Why NBA in Europe is BEST for Europe Basket.... (+Euroleague GAMEDAYS)

We've used this opportunity here over the last few days to have meetings with many different stakeholders, leaders of clubs, includes FIBA, it includes media companies, traditional sports sponsors, just to best understand the landscape here and to see what the opportunity may be.

Okay, so before we head to Asheville and Paris to get some wins and show you my daily routines, the NBA is coming for Europe. Not only coming for Europe, but they're actually hosting European games in Paris right now and in preseason in Saudi Arabia, in Dubai, and places like that. So what does that mean for EuroLeague basketball when the NBA Europe comes to Europe? Is the NBA really coming to Europe? That's the buzz that has been making headlines, and it's getting louder with each new statement. So if I'm being quite honest, European basketball is taking over the NBA right now. If you just look at the top 10 players in the NBA, 5 of them are probably European. So the NBA would be smart to tap into those markets, especially when NBA viewership is down in America. So we talked about growing the game internationally in Europe, but this is different because they're doing it in Paris. And not only doing it in Paris, but they're doing it with one of their growing superstars. French basketball has been on the up and coming for the past few years. Just last year, they took the top 2 picks with Zachary Richochet and Alex Sar going to Atlanta at number 1 and Washington at number 2. And years before that, they've had some of the top lottery picks with Theo Maledon and other great players. To be quite honest, France has been dominating basketball not only in the NBA but also internationally. I mean, if you just look last year in Paris, they took home silver against the Avengers squad and LeBron, KD, and Steph. And most of the players on that team who impacted the game aren't even NBA players. Yahbusélé, Real Madrid. Mathias Suso, Panathinaikos. Isaiah Kornier, Bologna. So the game is growing internationally, and especially in France. And speaking of France, in 2023, the most hyped prospect since LeBron was drafted, the Alien, Victor Wembanyama. And it would be stupid for the NBA to not host games in Paris when their next emerging superstar is from France. Like I said before, being that the NBA viewership down in America, it's a great opportunity to grow the game in other countries, especially like France. And when it comes to the NBA Europe competition, or bringing that league over to Europe, I think it's great because competition is good in any business, any market. If you look at PGA and LIV Golf, when they were competing, they were leveling and raising the bars for everyone involved— the leagues, TV deals, the players' money, everything. So I think that will make everything better for EuroLeague or NBA Europe. And when it comes to EuroLeague, most of the teams don't even make money. They like to call it the billionaires' playground. So yes, the players make money, but if I'm an owner, at some point in my business I want to make money, right? So would that be enticing enough for an owner to go to NBA Europe versus EuroLeague to get more money, better fan experience, better TV right deals, maybe better insurance for the players, better insurance for the teams, overall better stuff. Because to be quite honest, the NBA is better at running an entertainment business. Now in terms of product, EuroLeague has a better product by far. And when it comes to EuroLeague, I think they lack in the marketing compared to the NBA. Hear me out. The NBA promotes their players. And people come to watch their players, whereas EuroLeague promotes their coaches, the experience, and not as much as the players. So if I was EuroLeague, I would be pushing my top superstars, Nunn, everywhere. Nunn would be at every Fashion Week show. Shane Markham would be at every Fashion Week show. Mike James, every— everything possible for them to get to know the player off the court, because people connect to people. And I think that that would grow EuroLeague, but at the end of the day, they have a better product. Now, when it comes to teams changing from EuroLeague to NBA Europe, you've already seen that Panathinaikos said they don't plan on doing it, but I think money talks, right? And in EuroLeague, there's certain teams that have Class A license, meaning that they're in the league regardless. They're like the founding fathers of the league. Teams like Paris, Red Star, Partizan, Bayern Munich don't have that license. So will they be enticed to go to that NBA Europe where it can offer a better business model for them to grow their company, essentially. But in my opinion, just like LIV Golf and PGA Tour, I think if they come together and offer the expertise of both parties, it'll create one great super league. And at the end of the day, if the product is better and the competition is still good, I think everyone wins. But what do you guys think? Would you guys switch leagues if you were owner of one of these teams? Let's go get some wins in France. Tomorrow we play ASVEL, and as you know, when we played ASVEL last game, we got our freaking butts kicked in the second half. Roddy carried us in the first half, and second half is kind of, you know, started, uh, being super aggressive on defense, and we weren't able to kind of find a rhythm. So Asheville's tactic is to ice and make you and push the ball screen down, and last time we struggled with that, so we worked a lot on that, uh, today in practice. And then also, I don't know, obviously you guys know we got a new coach, and we didn't really lose our old coach. Our old coach, uh, Tommy, is going back to being an assistant, so we got a new coach. So we just kind of, you know, it was his first day, kind of hear what he had to say and listen to his principles and go out and play tomorrow. You know, it's not an easy job for him to come in and take over a team that's already had systems and stuff in place. But at the end of the day, basketball is basketball. So that's the main focus, is, you know, play hard, play aggressive, play on attack, and ultimately get a win.

Phone in the weight room.

I know we talked about this before, but when I get home from practice I be starving. So Jen usually has some leftovers, but I don't want to eat too much, so I'm gonna bust out one of these turmeric chias. These things go absolutely crazy. So my ankle has been— just recently I tweaked it a little bit, so I'm gonna hit it with some Red Light just to get some inflammation out of it and watch a little bit of Asvel film, just see what they're doing lately. Okay, so this chia granola, berries, chia seeds with some turmeric, which is anti-inflammatory.

Wow. Sweet.

