Kenny Smith Wants a European Expansion
Now!
When Steve Kerr left the online behemoth that is Yahoo! Sports this summer to take the GM job in Phoenix, Yahoo! execs needed a high-profile columnist to take his place. They managed to snag themselves a pretty big name, TNT’s very own Kenny Smith.
Smith, a former SLAM contributor, has come out swinging. In his latest piece, he proposes a pretty radical idea: The Euro Division. It’s a brave new world:
Do I think it’s possible? Yes. There are a lot of variables, but if planned correctly, European expansion could and should happen.
The solution is simple: add approximately six new franchises at once.
They would make up the new Euro Division, with teams based in Italy, Spain, France, England and Greece. Clubs from North America would have to spend two weeks of the regular season in Europe before the All-Star game and again after the All-Star game. To further accommodate this expansion across the Atlantic Ocean, the NBA would have to shorten the schedule to 70 games. (I feel it’s worth shortening the season to add the global market to the league!)
Obviously, this has absolutely no chance of happening — I can’t imagine that NBA team owners would be too pleased with Smith’s idea to shave twelve games off the regular season schedule; the revenue that those games would have brought in isn’t going to grow on trees, Kenny.
The logistics of this thing are, of course, nightmarish, but David Stern and company have made it clear that the League is a big fan of globalization. Smith’s idea might not necessarily pan out, but we’ve arrived at a point where you have to at least take it seriously.
72 Responses to “Kenny Smith Wants a European Expansion”
Oct.16 at 2:01 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Love Kenny Smith, feel sorry for whoever’s editing his copy.
Oct.16 at 2:03 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Also, the “N” in NBA still stands for “National,” right? Shouldn’t D. Stern and Co. sort out the problems the League has HERE before sending it out into the world? (I won’t even get into all the other logistical questions, like how US newspapers would feel about sending beatwriters to Europe, and games being televised live in the middle of the afternoon here.)
Oct.16 at 2:08 pm
underdog says:
England? Come on Kenny, watch some Euro League before talking bull**it. Oh, I see, business is business.
Oct.16 at 2:09 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
im sure the players really want this to happen so that they can go on those trans-atlantic flights, then immediately play a game. they will probably wait a day, but those flights would be killer on the body.
Oct.16 at 2:10 pm
underdog says:
“Also, the “N” in NBA still stands for “National,” right?” - What about Toronto?
Oct.16 at 2:12 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Canada is America Lite, everybody knows that.
Oct.16 at 2:14 pm
Candice says:
Why not just develop a league completely separate from the NBA (or merge with the Euroleague) and call it NBA Europe? Or why not just leave well enough alone?
Oct.16 at 2:16 pm
RV says:
I don’t think Kenny mentioned this, but would the Euro teams only include Euro players, or would they just be another NBA team? I think either way it presents a problem. If you mix it with the current NBA, a lot of players will be opposed to trades and they aren’t likely to want to play for them. If you don’t mix them, then there’s more problems. It’ll become a U.S. vs the world league, if they prosper, then the U.S. teams will be seen as “selfish” and lacking fundamentals, teams will complain Euro teams would be able to keep their players, develop a core, and improve year after year
Oct.16 at 2:18 pm
underdog says:
What about the different FIBA / NBA rules Kenny?
Oct.16 at 2:21 pm
ALX8725 says:
it sometimes rubs me the wrong way when NBA champions declare themselves “World Champions”,especially when they haven’t really competed against other international club teams for the ring…. even though the NBA is arguably the best basketball league in the world in terms of athletic ability,talent, coaching, and skill….
Oct.16 at 2:24 pm
floe says:
why not china ?
Oct.16 at 2:28 pm
Adrian says:
Yeah, while we’re at it why not add some teams in Australia too?
Oct.16 at 2:29 pm
Adrian says:
ALX, at least they don’t call the NBA Finals the World Series, like baseball. Losers.
Oct.16 at 2:31 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
If they’re going to be part of the NBA, they need to be part of EVERYTHING, right? Playoffs, the draft, free agency. How does the salary cap work when a team uses the Euro? How do you tell a kid fresh out of college that he just got drafted by Berlin? How do you have a playoff series between L.A. and Paris? Neutral sites? Or do you stretch it out over a month? I don;t even know where to start on how horrible an idea this is.
Oct.16 at 2:38 pm
Donn says:
Horrible idea…there are too many teams as it is. More teams will just water down an already watered down product. If anything, the NBA should take some teams out…
Oct.16 at 2:39 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Although I like the idea of a shorter season. How about implementing that first, then we can talk about expanding. (Or not.)
