Paulius Motiejunas talks new teams in the EuroLeague, an All-Star game / News - Basketnews.com

Paulius Motiejunas, the CEO of EuroLeague Basketball, gave his thoughts on a multitude of matters regarding the EuroLeague's future, such as a possible change in the format, the addition of new teams, and a possible All-Star game.

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The EuroLeague agenda remains quite busy. Not only is the possible addition of a team from Dubai being discussed, but a general overview of the league's format, the participation of teams, and the introduction of new events are being discussed more readily.

The competition's CEO, Paulius Motiejunas, talked about the aforementioned agenda items in an interview with SKWEEK.

"We don't know yet. Next year, we're staying like we are right now," Motiejunas made a quick entry on whether the EuroLeague will expand anytime soon. "There is no clear plan yet."

We need to see what happens with the Russian clubs. When, if they are ready to come back. Which teams will make it from the EuroCup? Many things that add up to the whole part," he elaborated on the matter.

"You all read the article from [Andrey] Vatutin [president of CSKA Moscow]," Motiejunas recalled Vatutin's statements on how sports cannot be differentiated from politics. "Even he doesn't know for sure. So, we can only watch, hope that the war is over as soon as possible, and then we sit down to talk."

Another topic on the agenda was the transformation of the EuroLeague into a closed league. On the matter, Motiejunas was clearly against the idea.

"No, it was never like this. I stress every time; the EuroCup is our second competition, which is really important," he began. "We have really great clubs there. We get the chance for everybody to compete and make it to the EuroLeague," he continued, touching upon the EuroCup's role.

"We need to keep it up, and we need to grow the EuroCup as well. That's where we see which teams are developing. It's really difficult to go straight to the EuroLeague, so it has to be the stepping stone for the clubs," Motiejunas stated his vision for the EuroCup.

On the topic, the Lithuanian CEO was asked about a possible merger between the EuroCup and the FIBA Basketball Champions League, which was extensively discussed just recently.

"We're having good talks with FIBA. I think, for the basketball fans, it would be good to have a stable pyramid [a hierarchy between competitions]. Many things have to come into place and have to work," he explained.

"Of course. I think all these meetings that we have and this first window that we stopped for them to be able to play the national competitions was the first step," Motiejunas continued elaborating on the recent increase in FIBA-EL collaboration.

"We are just finalizing, talking to the clubs [about] how they reacted to the window. How it helped, how it did not help. How to send the players to the national teams... It needs a lot of adjustments, but the dialogue is there, and I'm really happy [about] it," he concluded on the matter.

Following his evaluation of the FIBA-EL collaboration, the CEO was then asked if the EuroLeague's format would change following an expansion to 20 teams, for example, into a conference system like the NBA.

"It is possible, but still, our main focus is to have [the] round-robin [format]. It's the core of our success for the competition," Motiejunas noted. "Everybody plays everybody, so we want to keep it as much as possible. We understand that the schedule is difficult, but it's really helpful to know that each team will visit you once in the arena," he concluded on the matter.

Finally and perhaps most interestingly, Motiejunas discussed the possibility of having an All-Star game or a similar event during the season.

"Next season, probably not. We started with the play-in, to we have a couple more games. We think it's a huge success to see teams are still fighting to make it to the top ten," the executive first said in praise of the new play-in format, which is being implemented for the first time this season.

"[An] All-Star game or some other events are on our list, but let's see how the calendar looks like. It definitely would be good to have the clubs and the sponsors come together for not just the Final Four but one more event during the season," he concluded by stating his wishes for such an organization.

The tenure of the Lithuanian CEO started with a bang. Being tasked after Marshall Glickman was sacked just 1 year into his stint, Motiejunas made significant changes to both the EuroLeague and EuroCup formats and accelerated negotiations on the inclusion of a team from Dubai into the EuroCup.

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