I think it'd be feasible to stage a few exhibition/regular season openers in Europe, because hey...it's money. But having an actual expansion is ridiculous...the NBA season would have to last year-round because teams need a lot of rest both before and after 15-20 hour flights and timezone changes. I think Seattle and LAC had like 10 days off before their first regular season games in the US?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ANiMuS:</div><div class="quote_post">I think it'd be feasible to stage a few exhibition/regular season openers in Europe, because hey...it's money. But having an actual expansion is ridiculous...the NBA season would have to last year-round because teams need a lot of rest both before and after 15-20 hour flights and timezone changes. I think Seattle and LAC had like 10 days off before their first regular season games in the US?</div> Yeah, the Clippers and Seattle did have a huge break after those games, because they didnt want them to have the disadvantage of getting used to time zones. Actually after your comment about the 15-20hour flight I was thinking... not only are teams going to have trouble traveling and getting used to the time zones, what about the people actually PLAYING in Europe? The team that went to Europe would be constantly on the road and changing time zones, that would be a killer for anyone. Even if they did try this(though its very stupid in my opinion) I don't think it would last two seasons. After one season of trying it I bet they'd bring that team back to the U.S. area.
Expansions in Europe is ridiculous. Who is going to want to play for a Euro team aside from Euro players? Then as said theres the travel issue. Also the league being dilluted...not to mention how many more games a season teams would have to play. A minor league is a great idea. Or have some kinda of 5 team two-week tour. Have a handful of teams do a 2 week tour of Europe playing regular season games. Then the NBA can sell their League Pass TV deal overseas.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ANiMuS:</div><div class="quote_post">I think it'd be feasible to stage a few exhibition/regular season openers in Europe, because hey...it's money. But having an actual expansion is ridiculous...the NBA season would have to last year-round because teams need a lot of rest both before and after 15-20 hour flights and timezone changes. I think Seattle and LAC had like 10 days off before their first regular season games in the US?</div> just to clarify one thing, there are 6 and 8-hour flights to europe. it's one of the reasons why the concorde doesn't fly anymore. a chartered jet like nba teams use could be in london in about the same time the heat takes to fly to seattle or portland.
Until recently, ML baseball had two leagues and no interleague play. If the economics make sense for the NBA to expand out to other countries, why not work it the same way? Teams from Europe play each other all regular season, the same for teams in the Americas etc. The teams from each continent won't play each other until playoff time to minimize the traveling. Change the playoff format a bit so there's only one long trip per playoff series. That would increase home court advantage and would even make the regular season more competetive.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting cubanballer:</div><div class="quote_post">just to clarify one thing, there are 6 and 8-hour flights to europe. it's one of the reasons why the concorde doesn't fly anymore. a chartered jet like nba teams use could be in london in about the same time the heat takes to fly to seattle or portland.</div> That assumes you're flying from New York to Paris (or a similar route). What if it was the Warriors trying to get to Rome?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting ANiMuS:</div><div class="quote_post">That assumes you're flying from New York to Paris (or a similar route). What if it was the Warriors trying to get to Rome?</div> they could adjust the schedules so that there are europe legs... fly to paris or london, then rome, then berlin or whatever, then back to the east coast. the same thing they do when east teams go on a west stint, they don't just crisscross the country every other day. it will be harder but not extremely harder.
