Bostjan Nachbar: I am already very… I wouldn’t say negative, but disappointed

Bostjan Nachbar, number one of the Euroleague Players’ Association (ELPA), gave a long interview to Mundo Deportivo. Here are some passages.

How is ELPA coping with this uncertain future?

We are doing very well, the problem is rather what has happened in the EuroLeague in recent years. After the problems with COVID, there was the war in Ukraine which left the three Russian clubs out of the competition. And this year there is the situation in Israel, with all that is happening at Maccabi. There has also been a change in the CEO of the competition with the exit of Marshall Glickman and the arrival of Paulius Monteiunas. A little more stability would be desirable. Sometimes, when you are there and the other side is not strong, it is more difficult to cooperate because they cannot give you an answer to many things. And this has happened in recent years. You always have to wait. We are currently negotiating our second collective agreement because the first one is about to expire.

What are the prospects for agreement?

It depends on the subject matter. I think we have already made a lot of progress in these first years, especially in dealing with the problem of lost wages. On the other hand, we have a ‘second medical opinion’ system, which is very important and the players use it a lot. We have improved standards at all clubs, both in terms of medical reports and rules on the length of pre-season, how much and when you can train…. The season of a Euroleague player is very difficult because he plays a lot of games. And now we are discussing with EuroLeague how to grow together, although when you start talking about money everything is more complex.

Last year there were problems with Red Star over non-payments, have there been other cases since then?

We will see what happens at the end of the season, because in the past we have seen that some clubs prefer not to pay at the end of the season in order to negotiate, but I think we have minimised the problem. In the current system, if you don’t pay your players you cannot sign new ones. It happened in the case of Red Star and it had enough resonance since there was talk about Campazzo, but that is how it works.

In this system of prevention against missing wages, is there some kind of common fund?

No. If within 15 days the player does not receive his salary, he informs us and ELPA passes the information on to EuroLeague, which assesses it, talks to the club and if it discovers that he has not paid, the possibility of signing a new player or coach is barred. And we have seen that it works very well. We have dealt with 40 or more cases in these six years and everything has been resolved in an average of 30 days.

There is also the issue of the number of games played, which many players and coaches have spoken out against. And instead of reducing the number of games this year, EuroLeague introduced play-in games.

Yes, we have already reached the maximum number of matches. You can’t do more, but the problem is that there are also national leagues and in the case of Spain, where the league is top level, it is madness. The players like to play, what they don’t like is travelling and training. That is why we are looking for a balance to reduce the number of training sessions and make pre-season shorter, with a maximum of 35 days. This is good, but during the season there are situations where there is too much travelling and too many games, mainly because there is not a good cooperation between EuroLeague and the domestic leagues.

Do you know how talks are going with FIBA to collaborate and harmonise things a bit more?

There are many ideas, but little movement. The only thing they have done is that they have reached an agreement that in February EuroLeague players can go and play with the national teams and that’s it. I am already very… I wouldn’t say negative, but disappointed because I thought that after a year of discussions and negotiations there would be something more and instead there is not much. And that would be necessary. It is necessary not only for FIBA but for all of basketball, because a basketball fan, when he sits at home and watches a game on television, sometimes does not know what he is watching. And meanwhile other sports and other leagues, especially the NBA, take advantage of this.

There was also talk about the possibility of player exchanges during the season, similar to what happens in the NBA. Has it been shelved?

It was talked about, but I don’t know if it was a desire of the coaches’ union to protect themselves more, to be able to exchange players without losing their jobs. I understand that because many good coaches lost their jobs. In that year there were eight or nine changes in the middle of the season and that’s too many. But to change players like they do in the NBA, I don’t see that possible. We are absolutely against it because we want to protect them. And it is not that easy either, because contracts are also linked to national leagues, different legal frameworks and different countries. It is not possible to change contracts like the NBA does. If a player wants to change, he is already doing it, but changing contracts I don’t see it possible.

How do you work with the unions in each country?

It depends. With some less and with others more, we have had meetings with several. I would like to have more, but on the other hand I also understand that everyone has their own problems. We worry about those who play in the EuroLeague and here in Spain, for example, there are 14 other quite high level clubs with players who need the support of a union. Their problems are a bit different.

And the Eurocup players?

In some things yes. We don’t have a collective agreement like in the Euroleague, but yes. We do because of the issue of non-payment and the second medical opinion.

You spoke earlier about the absences of the Russian teams, Maccabi’s problems, do you think they will be solved?

It will be a long time before we see Russian teams again, because I see how the world works. Until they get into other sports I don’t think it will happen, because I don’t think EuroLeague will take independent action. Yes, there are extreme situations like Thomas Heurtel (suspended from his national team because he has a contract in Russia), but also some Americans. The player knows that he only has one sporting career and intends to use it to progress and win as much as possible. If you receive an offer from Russia it is difficult to refuse it if you have nothing else because you have a family, you have a life and you have to make the most of it. Sometimes it’s hard to understand, but that’s how it is.

What do you think European club basketball will be like next year?

There are rumours that later on there might be an expansion to include Dubai teams, but now I think Paris will come in. Dubai I think will first play one or two years in the Eurocup to see how it adapts.