The NBA and Electronic Arts announced today NBA Europe Live presented by EA Sports.

The 2-year deal will send four NBA teams to four European cities for both training camps and exhibition games. The annual event will culminate with a championship in a fifth European country with two NBA teams, the Euroleague Basketball Champion and Euroleague Basketball runner-up.

NBA Europe Live will start next year. The cities have not yet been announced, though they hope to have the details hammered out by the end of the summer.

Electronic Arts' Joel Linzner said that while there are no plans for a NBA Europe Live video game, future NBA games could very well have a more international flavor.

We have no intention of turning this into a type of FIFA league, but I can certainly see a day in which we are increasing the exposure of Euroleague to help make (NBA Live) a truly global product much as we have with FIFA Soccer.

Linzner added that the main reason EA is supporting the new European tournament is to help grow the sport of basketball in Europe and of course increase sales of their basketball games there.

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