The NBA will investigate the case of Kevin Durant/PSG

During his press conference, Adam Silver had to leave out many hot topics such as the indictments against Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier, NBA expansion and of course NBA Europe. He was specifically asked about the possibility of NBA players investing in franchises in Europe. As is potentially the case with Kevin Durant, minority shareholder of PSG.

“Your question is based on several hypotheses: that PSG has a team, and that, if that were the case, Kevin Durant – who is an investor in PSG – could retain his participation. These are all topics that we will have to investigate.” replied the league boss. “If we start from the existing framework in the United States, as you know, because of the ‘payment’ system, we do not allow players — by agreement with the players’ union — to also be investors in NBA franchises. We consider this a conflict of interest. On the other hand, they can invest in WNBA teams if they do not have an NBA franchise, and some players have already done so. »

So far, the NBA has not ruled on cases like Kevin Durant’s. “Once we make a decision regarding Europe and study who the appropriate owners would be, if there is a situation with a player who has a stake in the ownership group, we should define a concrete framework to manage these issues and work together with the players’ association.”

First contacts in January

Another journalist then asked if the NBA favors approaching the biggest European football clubs, such as PSG, but also Manchester City or Milan. Are they favored for getting a license?

“I wouldn’t say there is a favorite” Adam Silver replied. “As I said before, what we’re doing now with JP Morgan and Raine is we’re talking to everybody — and that includes football clubs, some that already have basketball teams, some that don’t, existing basketball organizations that might be interested in joining our league, as well as other organizations or individuals that don’t have any teams to expand into Europe, but we might be very interested in expanding into Europe. For anyone interested: come and meet our advisory banks, explain us why you are interested, how you see the opportunity, what resources you would be willing to invest to start a team and, probably, at the end of January or during the month of January, we will be able to start more detailed discussions with the most serious parties.