Andrea Bargnani: NBA Europe Will Attract New Investors
Italy's LBA adviser Andrea Bargnani says the NBA's European league will bring capital and investors, and hails the return of top-level basketball to Rome.
Andrea Bargnani, who works as an adviser to Italy's LBA, says the NBA's planned European league will bring in money and investors the game there would not otherwise attract.
The former player pointed to Rome, where two teams are due to join the new competition. Top-level basketball has been absent from the city for five years.
"It will provide a flow of capital, it will attract investors who would not have entered the system without this opportunity. People are very excited about the arrival of two teams in Rome. For five years the city had no top-level basketball. It is a very positive moment. Our basketball cannot survive on the sporting side alone. It must be part of the entertainment industry, touch on commercial aspects that are still undeveloped. If we want to grow, we have to move in that direction. Small markets are also part of our basketball genetics. Only by combining different approaches can we achieve explosive growth. The NBA is my family, it changed my life. I still feel part of it," Bargnani concluded.
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