Play Thompson would like to see NBA teams in Europe and other countries outside of North America – Photo Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Toronto (heinnews) – NBA champion and world champion Klay Thompson spoke out in favor of having NBA teams travel to Europe and other places to face foreign-based NBA clubs around the world.
“I always envisioned in 20-30 years it might be a real world league with a few teams in Europe, maybe all the way to China, you never know,” Thompson said at the NBA All Star festivities in Toronto.
“That would be great.”
Thompson knows about playing outside the United States as he helped the United States to the titles at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship and the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Talk about the NBA expanding abroad and adding teams in Europe has been around for years. But NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in January that the NBA is not ready to head abroad just yet.
“We are not looking at franchises in Europe,” said Silver in London last month at the NBA game between Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says in London “we are not looking at franchises in Europe.” pic.twitter.com/CN6B87lHUq
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) January 14, 2016
Last October Silver called the possibility of a European expansion team “premature”.
Regardless of official partylines, Thompson liked the idea of NBA teams outside of North America.
“I think the NBA is growing so much globally, especially with the Global Games and travelling the world and seeing how many fans there are it would be really cool to one day have a team in London or Spain or Germany.”
He continued: “You make your European leg trip and same thing with them coming to the States. That’s definitely a possibility in the future but I don’t think it’s near.”
One of the biggest issues many people note regarding NBA teams in Europe is travel. But Thompson said he didn’t think it would be that big of a problem.
“You just have to work on the schedule and go over for a few weeks and vice versa with the teams over there, but I definitely think it would be a possibility.”