NBA to name winning bids for Europe teams in the coming months, deputy commissioner says

NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum speaks during the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 20, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Sarah Stier | Getty Images The NBA plans to name winning bidders for 12 permanent European teams in the next 60 to 90 days, Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum said in an exclusive CNBC interview. The European league remains on track to debut in October 2027, he said. The 12 new teams will be located in Rome, Milan, London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Athens and Istanbul. They'll be joined by four rotating clubs available to any FIBA-affiliated team in Europe on an annual basis depending on performance. FIBA is the sport's international governing body in Europe. Bids for teams are due at the end of June, Tatum told CNBC Sport. The league is looking for "great operators" who will invest in new stadiums, said Tatum, who added there are only "two to three world-class" basketball arenas in all of Europe. "We're on a very, very quick timeline here," Tatum said. "We're going to identify the right partners in the right cities, and we're going to take as much time as we need in order to identify those right partners. …