EuroLeague CEO criticizes NBA's ambitious European plan as a 'bit of a broken record'

LONDON (AP) — European basketball often is a hot mess of passionate fandom, heated rivalries and financial problems.

Holding some powerful fiefdoms together is the EuroLeague. It’s not thrilled about the NBA’s plans to create a new competition on the continent.

It’s not concerned, either.

"We've only heard the plan or the fireworks of how amazing it will be, how much potential there is,” EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas said of the NBA’s proposed league. “But having a theory is one — and making it work is two.”

“We’ve been here for 26 years. We know how Europe functions."

With clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, the EuroLeague is considered the best men's professional competition outside the NBA. The 20-team league is comprised of 13 “shareholder” clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation.

The NBA, in partnership with FIBA, is eying a 16-team model with 12 permanent members — with a target start of October 2027. It has identified Athens, Istanbul, Paris, Lyon, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Manchester as potential host cities.

Attention is currently on three EuroLeague shareholder clubs that haven’t renewed their 10-year licenses — Real Madrid, Fenerbahce in Istanbul and the Tony Parker -owned ASVEL near Lyon. Parker has signaled his support for the NBA.

Recent holdout Barcelona has indicated it will extend for another 10 years beyond this season.

"It’s a big deal, of course. It’s an important brand, and we’re happy that they committed,” Motiejunas said of Barcelona, which hasn’t commented publicly.

Motiejunas, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he’s confident all 13 clubs will stay.

“The NBA has been announcing and announcing things for a year but still it’s nothing that you can grasp on,” Motiejunas said. “As businessmen, these are team owners, they also begin to see it’s a little bit of a broken record of ‘we will announce later,’ ... The ’27 start is already around the corner.”

EuroLeague clubs reportedly have a 10 million euro ($11.6 million) exit clause, but Motiejunas would only say that through “consequences and legal teams” contracts can be broken. There's no NBA opt-out, he added.

The EuroLeague claims to still be open to some type of relationship with the NBA. But in the meantime, it sent a letter to the NBA warning of legal action should talks with EuroLeague shareholders continue.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver shrugged off the threat Thursday in Berlin ahead of the Orlando Magic's 118-111 win over the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA’s first regular-season game in Germany.

He also shrugged off the EuroLeague more generally.

“If I thought that the ceiling was the existing EuroLeague and their fan interest," Silver said, "we wouldn’t be spending the kind of time and attention we are on this project.”

Media reports indicate the NBA is looking for at least a $500 million franchise fee. Silver noted that any investors will have to be patient because “it will take a while, I think, before it is a viable commercial enterprise.” He added it will be "multi-decades in the making.”

Silver cautioned that “potentially” starting a new league is an “enormous undertaking” and described talks with Real Madrid and other Spanish clubs as “more in the category of fact finding.”

The European basketball landscape is similar to soccer in that domestic leagues feed the continental competitions. EuroLeague is like UEFA's Champions League. Basketball also has several other international leagues — but they're lesser known than their soccer counterparts, so fans get confused. FIBA, for example, has its own Basketball Champions League, which would be a potential feeder to an NBA league.

Silver sees potential because basketball is the No. 2 sport in Europe after soccer.

“Rather than think of us as taking share from (soccer), I look at the commercial side of basketball as it exists now in Europe, and it probably represents about 1 percent of the commercial sports marketplace,” he said.

Many European basketball teams, including some in the EuroLeague, have struggled financially. The system has often relied on wealthy owners to cover team debts each year. EuroLeague has implemented spending restrictions to promote financial sustainability.

In a revenue boost, the EuroLeague last season took its “Final Four” championship outside Europe — to Abu Dhabi — for the first time. It brought a flavor of Euro hoops chaos, too, as Panathinaikos majority owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos was handed a 5-game ban for his "threatening actions” against referees.

EuroLeague also granted a multi-year license to a newly created Dubai team and recently extended its partnership with global sports marketing agency IMG.

“We focus on ourselves,” Motiejunas said. “We will be able to adapt, there’s no question about it, and we will continue to fight.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner (22) and Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (8) challenge for the ball during an NBA basketball game between Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Orlando Magic guard Desmond Bane (3) reacts during an NBA basketball game between Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Fenerbahce players celebrate winning the Euroleague final basketball match between Monaco and Fenerbahce in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Anadolu Efes' Shane Larkin in action by Real Madrid's Guerschon Yabusele during Final Four Euroleague finall basketball match between Anadolu Efes and Real Madrid, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Barcelona's head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius gives instructions to his players during their Final Four Euroleague bronze medal basketball match between Barcelona and Olympiacos, in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Thom Tillis isn't holding back during his final year in Washington.

