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OG Anunoby has seen basketball from both ends of its global divide: the packed gyms of London where he first picked up a ball, and the roar of Madison Square Garden, where in June he helped deliver the New York Knicks their first NBA Championship in more than half a century. Now the London-born forward believes the two worlds are about to collide — and that a purpose-built NBA Europe league can drag British basketball to a place it has never been.
“There is a lot of untapped potential,” Anunoby said of the UK market. “London, especially, is an untapped market. There is so much talent and so many people playing basketball. It would take exposure, growth, more leagues, more excitement for the game — and this could be the next level.”
A £3bn bet with London and Manchester in the frame
The NBA is not dabbling. Working in partnership with FIBA, the league is planning an independent 16-team European competition — 12 permanent franchises and four qualifying slots — with an inaugural tip-off targeted for the autumn of 2027. The financial commitment is enormous: the NBA is understood to be earmarking north of $3bn in start-up costs, and final franchise bids submitted by the 30 June deadline drew more than 20 ownership groups across 12 target cities in seven countries. In several markets, individual bids exceeded $1bn.
Two of those target cities are British. London and Manchester have both been identified as potential homes for permanent franchises, placing the UK alongside Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, Berlin, Munich, Istanbul and Athens. Among the opening-night scenarios reportedly under discussion is a fixture pitting a London side against an Istanbul team — the kind of marquee occasion that has never existed in the domestic British game.
For Anunoby, whose own path ran through Class of 2015 recruitment in the United States rather than a professional pipeline at home, the appeal is structural. He was previously a minority shareholder in the London Lions, giving him a direct view of how thin the runway can be for elite British prospects. A well-capitalised league with NBA branding, he argues, changes the maths for a teenager weighing whether the sport can offer a career.
Why the UK has always been the missing piece
Basketball’s status in Britain has long been a paradox. It is one of the most-played team sports among young people, particularly in London, yet the professional infrastructure has never matched the grassroots appetite. The British Basketball League has lurched through funding crises and ownership disputes, and Great Britain’s national team has repeatedly battled UK Sport funding cuts despite qualifying for major tournaments.
The result is a talent drain. Anunoby, Joel Embiid’s former Sixers team-mate turned Knicks star, is one of a growing cohort of players with British roots who developed abroad. An NBA-run league with London and Manchester franchises would, in theory, keep more of that talent visible at home and give sponsors and broadcasters a reason to invest at scale. The NBA has spent years laying the groundwork — regular-season games in London, the Basketball Africa League as a proof of concept, and a deliberate courting of European audiences it sees as under-served by the incumbent EuroLeague.
What it means going forward
The caveats are real. Nothing tips off until 2027 at the earliest, franchise ownership in both British cities remains unconfirmed, and NBA Europe will launch into direct competition with EuroLeague, a well-established product with fiercely loyal clubs. Persuading Europe’s basketball establishment to cede ground — and untangling FIBA’s qualification pathways with the domestic leagues — is a multi-year project, not a switch to be flipped.
Yet the direction of travel is clear, and Anunoby’s endorsement carries weight precisely because he has lived the gap. A reigning NBA champion, born and raised in London, publicly backing a franchise in his home city is exactly the kind of validation the project needs as bids move toward selection this autumn. If the league delivers on even part of its ambition, a British kid picking up a ball in 2027 may, for the first time, be able to imagine turning professional without leaving home.
“It would be amazing to bring a team to Manchester and London and continue growing the game in England,” Anunoby said. For a country that has produced the players but never the platform, that sentence may prove the most important development in British basketball for a generation.
**Sources:** [Sky Sports — NBA Europe: OG Anunoby backs UK’s ‘untapped potential’](https://www.skysports.com/nba/news/36226/13553689/nba-europe-og-anunoby-backs-uks-untapped-potential-after-sparking-new-york-knicks-momentum-swing-in-title-triumph) · [Sky Sports — NBA Europe explained](https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/basketball/news/36244/13564640/nba-europe-what-is-it-how-does-it-work-and-which-uk-teams-are-involved) · [ESPN — NBA Europe launch October 2027](https://africa.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46883098/nba-europe-based-league-launch-october-2027) · [NBA.com — Progress continues on proposed NBA Europe league](https://www.nba.com/news/progress-continues-nba-europe-league)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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