All my follow up comments since the above quote have been directed at that quote which is about soccer and not at basketball.

Sorry for the confusion folks.

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Stern sounds like Neville Chamberlain.

How many great European teams have played in the continental U.S.?

I don't see any desire or move by the European teams to play here.

It seems to me for the American fans living in the U.S. it should be a two way street, not just U.S. teams playing in Europe but also European teams playing in the U.S.

For U.S. expatiates living in Europe or Military serving in Europe it would make it more convenient for them to watch the NBA teams, but those can't be more than 1% of all American basketball fans.

Stern's proposal as I now understand it makes him sound like Neville Chamberlain.

We're just talking about a handful of games to be played in Europe each year to help expose the NBA to the world. I don't see this as disrupting the world economy. It won't even affect 90% of the teams.

I don't think a game or two in Europe will wear down players either. Anaheim took the Red Wings to a shootout at Joe Louis just a couple of days after playing in London. The Kings were given 5 days off after they played in London.

Anaheim did take Red Wings to shootout. But it was all because of their goaltender who was the equalizer that night. The Wings were all over Anaheim and even said after the game that it looks like Ducks were still recovering from the jet lag. I don't necessarily know if it is that much of a factor or not, but it took me a while to get back to normal after spending 10 days in Europe.

This is "normal" for you?

I think the Red Wings will be "all over" a lot of teams this year! I know what you mean about the jet lag, though. It does take a couple of days to adjust.

That is what you may be talking about.

But Stern has mentioned money and NBA expansion a large number of times when he talks about this subject.

What Stern is talking about is an international league, with all NBA teams going over to Europe once or twice a year in the format of an international basketball league, without requiring the European teams to come to America.

Stern has maxed out his power level with the current NBA configuration. By expanding the NBA into an international league under the direction of Stern his power increases immensely along with his income. That is what I think he is talking about.

The way currency exchange is going, it's 50% more expensive to play in Europe than it was a few years ago.

This is just expansionist corporate vision. It does nothing for the domestic fans, and nothing for the game itself. It's obvious that Stern thinks he's saturated this market, so using the cabal of team owners, they'll start investing in new markets with profits made in the domestic market from the fans, favorable arena deals from the state and a comfortable collective bargaining agreement.

Get used to seeing the fruits of prosperity exported.

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Since I seem to be the only one who clicked the Yes box, thought I’d offer a rationale.

Basketball is the only sport with a chance to have a full global following. Yeah, I know soccer is the sport of the rest of the world, but it’s time to call it a failure in the U.S. and move on. We’ve had a generation or two of kids growing up playing the game and it’s still going nowhere. Basketball has caught on like wildfire in Europe and in Asia. There is room in the world for a game that can garner big numbers of fans in every country.

The NBA can either lead that or basketball either won’t fully develop as the world’s sport, or it will take much longer. I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t want to lead. Soccer grew into a global game from grass roots – amateur teams turning semi-pro and then turning into big business. Basketball will grow as a corporation does, branching out country by country. Soccer grew from the ground up, basketball will be pushed from the top down.

Soccer was and is nationalistic - world basketball will follow a different model. One impact of this is that there probably won’t be national teams that compete for the world championship. I suspect the U.S. private ownership model won’t hold either, and we will eventually have corporate teams (think Rollerball). This means that players will move across borders, not when they’re old and washed up, but in their primes. Western and Eastern Europe, China, and parts of South America seem obvious candidates for expansion. It’s not too hard to imagine a basketball world cup happening every couple of years.

Given the potential, it’s hard to imagine that the NBA, as the premier basketball league in the world wouldn’t push its brand outside the U.S. and Canada. First some preseason games, then perhaps some regular season ones, then perhaps buying a European league – who knows what might happen?

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What's in it for the American fan?

Live European games will be on TV after midnight and before sunrise in America. Are you going to be watching?

Tape delayed. Only Lee and other NBA analysts would watch a game on tape. Most casual internet viewers are going to watch the live games the next day.

I would rather watch the Pistons play live in America than on a tape replay the next day from Europe after I already know what the score was.