Luka Doncic Joins Ownership Group Behind Italian Club Targeting NBA Europe

Dončić joins Donnie Nelson's ownership group as Vanoli Cremona eyes a move to Rome ahead of NBA Europe

Photo: Erik Drost / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Luka Doncic is taking his next step in European basketball, this time away from the court.

The Los Angeles Lakers star is part of an ownership group investing in Vanoli Cremona, an Italian basketball club expected to relocate to Rome as part of a larger push toward NBA Europe.

The group is led by former Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson, the man who helped bring Doncic to Dallas in 2018. It also includes Italian coaching figure Valerio Bianchini and former European professional Rimantas Kaukenas.

The plan is bigger than buying a club.

The group wants to bring top-level basketball back to Rome and position the team for the NBA’s planned European competition.

Rome has been without a major top-flight men’s basketball club since Virtus Roma stopped operations in 2020. For a city with its size, history and commercial pull, that gap has always felt strange. If the NBA wants NBA Europe to include major markets, Rome is one of the obvious names.

Doncic gives the project instant attention.

He is one of the biggest global stars in basketball and one of the clearest links between the European game and the NBA. Before he became an NBA superstar, he developed at Real Madrid, won at the highest level in Europe and entered the league as one of the most polished international prospects ever.

Now he is putting money back into the basketball world that helped build him.

“I have dreamed about owning a team in Europe for a long time,” Doncic said in a statement to ESPN. “To finally have this happen is amazing.”

For Vanoli Cremona, this could change everything.

A move to Rome would bring a new market, a larger fan base and a different level of expectation. It would also put the club in the middle of one of the biggest basketball conversations in Europe right now.

The NBA and FIBA have been working on plans for a new pan-European men’s league. The final format has not been announced, but the idea is clear enough. The NBA wants a stronger presence in Europe, and FIBA wants a structure that fits inside the existing European basketball system.

The biggest question is what happens with EuroLeague.

Right now, NBA Europe and EuroLeague could become direct competitors. That would create a messy basketball map. One league would have the NBA brand, major investors and new money. The other would have Europe’s strongest clubs, history, rivalries and an established fan base.

That kind of split would not help the sport.

The cleaner option would be some type of collaboration. NBA Europe and EuroLeague could work toward one shared competition, or at least a connected system where Europe’s biggest clubs are not forced into a fight for power.

That possibility is still alive.

Representatives from the NBA, FIBA and Euroleague Basketball have already held talks about the future of European basketball. No deal has been reached, but the fact that all sides are still talking matters. It shows there is at least room for a model where NBA Europe does not simply arrive as a rival product.

A combined competition would make sense in theory.

The NBA brings global media power, sponsorship value and commercial reach. EuroLeague brings the clubs people already care about. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Crvena Zvezda, Partizan and others already have built-in fan bases and basketball culture the NBA cannot create overnight.

You can buy a market. You can build an arena plan. You can put a famous name behind a club. But you cannot fake decades of rivalry, emotion and local identity.

That is why Doncic’s Rome project is worth watching.

It is not only about one Italian club moving cities. It is a sign of where European basketball may be going. New ownership groups are trying to get in early before the structure becomes official. Rome wants a seat at the table. Doncic and Nelson clearly believe there is a real opportunity there.

Still, nothing is guaranteed.

Vanoli Cremona has to make the move work. The club has to build support in Rome, find stability and prove it can become more than a headline. NBA Europe is still developing. EuroLeague’s role is still uncertain. A full collaboration between the NBA, FIBA and EuroLeague would be complicated, especially with money, licenses, schedules and club control involved.

But the direction is clear.

European basketball is entering a new phase, and Doncic is not waiting for everything to be settled before getting involved.

For years, Europe sent its best players to the NBA. Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Victor Wembanyama helped change the league’s identity.

Now the NBA is looking back toward Europe.

And Doncic is already in the room.