The NBA is kind of all over the place right now with labor strife, and the idea that some of the North America franchises should be contracted. If the plan is to move into Europe, which is probably a good move, contraction is ridiculous. These teams should be relocated to Europe in enough numbers that the NBA could have an entire European division. Sure that might add a lot to the travel budgets of the North American teams, but if they were to play the Euro teams all in a row it could be a nice working vacation and a great way to mesh the teams together.
I would have no problem if the Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, and Sacramento Kings or Detroit Pistons were relocated to Europe to grow the NBA world wide. Before you get all crazy on me, I live in Detroit and mentioned my team because of their sad state, in this discussion of relocation.
Of course I would want new ownership for each of those teams before they were packaged together in Europe. The fact here is basketball is pretty popular in Europe and there are enough leagues over there to help European based NBA teams find talent and fill out rosters. We can certainly call Europe a basketball hotbed, and given the fact that the North American NBA market is tapped out this seems the best way to grow the sport.
