Luka Doncic has been in the news this offseason for his forays in basketball team ownership. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar was recently part of a group that purchased Vanoli Cremona in Italy’s Lega Basket Serie A with big hopes for the club.
The ownership group — including Doncic, former Dallas Mavericks president Donnie Nelson, longtime coach Valerio Bianchini and former player Rimantas Kaukėnas — announced immediately that the team will be moving to Rome and has submitted a bid to be in the upcoming NBA Europe league. Commissioner Adam Silver gave an update on the league and spoke about Doncic’s hopes of owning a team under the NBA umbrella, which is not yet finalized.
“Well, you know, first of all, as I said, our bidding process is continuing,” Silver said during a press conference at the NBA Finals. “The end of this month, bids will be due, and presumably we’ll be in a position in the fall to award franchises. I think then we will turn to the qualification system. But we are in the process of working that through with our federation, FIBA, right now.
“In terms of whether it’s Luka Doncic or other players owning teams, that’s not been resolved yet. That’s an issue we have to work through with our Players Association.
“I will just add I think part of the determination will be what the basketball relationship will be between these teams and call it NBA Europe and the NBA. That obviously could complicate things if current NBA players are owners. So those are some of the factors we’ll be looking at.”
The NBPA and NBA have to work together to figure out if there is any sort of conflict of interest with a current player owning a team in the Europe league. Current players owning teams has been banned for a long time, but that was before there were any alternate leagues that don’t necessarily have an impact on the NBA.
Hopefully, the two sides allow it to happen and Doncic’s team is selected, as it would fulfill a long-time dream for the Slovenian superstar.
Potential No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa praises Luka Doncic
BYU star AJ Dybantsa is one of the players potentially slated to go No. 1 overall in the loaded 2026 NBA Draft. Dybantsa was in attendance to watch Doncic and the Lakers play against the Utah Jazz this season, and said it was one of the craziest performances he’s ever seen live.
It’s possible that Dybantsa will be in a position to one day put up similar showings.
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