{"id":132194,"date":"2025-04-01T12:43:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132194"},"modified":"2025-04-25T22:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T02:43:06","slug":"paul-gasol-ceo-europe-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/01\/paul-gasol-ceo-europe-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Legend the Favorite For CEO Of NBA Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA is looking into the possibility of creating a second professional basketball league. They are currently exploring creating a new NBA Europe League<\/a>. They are hoping that it can capitalize on the growing European basketball market. The league is looking to stand alone as a separate entity from the FIBA EuroLeague and the NBA. Although the league is still just a possibility, a lot is already in the works in terms of its creation. <\/span>ESPN reported<\/span><\/a> that the league could start as soon as the 2026-27 season. It seems like the NBA is already starting to brainstorm who will be the face of this new league. <\/span>Eurohoops reported<\/span><\/a> that Pau Gasol<\/a> is currently the favorite to get the CEO job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Legend the Favorite For CEO Of NBA Europe<\/h2>\n

The NBA Europe League\u00a0is Coming Together<\/strong><\/h3>\n

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver<\/a> has <\/span>already started outlining<\/span><\/a> some of the plans for this new league in Europe. The league will likely have 16 teams, including some EuroLeague clubs that already exist, along with new franchises in some of Europe\u2019s biggest cities. \u00a0<\/span>The NBA believes that there is a significant gap between the amount of money being made on basketball in Europe is much less than the relative popularity of the sport there. They are hoping to use their expertise in foreign investment and media rights deals to close that gap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pau Gasol as CEO of the NBA Europe League<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To lead this task, it sounds like the NBA could be looking at former Laker and European basketball legend Pau Gasol for the job. A source told EuroHoops, \u201cGasol is a person with very strong links to both NBA and European basketball while being one of the most respected and popular figures in the sport on a global level \u2026He has already established himself as a leader, and the prospect of him taking over as CEO of the new league has universal approval among NBA governors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t hard to see why Gasol could be the perfect candidate for the CEO job. The NBA Europe League should be led by someone with Gasol\u2019s experience, not only has he had a Hall of Fame NBA career, but he started things off with success in the EuroLeague.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gasol\u2019s Resume Beyond Basketball<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Spanish big man had an incredible NBA career. He won two championships with the Lakers as well as six All-Star selections. Gasol has also had great success in international basketball for his home country, Spain. He\u2019s won EuroBasket titles, MVPs, a FIBA World Cup title, and has helped lead the country to two silver and one bronze medal at the Olympics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Gasol served as the Vice President of the NBPA during his time in the NBA. Since leaving the NBA, Gasol has stayed connected to basketball by being a member of the International Olympic Committee. <\/span>As one of the most respected international basketball stars of all time, it seems like hiring Gasol should be a no-brainer for the job. Stay tuned for more news on NBA Europe to see what will become of this new basketball league.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NBA is looking into the possibility of creating a second professional basketball league. They are currently exploring creating a new NBA Europe League. They are hoping that it can capitalize on the growing European basketball market. The league is looking to stand alone as a separate entity from the FIBA EuroLeague and the NBA. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":132212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,3],"tags":[615,1721,186],"class_list":["post-132194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-adam-silver","tag-euroleague","tag-pau-gasol"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136304,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132194\/revisions\/136304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}