The best basketball league in the world, the NBA, is increasingly benefiting from European talent. For Alba Berlin’s managing director Marco Baldi, there’s a catch
Managing director Marco Baldi of German champions Alba Berlin is campaigning for training compensation for German talent moving to the NBA. “The NBA generates more than eight billion euros in revenue per season. But of all things, there is no money for the training of all these players who come from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia? They are delivered free. That’s a state of affairs I’d like to take care of,” Baldi told the “Berliner Morgenpost” (Tuesday)
Wagner’s return would cost something
As an example, the 60-year-old cites Moritz Wagner, who trained with Alba from the age of seven before moving to American college and then to the NBA with the Orlando Magic. “We don’t get anything for it,” says Baldi, “but suppose Orlando were to send him off to their development team in the G-League now because they don’t need him right now – which hopefully will never happen. If he wanted to move from there to Alba Berlin, we would have to pay a fixed transfer fee. “
“It’s about power “
According to Baldi, this arrangement was agreed with the basketball world federation Fiba and the NBA: “So this is not about any logic and certainly not about sustainability. It’s about power.” In view of the large number of talented players from outside the USA, Baldi would therefore like to have this passage changed, also because the other leagues have caught up in terms of quality and attractiveness: “I believe that the NBA must also have an interest in ensuring that players of this quality continue to be supplied.