American businessman David Kahn held a press conference in Paris to announce his plans for his new professional basketball club, Paris Basket, which will play in Pro B next season, according to L'ÉQUIPE. Paris Basket Owner & CEO Kahn, who was previously president of the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves and GM of the Indiana Pacers, said that he wanted to “put Paris in the realm of great European basketball clubs.” He said, “We know the road will be long and we’ll take our time one step at a time.” Sources said that the club named Romuald Coustre its GM (L’ÉQUIPE, 7/12). EUROHOOPS’ Anonis Stroggylakis reported Kahn is the owner and president of Paris Basket, "with the blessing" of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. To launch the club, Kahn paid €1M ($1.17M) for the Pro B rights to Hyères-Toulon. He said that a “main goal” for the club is to compete in EuroLeague by ’20, so that the French capital “will finally have a representative" in the top tier of European competition. Kahn: “Our budget will be the average of a Pro B team (€1.5M-€2M/$1.7M-$2.3M). It will increase when we are promoted to the (French top-tier) Jeep Elite, then Eurocup and EuroLeague” (EUROHOOPS, 7/12).