Like, I have a sweet tooth. I don't really like candy. Candy is good, but I just like something sweet. And if you substitute something that doesn't spike your blood sugar and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in, you'll get the same satisfaction. So this is sweet. I don't want gummy bears, I don't want a Snickers. It does that for me. Dates are sweet. It's not Snickers. It actually has natural ingredients in it, which allows you not to spike your blood sugar. The more you spike your blood sugar, the more insulin you need, and then you become insulin resistant, and that's how you get diabetes. But that's a topic for another day. Let's watch some film.

Oh, zero, one, I made it! One, two, into slime!

One, two, into slime! And one! Hey, I just want to fly with you, baby. Girl, what's your name? Let me talk to you. Let me buy you a drink. I'm D Page. All my teammates make fun of me because I bring my suitcase, but for me, if you guys haven't noticed, I'm not really into the fashion, how the aesthetic looks. How does it perform? How does it feel over how does it look? So now don't get me wrong, I do have some nice stuff, but it's more focused on productivity and usability, I would say. And then I have my Rapid Reboot. That is just compression. It's just part of my system. My systems evolve throughout a year, throughout a career— what's working, what's not working. I think sometimes as professionals we become scared on changing our systems. I think more so because we believe the systems is what got us there. But if you think about it, change is good sometimes, and change can allow you to learn. Failure can allow you to learn. So don't be scared of change. Try it. Try a new shooting routine. Try new stretching routine, try a new routine before going to bed, like try new things. And most of the time when I'm trying stuff, the bulk of the stuff that I'm trying, I'm going to try during the summer, like try new vitamins, try working on my shot, uh, mechanic-wise, you know, like big changes I save for the summer just because I think logically it makes more sense, right? My goal is by the time I'm done playing professional basketball is to be able to cut my hair and no one can tell, did a barber do it or did I do it? So I'm working on my skills off the court as well. Welcome to the weight room. Do you have anything to say about what happened last time? Last time when you had your phone out in the weight room? People were asking. What? On the last video, Serbia video. What is this, Samanu? What is this in the weight room? What is this? What is this? Nobody tell me nothing. Nobody can tell me nothing.

I'm posted.

Oh, I can't— I can't use my phone.

Elijah Bryant Bryant Bryant. All right. Yo, you were slumped on the plane. I was so tired, bro.

I got a cramp though, that shit woke me up. We were supposed to get split beds.

Can I bring my blanket?

Get out of here. All right, so we just got to the hotel. It's been a super long day of travel. The flight from Istanbul to Paris is 4 hours, so gotta nap in, go get some food, and get some rest. But they do have one of my favorite restaurants here, and if you watched the video before, you know what that is. Elijah, come on, baby.

Come on, baby.

Check it out.

It's up to me, bro.

The goods have been secured. Having Chipotle and even having the vinaigrette is literally home. Feels like home. It's not necessarily that the hotel food isn't good. It's more so that this— okay, I'm lying. The hotel food isn't good. But this tastes like home. So these are mass times, basically help you digest food after, since we ate late, got here late. This helped my food digest. And if you understand, take anything from this video, that if you eat and your body is digesting food 3 hours before you go to sleep, you're not gonna get a good night's sleep. But if you wanna know all the vitamins I take, Links in bio to free guide, just kind of show you what I take. It's not the right or wrong way, it's just what I take.

Hey yo!

Is it chili pad called? Oh, it's feeling right. I mean, D.O. won today. D.O.W.

me.

What was the game when he shot that?

You got that?

When I came out the womb, this came along with it.

Show me what you do.

Hey, Minnesota's finest!

Yeah, you gotta get smooched.

That's the best part right here. That had to be the coldest gym I've ever been in. My toes were freezing, but good shoot around. Take a shower, watch some film, eat some lunch. Relax, take a nap. It's already happened. Your desired reality is already coming to fruition. Okay, so we already watched team as a film, but I'm just gonna watch a few clips on my matchup as always, just to see their tendencies and what they've been doing the last few games. Because as a player, what's worked the last few games, you always kind of feel like that's what's grooving for you, you know what I mean? So let's check this out. This is the type of stuff that you would only experience overseas. So my wife calls me and says, Rocco has a fever, he's sick, but the team took the car for something with insurance, so we don't have a car to get to the hospital. And I'm texting the doctor, but the doctor's here, so I have to text another doctor to organize it. And I'm in Paris, she's in Istanbul. These are the type of things that if this was in America, her family would just come or she would take another car. These are the things that make you miss America because you don't realize how easy it is to navigate situations like this, man. It's so hard sometimes not to have an emotional reaction during high stress stuff like that, especially my babies. Oh, my baby's feeling bad. You know, in America, you just either go to the emergency room, call your pediatrician, show up. It's a lot different when you don't speak the language. Only a few people do. So that's one thing I'm for sure grateful for. Maybe I need to learn Turkish. Maybe that's— maybe it's my problem. Actually, if I knew Turkish, it would definitely be a lot easier. Maybe I would know what people were saying. Okay, let's lay down, take a nap. Got the chili pad on heat, feeling fire. All right, so I just woke up from a great nap. Now it's time to lock in. Wrote my journal, did my meditation. God is great. I know sometimes you can have nerves before a game, but putting yourself in a grateful mindset can help out a lot. So be grateful, be grateful for your health, put in the mindset of allowing you to perform out there.

So let's go get a win.

It did not go how I wanted it to go, but I will say this: no matter what in life, there's always a lesson. To be learned. I don't know what it is right now, just tired of freaking losing, but there's something to be learned. So this is probably the most important thing that I have to take after a game. This allows me to, especially on a double week, this allows me to replenish. Take 7 of them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Mm-hmm.