Bertomeu Says Olympiacos Should Not Pay to Play in NBA Europe

By Taki Panos

Some interviews make headlines, and some land like a technical foul in front of a sold-out crowd. Jordi Bertomeu's latest belongs in the second group. The man who ran Euroleague Basketball from 2000 to 2022 told the RAC1 radio program Tu diràs that the NBA's plan for Europe represents "a very significant step backwards," as Eurohoops reported. He also named Olympiacos twice, arguing that it makes no sense for clubs like the Reds to pay to play in a competition they helped build.

For anyone who does not follow the business side of basketball, here is the short version. The NBA, working with FIBA, wants to launch its own European league, and it offered the EuroLeague a deal to collaborate. The 13 EuroLeague shareholder clubs, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos among them, met in Cernobbio, Italy, on October 6 and turned it down, Front Office Sports reported. Few clubs have shaped European basketball like the Olympiacos sports club and its rivals from Athens, so any shake-up at the top of the game lands hard in Greece.

Bertomeu began by contrasting today's talks with his own dealings with the Americans. "The conversations I had with the NBA, because we had good relations and had done many things together, were about cooperation," he said, per Eurohoops. "In the terms in which it has been presented, it is worrying." He added that it was hard to see anything positive coming out of it for European basketball, a line Gazzetta carried in full for Greek readers on Saturday night. Strong words from a careful talker.

His central argument is about who holds the keys. The EuroLeague was created so the clubs could run their own competition after breaking away from FIBA, and Bertomeu said that model has held for 26 years. "There have been successes and mistakes, including ours, those of us running it, but the clubs have been the owners and the ones deciding how their competition operates," he said, according to Eurohoops. The NBA plan, in his view, would undo that. "Now it is called the NBA; before, it was called FIBA," he said, a remark Marca also highlighted.

Next came the part that will be read twice in Piraeus. "What concerns me is if it happens at the expense of Olympiacos, the Belgrade teams, Zalgiris, Maccabi, clubs that have built European basketball," Bertomeu said, per Eurohoops. He was careful to add that taking the competition to new markets is not a bad idea in itself, pointing out that London was part of the EuroLeague in its early years. It is not every day that Olympiacos tops a list like that, and its fans will gladly take the compliment.

Then came the money. "For Barca, Olympiacos or Madrid to have to pay to play in something they themselves have built does not seem logical or reasonable to me," Bertomeu said, according to Eurohoops. "And what I find absolutely unacceptable is that, for allowing this to happen, they would receive an amount that is one-tenth of what they would subsequently have to pay." Ta Nea and Newsbeast both built their Greek reports around that line. Ask Barcelona, beaten by Olympiacos in overtime on their own floor on Friday night, whether these clubs belong at the top.

Bertomeu also drew a sharp line between two sporting cultures. "Here, we play sport and try to do business to sustain that sport. There, it is a business that uses sport as an instrument to do business," he said, per Eurohoops. He did not say which model was better, but he said European clubs and fans are used to "competitive tension, not business tension." Anyone who has sat through a Greek derby, with the noise rattling the roof long before tip-off, knows exactly what he means.

He was just as doubtful about the calendar. Bertomeu recalled that he helped get the EuroLeague off the ground in about three months back in 2000, but he said today's competition is far more complex. "The level of sophistication EuroLeague has today, which it did not have in 2000, probably makes a 2027 start unfeasible," he said, according to Eurohoops. He added that he believes the 2027 date "is also being used to maintain pressure on investors." Marca reported the same comments from the RAC1 interview.

The rejection earlier this month was not a close call. A supermajority of owners voted against the NBA proposal, and Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Olympiacos were among the clubs that said no, Front Office Sports reported, citing two sources. The same report said the offer valued the EuroLeague at far less than the $3 billion the league is seeking, and that it asked the league to pause its expansion plans. The NBA has said it will press ahead in Europe with or without a deal, with a launch planned as soon as next year, per Front Office Sports.

Both Greek clubs were represented in Cernobbio, with one notable absence. Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos were there for Olympiacos, in.gr reported, while Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos travelled to Italy but chose not to attend the Tuesday session, according to Ole, leaving club officials to represent the Greens. At the same meeting, the owners agreed to turn their 10-year licenses into franchises, the league's statement said, and to keep working on an expansion that in.gr noted would take the competition from 20 to 24 teams.

My take: Bertomeu is not a neutral voice here, and that is worth remembering. He built the EuroLeague, ran it for more than two decades and left in 2022, so he has history with every side of this fight. Still, his core point is hard to argue with. Olympiacos and Panathinaikos have poured decades and fortunes into turning European basketball into something the NBA now wants a piece of. If there is a partnership to be made, it should start with respect for what clubs like these created, not with an invoice. Cooperation, yes. A bill at the door, no.

The next few weeks should tell us a lot. The EuroLeague board is due to present a final recommendation on franchises and expansion "in the upcoming weeks," per the league's statement, and Newsbeast reported that fresh talks between the NBA and the EuroLeague are expected in that same window. For a reminder of why these clubs matter so much, revisit our top Greek EuroLeague moments. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for every turn in this story. Pay to play? Not in Piraeus.

Sources: Eurohoops, Marca, Gazzetta, Ta Nea, Newsbeast, Front Office Sports, in.gr, Ole.

Image: Olympiacos F.C. crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).