Basketball ahead in battle for global supremacy?

Much has been made of the importance attributed to Asian markets by organisations both in football and in basketball (and, for that matter, in other sports too) - including by this blog. Indeed, whether it's CR9 branded Real Madrid shirts or the NBA and its network of partners in China, the battle lines for global domination in sport are slowly being drawn up, although the nature and rules of engagement are still unclear. Recent news though indicates that the confrontation is about to get a lot more intense with the announcement by the NBA that they are seeking market expansion in Europe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/sep/29/nba-espn-tv-deal How penetrative, and therefore effective, this will be is open to question; while there is a strong predisposition towards basketball in European countries like Lithuania and Greece, others such as the UK and the Netherlands are more strongly oriented towards football. The NBA's international strategy raises some important questions though, most notably for football in its core European markets and the Asian market places which it aspires to control. In particular, how will football respond to the collectivist NBA strategy, whereby a central organisation works on behalf of a group of franchises? How will indivudualistic football clubs respond? By forming strategic alliances with one another? By adopting a much stronger strategic network approach in key markets e.g. by working with local clubs in places like China? Or is there an implication that organisations like UEFA and the EPFL (European Professional Football Leagues) must become more proactive, strategically stronger or adopt a more collectively oriented global strategy? Unless European football clubs adopt a different approach, will any of them have the strategic resources necessary to address the growing commercial threat posed by the NBA?