3 things potential NBA-FIBA crossover tournament could learn from UEFA Champions League

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver opened up about a potential tournament or league involving FIBA, the sport's official governing body around the world. Silver was in France to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics and continued to notice the increase in basketball's popularity.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Silver explained the global reach basketball has in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. The NBA wants to get into the untapped potential of the sport by collaborating with FIBA. It could either be an annual tournament or even an NBA-operated league.

"We certainly haven’t made any definitive decisions. I continue to believe there's enormous opportunity here. It's not something where we'll transform a league structure in the short term.

"But I think that there's an appetite among our team owners for additional investment in global basketball. We have a huge initiative in China. We have a huge initiative in Africa. Given the quality of the basketball here in Europe, it would seem to make sense that we should be doing something here as well," Silver said.

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Three things potential NBA-FIBA crossover tournament can learn from UEFA Champions League

One of the biggest sports competitions in the world is the UEFA Champions League, something the NBA could use to pattern its new potential tournament with FIBA. Another tournament that could inspire the league is the FIBA Club World Cup, but the Champions League has been more successful.

Here are three things the NBA could learn from the UEFA Champions League for a new annual basketball tournament:

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#1 32-team tournament with group stage but different knockout phase

One of the first things the NBA-FIBA tournament could copy from the UEFA Champions League is its old format. They could start with a 32-team tournament with a group stage and a knockout phase.

There could be eight groups with four teams each and the top two in each group advancing to the knockouts. The knockouts wpuld feature 16 teams that start with the Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final.

They could even change it up a bit for the knockout phase with several options like a one-game knockout, a two-game home-and-away series with tiebreaker rules if it goes 1-1 and a best-of-3 per round.

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#2 Let teams around the world qualify for the tournament

As the NBA is the main league involved, they will likely have the most teams in the tournament. They could have all the 16 teams making the playoffs advance to the main 32-team tournament or at least the eight teams in the conference semifinals.

FIBA could invite teams from across the world, with the EuroLeague winner automatically qualifying, as well as the champions of the top leagues. The Basketball Africa League, Chinese Basketball Association and National Basketball League in Australia could also have representatives.

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#3 A neutral tournament final location

One of the unique features of the UEFA Champions League is the location of its final game of the tournament. Like in this year's final, the two teams, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, were from Spain and Germany, respectively. But the final game was at the Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The NBA-FIBA tournament could use something like that to make its final an attractive event for fans around the world. They could make countries bid for the rights to host the final with an extravagant half-time show like the Super Bowl or to an extent the Champions League, which has a kick-off show.