According to Luca Bianchin, journalist for La Gazzetta dello Sport, Gerry Cardinale, head of RedBird and majority shareholder of Milan, is in contact with Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, who is considering the possibility of creating a basketball league affiliated with the NBA in Europe.
Bill Simmons, an American journalist well-informed about the initiative involving teams currently in the EuroLeague (with only one year left on their contracts, meaning they would be free next year to sign with other organizing bodies for a different league outside the EuroLeague), such as Real Madrid and Barcelona, both linked to their respective football clubs, spoke about the possibility of the city of Milan also hosting the initiative during a podcast.
"So, the NBA is trying to lock down Real Madrid and FC Barcelona because they can get out of the EuroLeague next year. They have AC Milan, I think, pretty much on board. They're owned by Redbird [Capital Partners], and they don't have a real hoops team attached. The Milan team is Olimpia Milano, which has re-signed in the EuroLeague for the next 10 years. So, AC Milan, count them in, in some way."
Bill Simmons added:
"So, I think this [NBA Europe] goes London, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Berlin, and Greece as your definite seven that are in this. I think Adam (Silver) has those seven in his pocket and maybe doesn't know who the Greece team is yet. Maybe you could add Tony Parker's French team. That's ASVEL. He's the president of it. You could add the Istanbul team [Fenerbahce/Galatasaray]. You could add Manchester City. Maybe there's an Israel team down the road. Maybe there's a third Spain team. Who knows?"
