The American Dream Team basketball players secured the Olympic victory as expected. The big question for the near future is how hard the NBA is pushing in its endless pursuit of capital and influence in other parts of the world.
LeBron James and the American basketball players were also unbeatable in Paris.
The USA basketball team in Paris consisted of twelve players who won gold on Saturday evening with a 98-87 victory against France. The triumph is rewarded by the US Olympic Committee with $37,500 per athlete, but money was certainly not the motivation for these men on their summer adventure in Europe. This dozen of NBA stars has accumulated a total of $2.5 billion in salary earnings. That is more than the gross domestic product of the Central African Republic with its 5.5 million inhabitants.
The Americans were the overwhelming favorites going into this tournament, as they have been since 1992 at the Olympics, when the “Dream Team” terminology was born in Barcelona. The only time they missed gold was in Athens in 2004, when a 19-year-old LeBron James subsequently said: “We had great players. But no structure.”
Now, twenty years later, James, with his now graying beard, was once again in the mix. Once again, his collective viewed defensive work as optional. But apart from a narrowly won semifinal against Serbia, the Americans were not seriously challenged in any game. The comeback was largely thanks to the now 36-year-old and still tireless long-range shooter Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors. And thanks to Joel Embiid.
Embiid only started playing basketball at fifteen – five years later he was a millionaire
Embiid, thirty years old, was born in Cameroon, but also holds American and French citizenship. Out of hurt pride, the most French of all emotions, Embiid was practically booed non-stop in the Olympic final — the hosts had hoped he would play for France. Embiid established himself as a cool avenger and played a major role in winning the title.
Embiid has a fascinating life story; he only started playing basketball at the age of fifteen. His rise must surpass the imagination of the legion of wealthy American parents who send their children to costly camps with professional trainers from preschool age. Embiid will earn $51,415,000 in the NBA season starting in October. Plus $10 million from sponsorship deals.
Joel Embiid became unpopular in France.
He is a global luminary and, although he now plays for the USA, a sort of symbol for the internationalization of the NBA. Almost a quarter of the professionals are not born in America. There are now several European superstars; they come from Greece (Giannis Antetokounmpo), Slovenia (Luka Doncic), Serbia (Nikola Jokic), or France (Victor Wembanyama).
The development is being closely monitored at the NBA headquarters in New York. A few days before the Olympic kickoff in Paris, league commissioner Adam Silver closed a new media rights deal that will generate $76 billion over eleven years starting in 2025. The league and its obscenely wealthy team owners hardly know where to put the money, as their coffers are full.
But this does not prevent them from brainstorming additional sources of income, especially looking towards Europe. So far, the NBA is content to send two teams to the old continent once a year to garner some attention. However, the portal “The Athletic” reported a few days ago about internal NBA discussions that a new European league could be established together with the world federation FIBA in the medium term.
There is no demand for American development aid, as it has never worked — the NFL Europe, which was heavily in the red, was discontinued in 2007, for example. In basketball, the Euroleague already exists as an attractive continental super league with teams from nine nations, run by local figures who actually understand their markets. In Switzerland, due to a lack of media presence and without a TV deal, one might not realize this, but the league is thriving: The average attendance in the 2023/24 season was over 10,000 per match, with its reach extending from Athens to Berlin and Munich to Tel Aviv.
The NBA’s African league experiment has so far been primarily a money pit
The creators of the top European clubs are likely to look skeptically at Africa, where the NBA launched the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2019 with a lot of fanfare and recruited former US President Barack Obama as a “strategic advisor.”
According to reports from Bloomberg, the league is losing a staggering $17 million in the 2024 fiscal year. An NBA court exported to Senegal was devoured by termites during transport. The Dynamo Basketball Club team from Burundi was banned from league play in March after it refused to wear “Visit Rwanda” patches on its jerseys. Rwanda is one of the funders of the BAL; the NBA colludes with the regime of Paul Kagame.
These are episodes that raise warning lights. The Euroleague licenses will lose their validity in two years, and discussions are underway for a twenty-year extension. A timely conclusion without NBA influence would send a strong signal that European basketball is doing just fine without American tentacles.