The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America and probably one of the most famous sport entity around the world. Created in 1946, the NBA is made of 30 teams (franchises) that are divided into 2 conferences (Eastern & Western). At the end of the regular season, the eight best teams of each conference participate in the playoff  tournament to win the NBA championship title. The NBA have seen some of the best Athletes of all time: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Tim Ducan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James etc. 

That was a short recap of the sports part, but the NBA is much more than purely Basketball. As a global brand and media business, the league is also made of different business units to manage relationships with television and digital media partners, develop marketing partnerships, oversee the licensing of NBA merchandise, and handle a wide range of responsibilities that drive the NBA’s success.

For this new episode, we had the pleasure to receive Bastien Lacheny, Associate Vice President Media Distribution EMEA to discuss the international footprint of the league (13 different offices around the world) but also its main challenges and objectives in Europe. 

Episode's timeline:

- Bastien's presentation: personal and professional background

- Working at the NBA while being a basketball fan

-  The NBA european office and its raison d'être: what was the motivation to build such a big office in Europe for the NBA?

- Does the london Office have a lot of regional freedom? What is the decision making process?

- The NBA strategy around growing the sport in Europe

- The Europen territory: a common strategy or a country based strategy?

- The NBA coming to Europe: myth or reality?

-  The commercialisation and management of the media rights 

- The NBA League Pass commercialisation and strategy

- What do you think is going to make a significant difference in the coming years in the digital landscape? (NFT & NBA Top Shot discussion)

- Having worked for a broadcaster, a tech provider and a league, which side of the scope do you prefer?

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LeCorner is a podcast dedicated to sports and digital. Every two weeks, we have the pleasure to receive a distinguished guest from the sports industry to talk to us about digital, innovation and strategic development.

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