During All-Star weekend in New Orleans I met with Jordi Bertomeu, the Spaniard who is CEO of the Euroleague. In the past decade, he has emerged as one of the most progressive leaders in basketball internationally, persuading the owners of the Euroleague clubs to aggressively seize responsibility for the league's marketing interests -- a novel concept in Europe. Now he is pushing his clubs to build new arenas that average 10,000 seats or more in hopes of developing ticket revenues, a previously neglected aspect of the business in European basketball.

Bertomeu has been trying to get the top clubs in Europe to view basketball as a business as well as a means of regional competition, the latter being the traditional Old World view. As such, he provides excellent perspective on the challenges commissioner David Stern would face in moving forward with plans to expand the NBA with five new franchises in Europe over the next decade.

Bertomeu doesn't necessarily see NBA expansion to Europe as a threat. "I don't think that when people are doing things for basketball that they are damaging basketball,'' he said. "Anybody who is trying to promote basketball -- no matter which is the way -- helps basketball.'' But he does have sincere doubts that the NBA model can succeed overseas.

4. The top European clubs don't try to make a profit. This has always been amazing to me, that the owners of basketball teams in Europe plow millions of dollars into their rosters without expecting to see a return on their investment.

"For me too, it is amazing,'' Bertomeu said. "But it is part of the culture. It is difficult to explain.''

It is going to be an enormous issue for Stern to make the case to fans that they must pay big money to support the financial interests of NBA teams in Europe. The fans of European basketball are not used to this responsibility.

"These owners,'' Bertomeu said of the top basketball clubs in Europe, "they think this is something they are giving to the community. If you ask Mr. Gilberto Benetton [who owns Benetton Treviso, one of the leading basketball clubs in Italy] why he is spending this crazy amount of money on the team, he will say that this is something I have to pay back to my region because I am from here, all of my business has been grown here, and I want to do this. So he spends money for the rugby team, for the basketball team, for the volley[ball] team, and he spends tons of money. And you talk about the owner of Panathinaikos [of Athens], he is proud to spend -- not invest -- every year 15 million Euros [equivalent to $22 million] just to cover the budget of the basketball team. He loves this. It is his passion. He is like some crazy fan.''

As bizarre as it may sound to us, Bertomeu is urging his clubs to make money a priority. "We are fighting to convince the clubs that they have to get money from TV, that their clubs have to be profitable,'' he said. "We are pushing them from many points of view to focus in this direction.''

In short, Stern will have to help create a new culture before he can hope to clean up financially in Europe.

3. Basketball is not viewed as mainstream entertainment in Europe.

This is another difference that's hard to explain, but there aren't a lot of casual sports fans in Europe. In basketball, especially, a fan of Benetton Treviso will follow his own team passionately, but he won't care much about a game involving Barcelona and CSKA Moscow.

"In Europe, we like the competition. We care about the result,'' Bertomeu said. "The fans like the show, but they prefer the competition -- to win or to lose. They are much more emotional about the result than they are to just enjoy the performance.''

The NBA will have to break new ground in getting audiences to watch basketball games as they would attend the theater or the movies.

"Our culture is not based in personalities [of individual players] but in the clubs,'' Bertomeu said. "People are crazy about Panathinaikos or Barcelona no matter who are the players. What we have is something more collective, rather than a culture of individuality. In Europe, the brand is not the player; the brand is the club.''

2. The laws change from country to country.

"When we are talking about some rule in Europe,'' Bertomeu said, "we have to interpret this with 13 different laws in 13 different countries. For example, we are working to develop a unified contract for the players. When we are working on that, we have to take into account 13 different [sets of national] laws, and not all of them allow us to do the same things.

"This is something that also the NBA has to take into account. Because the law in Paris is the French law, and nobody who plays in Paris can ask for a different law other than the French law. So I would like to learn how the collective [bargaining] agreement of the NBA works in Europe. That would be very interesting from the legal point of view.

"I also am interested to see what is the FIBA position on [NBA expansion to Europe] because FIBA is the body who runs basketball around the world. It's in their hands.''

1. It will be hard to sell European tickets at NBA prices.

"In Europe, one of the weakest points is still the ticket incomes,'' Bertomeu said. "That is why I'm skeptical about the NBA in Europe, because it's difficult in Europe for the clubs to have a significant part of the budget coming from the ticket. If you think about the NBA ticket price, definitely it's not feasible.

"Here in the NBA, you are working with one country [along with one Canadian team]. So there is a difference between Los Angeles and Memphis -- for sure it is different. But the difference is much bigger between Barcelona and Belgrade. Or Moscow and Belgrade. Or Tel Aviv and Zagreb, in terms of economics. So in Tel Aviv, the average ticket can be 100 euros [close to $150]. In Belgrade, it can be 2 euros or 3 euros [less than $5].''

I would imagine that Stern's retort would be that the NBA will bring a new, fresh approach to Europe in hopes that some of the traditional concerns would not apply. The Championships League of soccer has turned into something of a mainstream entertainment throughout Europe, as has Formula One auto racing.

But it would be a mistake to dismiss the concerns raised by Bertomeu, because he in his own way is trying to introduce parts of the NBA model to European basketball -- and he is finding it extremely difficult to persuade the Old World to view things in a New World way.

"It's not only about business. The question is if all of the parties involved can find a way to cooperate or not in this project,'' Bertomeu said, referring to the project of growing European basketball and turning it into a profitable business. "Or if this is not possible, if we all are going to compete in the same market, then who will be in the better position? Will it be a strong, very recognized brand like the NBA, or will it be the traditional leagues in Europe? We will see.

"No matter if the NBA is coming or not coming, we definitely have to grow basketball in Europe. If they come, then they will come and we will see what happens. I have my doubts about it if -- this is very important -- they want to export the American model in Europe. In terms of the approach, the ticketing, the TV and the main business, this is the question mark.

"I am sure that David knows [of these issues] because he knows almost everything." But of the issues he raises regarding NBA expansion to Europe, Bertomeu said, "I don't see the solutions.''