Oct.16 at 2:39 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
russ is right. alx, the spurs ARE the world champs. i would take them over any team in the world
Oct.16 at 2:45 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Imagine if Steve Francis had gotten drafted by ATHENS.
Oct.16 at 2:46 pm
Doug Brown says:
being the best team in the world does not make you the world champions
Oct.16 at 2:46 pm
Gerard Himself says:
I’m “European”, but I truly hope the NBA will stay in the US. That is all, carry on. (no, I can’t explain why)
Oct.16 at 2:47 pm
Adrian says:
I think the main issue is distance. Personally I’d rather be drafted by a team in Berlin than Utah. As for salary cap, what difference did it make in Toronto? The main problem was the personal tax rate, rather than the salary cap. For distance, it’s not too much longer from the East Coast to Europe than it is from the East to the West Coast. But from the West Coast to Europe…that’d be a killer.
Oct.16 at 2:49 pm
Adrian says:
What Russ, you think Francis could’ve pouted and whined even MORE than he did when getting drafted by Vancouver?
Oct.16 at 2:52 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I’ll start thinking it’s a decent idea when the EPL and La Liga talk about expanding to America. Oh what, that would never happen? EXACTLY.
Oct.16 at 2:53 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Adrian: Never underestimate Stevie Franchise’s pouting ability.
Oct.16 at 2:55 pm
Donn says:
All this talk about expansion in Europe…how about the NBA in Asia? I know that crazy dictator guy in South Korea will be down with that.
Oct.16 at 2:56 pm
Lew B. Money says:
I still hate k. smith for what he did to andre iguodala
Oct.16 at 2:58 pm
Adrian says:
Donn…by South Korea you mean North Korea don’t you?
Oct.16 at 3:00 pm
Adrian says:
Russ: Are you implying it could equal or perhaps even surpass his lack of defence?
Oct.16 at 3:02 pm
Struan Smith says:
The currency does matter. The salary cap will be in US dollars. Until recently Canada’s dollar has been 60-70 cents/ 1 US dollar. That means they are spending a ton relatively in Canada. This would probably held the European teams though.
Oct.16 at 3:03 pm
Donn says:
Adrian…yah..i guess.
Oct.16 at 3:04 pm
Steve O says:
I don’t think too many NBA’ers would sign up to play for the Moscow Red Squares’.
Oct.16 at 3:04 pm
Adrian says:
Struan: Matters for who? It won’t matter for the players, as they get salaries in US$. And seeing as it’s about making the owners more money, I don’t think they could be complaining too much. And yes, like you say, it’d help the Euro teams anyhow, therefore it’s not really much of an argument against the idea.
Oct.16 at 3:07 pm
Lz - Cphfinest3 says:
A better idea, would be to create a NBA-Europe, then the American players that wanted to go to Europe could go, and nobody would be forced to move halfway around the world. The NBA-Europe would then consist of best european talent and some americans, plenty of talent in Europe for a good level to develop within some years. The NBA-Champs could then play against the NBA-Euro champs, and their would be an official World Champ. + europe should develop the salary cap, drafting system and the NBA-rules. I think Europe would be able to attract some American talent, after all wouldn’t you rather live in Paris or Rome than Utah or Cleveland?
Oct.16 at 3:09 pm
Struan Smith says:
Adrian: I was not saying it was an argument against the idea. Someone up higher just said it made no difference. I meant to say it matters for the owners. Traditionally in the NHL, NBA, and MLB it is harder for Canadian teams to pay players top US dollar because 10 million US was around 15 million Can until recently, now they are more on equal footing. Sorry for the murkiness.
Oct.16 at 3:14 pm
Adrian says:
Ahh ok Struan, I was looking at it more from a player’s point of view. You’re right, it does make a difference to the owners, although as you’ve suggested it would actually be to their advantage (owners of teams in Europe) due to the strong rate of exchange. A bigger issue would be whether the cities/fans would support paying the necessary ticket prices and other assorted cr*p required to make them profitable.
Oct.16 at 3:16 pm
jbn74sb says:
To me, this is actually a great “idea”. But the practical reality of it (such as the problems posed by Russ above) would be nearly impossible to successfully execute.
Kind of like polygamy in that sense. I mean, having 3 or 10 women sounds great in theory, until they are all b-tching at you at the same time. Hopefully this just stays in the idea stage.
Oct.16 at 3:17 pm
John E. Sanford says:
I am a Kenny Smith fan, but this would be an awful idea, the NBA has a lot to clean up now, this would only add to the list of headaches.
