The NBA announced the locations of the 12 permanent teams in NBA Europe, slated to start in the fall of 2027. Their choices lean heavily on cities with the most eyeballs, rather than the most basketball culture. Teams from seven European nations will make up the league, along with three winners from domestic leagues and one from the FIBA Champions League. It’s still not clear how the format would work or whether existing EuroLeague clubs would compete. It is clear that the NBA wants to involve huge cities. The cities included in the NBA’s announcement include: London and Manchester (United Kingdom) Paris and Lyon (France) Berlin and Munich (Germany) Barcelona and Madrid (Spain) Rome and Milan (Italy) Athens (Greece) Istanbul (Turkey) The common thread is population size. Outside of Russia, the seven largest metropolitan areas are represented with these teams, according to EuroStat, with Rome and Athens at ninth- and 10th-largest. Greater Manchester has over 3.3M residents, Munich has 2.6M and Lyon is the smaRead More