“I'm sick of stupid,” the two-term Republican from North Carolina said from the Senate floor recently as he derided President Donald Trump 's advisers for stoking a potential U.S. military takeover in Greenland.

It was just one of several moments during the opening weeks of 2026 when Tillis, who isn't seeking reelection, seemed unconstrained by the anxieties that weigh down many of his GOP colleagues who are loath to cross the White House for fear of triggering a political backlash.

He's one of just two Republicans, along with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who participated in a congressional delegation to Denmark this week while Trump threatens to seize Greenland. He was quick to criticize the Justice Department's investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. As Trump and his allies try to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Tillis backed the eventual display of a plaque honoring police who defended the Capitol that day.

He has shown particular frustration with Trump's top aides, notably deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller.

“I don't want some staffer telling me what my position is on something,” he said after Miller gave a forceful interview on CNN saying Greenland “should be part of the United States.”

“He made comments out of his depth,” Tillis added.

The moves reflect the sense of freedom lawmakers often feel when they know they won't have to face voters again. They've helped attract swarms of reporters who follow Tillis through the halls of Congress as he offers candid thoughts on news of the day. And they've won support from the handful of other Republicans who sometimes cross Trump, including Murkowski, who called out “good speech!” as she passed him in the Capitol following his floor remarks on Greenland.

For the 65-year-old Tillis, who has won elections in one of the most politically competitive states, the approach is notable for the way in which he's pushing back against the White House. He's hardly staking out a position as a never-Trumper and repeatedly — often effusively — expresses support for the president.

Rather, he's targeting much of his criticism at senior White House aides, sometimes raising questions about whether Trump is receiving the best advice at a consequential moment in his presidency as the GOP enters a challenging election year.

“I really want this president to be very, very successful,” Tillis said this week. “And a part of his legacy is going to be based on picking and choosing the right advice from people in his administration.”

Heading into the midterms, Tillis said, “I want to create a better environment for Republicans to win.”

Tillis, who had a challenging childhood involving multiple moves, worked at an accounting and consulting firm before entering politics. He was the speaker of North Carolina's House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. He said this week that he approaches his concerns from a business perspective.

“Sometimes there's just things that people need to say, ‘not a good idea, not in our best interest, hard to implement,” he said. “I probably should have started by saying that’s what I did in the private sector for about 25 years.”

Beyond Miller, Tillis has raised questions about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's immediate response to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Hours after the shooting, while an FBI investigation was still unfolding, Noem defended the officer and said Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill the next day, Tillis said he was “surprised by the level of certainty in her comments” and suggested such rhetoric influenced Trump, who was also quick to defend law enforcement.

“She's advising the president so the president's comments had to have come I assume through the advice of the secretary,” he said.

Tillis' balancing act was on particularly vivid display earlier this month on the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, when he helped broker the deal to publicly show the plaque honoring officers that was held up by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaking from the Senate floor, he called the attack “one of the worst days in my 11 years in the U.S. Senate.”

He lauded the staff and U.S. Capitol police who defended lawmakers and helped ensure that Congress ultimately certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. But he also struck fiercely partisan tones, blaming Democrats for embracing a movement to defund the police and criticizing media coverage of protests that turned violent during the summer of 2020.

Tillis framed Jan. 6 as a “wonderful stress test for democracy” before arguing that the Biden administration went “overboard” by prosecuting “people who were dumb enough to walk into the building but they weren't the leaders.” He then pivoted to criticism of Trump's sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, including those who attacked police.

But even then, he didn't directly blame Trump, again focusing on his advisers.

“The president, on the advice of somebody in the White House — and I hope I find out the name of that person — also pardoned criminals who injured police officers and destroyed this building,” Tillis said. “If you had that happen to your office or your business, would you think well they were just a little hotheaded and let them go and not prosecute them? Or would you hold them accountable for destroying the citadel of democracy?”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Tillis' assessment of Trump's aides. The senator rejects any suggestion that he's stepped up his criticism because of his impeding retirement, calling the notion “hysterical.”

His relationship with Trump hit a low point last summer when he opposed the president's sweeping tax and spending cuts package. Trump accused Tillis of seeking publicity and said on social media that the senator was a “talker and complainer, NOT A DOER.” Tillis announced his retirement soon after voting against the measure, one of only two Senate Republicans to do so.

Trump has been more sanguine in response to Tillis' more recent comments. Asked this week about the senator's criticism of the Fed probe, Trump said, “That's why Thom's not going to be a senator any longer, I guess.”

“Look, I like Thom Tillis,” Trump said. “But he's not going to be a senator any longer because of views like that.”

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE -Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 13, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - Wearing a beaded bolo around a pin that says "United States Senate," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., listens to thanks from members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, after the passage of a bill granting the tribe with federal recognition, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)