Oct.16 at 3:33 pm
15AM says:
yi would love to play in london - just think about the asian population and all those pretty girls … aside from that, there are already tons of u.s. players playing for clubs in europe, some of them much worse than the college teams they played for (ask khalid el-amin, for example). i guess they would be much happier to play for nba money and with nba names than where they play today. in the end, euroleague would not let their top teams walk away to the nba or nba europe or whatever. p.s.: look what happened to nfl europe …
Oct.16 at 3:36 pm
albie1kenobi says:
just a simple question: who does the euro division champ play in the playoffs?
Oct.16 at 3:39 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
zzzzzzz
Oct.16 at 3:51 pm
albie1kenobi says:
after reading the article, i just have to say that it was pretty badly written. actually a bit surprising since he’s always the one that makes the most sense on TNT (and i love his analysis), though i suppose that could just be because his co-anchors are sir charles and magic.
i don’t understand the two weeks before & after all-star break in europe idea at all, i thought the article would have more detail on how that works but there’s no explanation. am i to assume that teams will have more time to adjust to the euro time zone THEN play in all 6 cities? do they send a division over one at a time? what about the euro teams? do they play their away games in the states? do they get that 2 weeks? or 2 months?
wow i’m confusing myself just by posing this question. kenny smith, wtf are you smoking?
Oct.16 at 3:58 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I just read the column and I wish I hadn’t.
Oct.16 at 3:59 pm
Todd D. says:
Ha Ha Ha — Russ Bengtson with the quote of the month — “Canada is America Lite…” hilarious.
Oct.16 at 4:10 pm
tsmith7791 says:
No homo at the title
Oct.16 at 4:34 pm
albie1kenobi says:
yeah Russ, i just read the west and east preview, and i’m wondering why i did that. maybe just to read how horrible something can be written?
Oct.16 at 4:50 pm
Gerard Himself says:
Lew B.: refresh my memory please. Can’t remember….
Oct.16 at 6:03 pm
what says:
Take the best 32 teams in Europe, form a league between them to create NBA Europe, let them play 82 games between them over there parallel to the regular NBA, and then at the end of the regular season and playoffs the NBA champs and NBA Europe champs play each other in a 7 game series to determine the true world champs. It will be like the NL and AL in baseball, before interleague play.
Oct.16 at 6:07 pm
RV says:
Russ, imagine if Spanoulis was drafted by Houston…oh wait..
Oct.16 at 6:09 pm
RV says:
albie, i think the 2 week thing means all the teams would travel there and play the Euro teams over 2 weeks to keep the trips and jetlag to a minimum
Oct.16 at 6:11 pm
RV says:
Lz, you can’t make exceptions for some and not all of the players, if they don’t force guys to move overseas, good luck forcing the others to move to another state/city
Oct.16 at 6:19 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
RV: I believe albie’s question was more about how the Euro teams would play their road games in the US of A (things would have to go both ways, yes?) and how the Euro division champ would fit into the playoff picture.
Oct.16 at 6:42 pm
RV says:
yeah i’m assuming Kenny meant two weeks they travel to europe and the other 2 weeks the euro teams come here…i’d read it again to make sure, but i’m afraid I’d get more confused
Oct.16 at 8:03 pm
albie1kenobi says:
RV, at least we are all confused. someone odd to ask him what he means by that, maybe on TNT.
as for the euro division in the playoff, i’m just not seeing how that’d work. are they to play in the eastern conference playoff or west? and it makes no sense for the euro champ to play a so called “world finals” when the team didn’t go through the same playoff format as the NBA. for that matter, how do you determine the euro champ? the division leader? have the 6 teams play against each other to determine the euro champ? back to the 2 weeks thing, so it kinda makes sense for the US teams to do that, but what about the european teams? they can’t possibly play all their away games in 2 weeks (new TNT slogan: 30 games in 14 days!) and if you expand that, you gonna have a month long road trip? last i heard, long road trips for NBA teams are killers, i can’t phantom anyone wanting to be touring all over the country like that year after year. so how are they gonna play their away games in USA? the question marks can go on and on…
Oct.16 at 8:10 pm
albie1kenobi says:
NBA having an europe division is kinda like having a third arm: a cool idea but no practically way for it to work. in fact it’ll NEVER work (unless of course we developed teleporting, then the logistic stuff is possible to sort out).
