Alba Berlin Sports director Himar Ojeda (L) speaks to media representatives alongside supervisory board member Axel Schweitzer during the German Bundesliga Basketball season kick-off press conference at Alba Berlin. Andreas Gora/dpa

Alba Berlin sporting director Himar Ojeda believes that the club’s home city deserves to be one of the 12 locations for teams in the planned NBA league in Europe.

“We’ve earned it with our 35 years of work,” he said. “We have deep roots in Berlin. There’s really no need to create a new club.”

George Aivazoglou, the managing director of NBA Europe, said at an event in Milan on Friday, that the North American league plans to launch its own competition in Europe from October 2027.

He said they had settled on 12 locations for teams - Berlin, Munich, Lyon, Paris, Athens, London, Manchester, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid and Istanbul.

“These are just headlines for now. For us, these are things we already knew. Berlin was on the list from the start,” Ojeda said.

“We are one of the candidates they are considering. And Alba would be a solid candidate.”

Europe already has a successful EuroLeague competition but the NBA wants a piece of the action.

Aivazoglou left open whether teams from domestic European leagues who also play EuroLeague could be involved in his venture or whether new franchises might be set up. The league also does not have a name yet.

In addition to the 12 teams, four further franchises will be able to qualify for the NBA’s European league.

According to Aivazoglou, teams from the NBA’s European expansion could end up facing teams from the NBA itself in a special competition.

Alba Berlin are the second most successful team in the German league with 11 titles. Bayer Leverkusen have the most titles with 14. Bayern Munich are the current reigning champions.