Romania, Slovakia, and Austria. Three EuroLeague teams, but young talent is lost very early for financial reasons, and that lowers the league's value. The expansion may be increasing market footprint without solving the complex financial structure beneath.

Germany is stable but stagnant, with a mostly domestic audience. The national team is talented, but that does not automatically translate into league strength. Lithuania is almost a one-team league with Zalgiris. Israel is affected by the geopolitical situation. And the United Kingdom — the largest media market, where the SBL operates following FIBA intervention in the national federation — remains far from serious consideration for the Top 10.

An old stadium is like a thick manuscript; each season is a new line of annotation. At the league level, each TV deal is another sentence written, and each fall like Monaco is a line struck out.

If everything proceeds as it currently is, Italy is the name most likely to rise over the next two to three seasons. Greece may overtake Turkey's second place. And NBA Europe 2027 is designed to favor leagues that are already strong — a rich-get-richer effect in European basketball, where three or four leading leagues capture most of the new money, while the rest fall further behind.

For that reason, the Adriatic League may seek to merge or partner with smaller leagues to improve its position on the FIBA ranking. That is a preventive move, not a growth strategy. And preventive moves are usually made in silence.

I have spent most of my career writing about moments on the court — a glance as a player walks out of the tunnel, a blink as he leaves the floor. But at 52, I understand that no road is ever straight; it bends according to the patience of those who remain. European basketball is not changing because of a shot. It is changing because of a contract, a director's chair, an intervened federation. That revolution is not broadcast live.

So when someone asks me which team wins, I often ask back: does that league pay its people enough? Because in European basketball today, a win on the court is sometimes just a footnote to a financial story written in advance. And the biggest story of this season is being written in Athens, in Rome, in Istanbul — not on the scoreboard.