Oct.16 at 9:51 pm
RV says:
might as well just have the NBA champ play the best of the rest in a 5 game series during the summer, in hawaii, fiba rules
Oct.16 at 10:20 pm
bootlace says:
This NBA Europe thing you guys are suggesting sounds awfully like FIBA EuroLeague. I havent personally read Kennys article but I think the NBA can and should expand. THere is way too much interest and it seems like the European teams have finally gotten close to NBA levels. Logistically, an NBA players’ life will become tougher but cmon you get paid millions to play a sport!!! Dont give me this crap about not wanting to take private jets every couple of days! The regular season would need a drastic change, one possible example is: http://backcourtink.blogspot.com/2007/08/solution-for-exciting-nba-regular.html
Oct.16 at 11:13 pm
Ben Osborne says:
Kenny Smith is no Steve Kerr.
Oct.17 at 12:37 am
chris prov says:
damn, I loved when Kenny use to write the backpage for SLAM, but smh @ this.
@ RV: I was thinking the same thing, doesn’t europe already crown a euro champ? if you want to decide a real world champ just have the NBA champ play theirs. Im sure the players won’t love the idea of another series but if its short and the money is right I think people could agree to it.
Oct.17 at 1:00 am
FerrariGTO says:
The Jet usually has good insights but not this time. Maybe Barkley wrote this article and posted it pretending to be kenny smith. NBA teams in europe?! The Chuckster sure is funny sometimes isn’t he.
Oct.17 at 1:43 am
h-town nick says:
Foolproof plan for improving Kenny Smith’s writing: find some un-ghostwriter-ized chapters of one of chuck’s books, post side by side. Voila.
Oct.17 at 1:44 am
RV says:
@chris: I guess they’d have to have a tournament of their own, they have different champs/tournaments, eurobasket, then there’s the asian tourney, and there’s also leagues in each country…too confusing
Oct.17 at 1:45 am
h-town nick says:
Or just pipe in the sweet, soothing lullabies of Ernie Johnson as background music.
Oct.17 at 5:15 am
Harlem_World says:
Ben said it best: You never miss a decent writer until they’re gone. Okay, he didn’t exactly say that - but damn, Steve Kerr is starting to look legendary in comparison. This Euro expansion can’t and won’t happen in the ways being discussed (and I use that term loosely!) by Kenny Smith. However, there is definitely scope for expansion of the NBDL in Europe. The players would be borderline league material (just as they are now), most likely used to or willing to travel over to Europe and it would allow Sternbot to expand the NBA brand more deeply into Europe. Once established, there all sorts of things he could do with increasing its profile (some inclusion in All-Star Weekend in the States) guaranteed contracts for league MVPs etc, etc. If the NBA is going to expand in the regular season - I’ll put money on it being through the D League.
Oct.17 at 5:36 am
Teemu says:
How about Euroleague champion against NBA champion after the NBA finals?
Oct.17 at 8:27 am
Conor M says:
I’m from England so its sounds all good
Oct.17 at 8:28 am
RedRum says:
I think the best idea is a final 4 (and I have read that this is what Stern likes too). Euroleague Finalists and NBA finalists. after the end of the season, they play in a cross system (NBA champ-Euro 2nd and NBA 2nd - Euro Champ). I would like that, and I think it would be highly competitive.
Oct.17 at 10:21 am
Gilbert0 says:
my god that column was horrendous on so many levels. my favourite part: there is a simple solution: add 6 more franchises. Of course!!
Oct.17 at 11:59 am
RV says:
@redrum, it would suck if the nba 2nd won the “world championship”
Oct.17 at 6:32 pm
BK says:
Lets think about this for a second. If this happened very few NBA players would want to be on or traded to any team overseas. All of the teams overseas would be terrible and this whole thing would be a mess.
Oct.18 at 6:01 am
RedRum says:
@RV, good point… they could be named Intercontinental Champion though. still, I think it would be exciting
Oct.18 at 10:56 am
Christian says:
There’s really no need to start a euroleauge, too many players and too much money is at stake. Since you already have top euro clubs, what should be done is create a system like in champions league soccer over in europe.
Get the top (x) teams in the nba, and the top (x) teams in europe and have them play a tourney, winner is then hailed as the “world club champion”. NBA Euro Live has basically set this up in preseason.
Oct.19 at 7:55 pm
real says:
bring back scoop jackson please cos nowadays u slam writers are just boring, you always hate on players and ex-players that are good to real fans of the game and then kiss the butt of the high profile names like the kobes and the nowitskis. why sell out? wheres my luol deng, ray allen, baron davis front page articles??? wheres my feature on the 91-93 bulls in the oldskool section of the mag??? wheres jordan??? why does everyone at slam hate penny hardaway??? and why hate on kenny smiths idea, expanding the nba to a global market would bring teams more revenue even if they played less games, think about it, economically… needed to get that off my chest.