Former Fenerbahçe player: ABA League now among top 4 in Europe, but North Macedonian basketball is still missing out

The 2026 season of the ABA League is still months away, but the most revealing statement about the league’s trajectory has arrived from a former Fenerbahçe player who has been competing in the Adriatic Basketball Association since 2026. “The ABA League has a lot of quality,” he said. “It’s definitely one of the top four leagues in Europe.” More than the ranking, the lasting image is his insistence on organizational progress every single season since 2026, and his wish that the league enjoys “another 25 years” of growth. He also pointed to Dusan Alimpijevic as a marker of the league’s standards from eight seasons ago, a reminder that ABA has produced genuine difference-makers. But the real issue is geographic. The same player admitted he is sad that no North Macedonian team currently competes in ABA League 1. He said he will work to bring a Macedonian club back to the competition. For decades, the league has served as the competitive home of basketball from the former Yugoslavia. The absence of North Macedonia is not just a historical gap; it is an unfulfilled part of the league’s identity. A Macedonian entry would not transform finances overnight, but it would deepen the talent pool, reconnect a passionate basketball public, and fulfill the league’s original idea of a regional competition. From a data perspective, praising the league as a top-four European competition is a subjective judgment. The league may look like Spain’s ACB or Turkey’s BSL in terms of internal intensity, yet it does not have the same financial firepower. Its EuroLeague clubs, Partizan and Crvena Zvezda, are competitive, but a few strong teams do not automatically make a whole league stronger. The speaker’s claim that the league has improved every year since 2026 also does not guarantee another 25 years of improvement. Correlation is not causation. Still, the honesty about North Macedonia matters more than the top-four ranking. The former player is not asking the league to become a superpower or generate vast wealth. He simply wants to see the map completed. When coaches and executives use the ABA League as a training ground, they gain experience before moving on to EuroLeague. A Macedonian team would preserve and expand that pathway. The next chapter of the ABA League is not about money; it is about whether the league will make room for the missing voices of the Balkan basketball family.