Jorge Garbajosa discusses the US threat to European basketball / News - Basketnews.com

FIBA Europe president Jorge Garbajosa evaluated the threat of the USA to the development of European basketball and ways of developing and maintaining talent in Europe.

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com-Scanpix Credit ZUMAPRESS.com-Scanpix

Talking to members of the European basketball media, FIBA Europe president Jorge Garbajosa answered questions about the perceived threat of the USA to the development of European basketball.

To begin with, Garbajosa was asked about the American to Europe in terms of European talents leaving the continent to go to the USA, particularly with empowered contracts in the G-League, the NCAA starting to pay its young athletes, and discussions on the expansion of the NBA."I want to tell you two things before answering your question. First of all, the collaboration with the NBA, as an organization, is extremely positive, and we are on it. Second, we should not only talk about this situation. We cannot talk only about Overtime or NCAA or [else]," said Garbajosa, choosing to focus on Europe.

"Also internally in Europe, sometimes we are seeing situations [that we have to work on]… I explained it all very openly. [We need] to try to compensate the clubs, the small clubs from different countries or small countries, to develop players, and then they go to play in other countries or in other bigger clubs," he proposed.

"And we have to find a mechanism to compensate [them], with all my respect. [We need] to encourage them and to support them in developing players, and they will then probably play in other countries. But we have to find somehow to compensate it, mainly financially, to these coaches and small clubs who work very hard to develop players because they love it," Garbajosa concluded.

According to the former Spanish player, the situation remains problematic and is widely recognized as such. He also reiterated his proposal and stressed that so much focus should not be placed on the effect of the US.

"So [we should] not only look into the United States, but we should also look internally here in Europe. Then it's extremely complicated because, at the end of the day, the NCAA is a private organization, which can have its own rules, that is interconnected with the NBA but are different entities," he said, elaborating on the complexity of the issue.

"Again, to try to find a solution for this, there's, in my personal opinion, only two things," he started explaining. "First of all, to try to find agreements with these organizations to, again, compensate the transfer of players from one side of the sea to the other, and then to support our national federations, and then directly our clubs, to try to be stronger, that they can retain or can maintain these young talents," he explained.

"But again, with different players on different sides of the world, it's not easy, and everybody's concerned about it," Garbajosa revealed. "I talk to many clubs and many national federations, and they are all worried about the situation. Again, internally and outside of Europe."

Then, the former player was asked about how FIBA Europe perceived the development of European players in a global fashion. In specific, how the increased presence of Europeans in the NBA, with special mentions to Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic, has been observed by those in FIBA Europe."I understand that when you develop one player, he becomes a star, and then he goes to the NBA, for the clubs, it could be not too pleasant," he empathized. "But as a global organization, we have to be very proud of it. And they are the best icons that our basketball in Europe has worldwide. If we think that, I don't know, potentially three out of five potential MVPs of the NBA are European, as Luka, Giannis, or Jokic…" he said with pride.

"[There are] many stars in Europe that are going to play in the NBA. We should be very proud of it," Garbajosa reiterated. "And, again, I repeated it several times, and I will repeat it a hundred more; we have to support our clubs and our national officials to develop these players because they are the best icons of their own basketball [federations] worldwide."

The former player continued by explaining how the aforementioned hallmark names of modern European basketball could be used to market both national and continental basketball.

"Giannis became global, Luka became global... And when you see how the Slovenian Basketball Federation improves themselves through Luka, through Luka's influence all over the world, [it] makes a lot of sense," he stated. "Again, when Real Madrid potentially lost Luka to the Dallas [Mavericks], I understand. But as the basketball [federation] of a country and as Europe, we should be very proud of that.

Finally, Garbajosa was asked to elaborate on the model of the compensation that he had mentioned for different European clubs and whether this would be enough to eliminate the conflict that exists in European basketball."Maybe it's too optimistic…" Garbajosa began. "But I talk with all the national federations, I wouldn't say every week, but every month. For example, at the beginning of the year, on the third of January, I went to Tallinn, to Estonia, and I had meetings with all the Nordic Federations and some of the Baltics. They are very worried that, when they develop players and they move to other countries, to other clubs, they don't receive anything," he explained the concerns of the federations.

"It's normal, but not from a social responsibility point of view. It's also to try to support these countries, these clubs, [for them] to keep being alive, to keep the player because it's good for the ecosystem," the executive explained. "Then, the people will potentially get these good players. But under the European Union laws, it is not that easy to find a way to do it legally," he also recognized.

"We will respect the laws here, for sure, absolutely. But I truly believe that there's room to try to find compensation for these clubs. I was focused for seven years on growing the basketball in Spain, and now my mentality is to grow the basketball in Europe," he noted. "And honestly, being totally honest, federations of basketball, Spain, Germany, Italy, they will need FIBA Europe for sure, and we will be on their side," he said.

However, for Garbajosa, it is the smaller federations that need FIBA Europe the most rather than the stronger federation he mentioned before."But all the rest, which are the majority, need even more support from FIBA Europe. I'm talking about the middle[-sized] and the small ones. I'm talking about Monaco, and I'm talking about Malta, I'm talking about Gibraltar... I'm talking also about Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Switzerland, Sweden..." he said, listing the countries in question.

"We have to support them. We have to give them the tools to be better. They are doing their job, and we have to do our own by being on their side."The President of FIBA Europe was also invited to talk about how NBA factored into this discussion of growth and the development of players internally in Europe. Garbajosa laughed slightly before giving his answer."First of all, we have to solve our issues internally, and then we will try to also [solve them] externally, but they have to be [involved]," he said of the NBA. "Because honestly, they are a very fair organization. They are very fair. And they want us, as Europe, to keep developing players. So, I truly believe that we will find a moment to discuss it, and we will find a solution," he said, concluding the interview.

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