A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has a new pet project with grand ambitions — to reorganize European professional basketball with an NBA league at the top of the funnel. The NBA is full steam ahead with plans to create NBA Europe, a league with 10 to 12 permanent teams and four to six open spots, available to any FIBA-affiliated team in Europe on an annual basis. FIBA is the sport’s international governing body in Europe. According to league sources, the NBA has targeted the biggest European markets – London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Istanbul and Berlin — as potential homes for permanent teams. Silver would like the organization to be a combination of brand new teams and existing clubs. While some teams will have new investor backing, others will derive from soccer clubs backed by their current owners and investment funds. Real Madrid, which already has a basketball club, has had “direct, high level talks” to join NBA Europe, FIBA Europe President Jorge Garbajosa said last month . Other soccer behemoths that don’t have basketball teams could follow suit, such as Paris Saint-Germain. League executives have spent the past month meeting with dozens of potential investors in franchises in Europe, including wealthy individuals and private equity funds. Non-binding bids for those teams are due in late March. I’m told the NBA wants franchise fees of about $1 billion, though some investor groups have balked at that number and have pushed …
