The NBA, Cuban argued, should be concentrating on marketing and promoting the sport in American cities without franchises instead of expending money and effort on aiding a league which is, theoretically, in competition with the NBA for the same players and consumer euros.

Valid as some of Cuban's points were, it was the presentation of his comments which raised greater complaint in Euro circles, not least his use of the fable of the "frog and the scorpion" to personify Jordi Bertomeu, the respected EuroLeague chief executive.

"The scorpion professes his love for the frog," continued Cuban. "The frog puts the scorpion on his back and takes him across the pond that the scorpion would not otherwise be able to cross. On the other side the scorpion basically looks at the frog, says 'Thanks for the ride, but I'm still a scorpion' and stings and kills the frog."

Bertomeu was genuinely offended by that metaphor and responded. "First of all, I don't like the symbolism of the frog and the scorpion," said Bertomeu. "I expect better from an NBA owner with his cultural background. He could have used another expression. I don't want to fight or argue with him, I have never met this guy but I respect him and I expect the same in return.

"It is curious that the NBA in Europe is being criticised for trying to 'invade' Europe, now, at the same time, we are being accused of trying to do the same thing. Maybe the truth lies in between and maybe we are doing this the right way."

The irony is that the best Dallas player - and arguably the best non-American in the world today - is Dirk Nowitzki, of Germany, and this was not lost on the EuroLeague chief. Bertomeu freely conceded that elite players, such as Nowitzki, will always gravitate towards the NBA but is concerned about stopping the traffic in less accomplished, younger Europeans who are signed by American teams only to disappear at the end of benches or in the development league.

"We understand [Manu] Ginobili is an NBA player, not our player; we understand Nowitzki is an NBA player, not our player," he said. "We are not crying about that. If Dallas can afford to sign Nowitzki, nobody can complain.

"But the problem for us are the many, many players who are moving to the NBA and those players have never had enough playing time and coaching in our leagues to allow them to go and play in that sort of competition. There are many such examples.

"The problem we have to solve with the NBA comes where these players are sitting on a bench or going to the development league instead of playing quality minutes on our teams in a strong competition. We lose those players - I don't mean EuroLeague, I mean basketball loses those players."

That spat aside, both parties could congratulate themselves on a successful enterprise, with decent to very good crowds in Moscow, Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Lyon and Cologne, enjoying, by pre-season standards, accomplished basketball and a number of well-executed community and public relations programmes.

NBA Europe Live will take place again in 2007 and David Stern, the NBA Commissioner, confirmed London is among cities interested in being involved. "I would say that London, together with Cologne, together with Rome, together with Malaga, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Prague - there is a long list of cities which have expressed their interest for hosting as many of these games as we care to play," Stern said.

However, sources at both EuroLeague and the NBA have confirmed that London's new O2 Docklands Arena will definitely be one of the venues in 2007, with cities in Italy and Spain, as well as possibly Prague, also involved.

Back on the court, the 76ers, humbled 104-96 by Barcelona last Thursday, responded superbly against a CSKA team depleted by niggling injuries and the unfamiliarity of playing back-to-back games lasting the NBA regulation 48 minutes, instead of the international 40 minutes.

"Just the urgency," said Allen Iverson, the 76ers guard, when asked to explain the improvement in his team, which also beat the Phoenix Suns in Cologne on Tuesday. "The fact that nobody is going to lay down for us. Every time you step on the basketball court, you've got to understand a team is going to try to beat you, especially an international team playing an NBA team.

"They have got a lot of pride and belief in themselves and a lot of those guys can play in the NBA right now. You are going to see a lot more international players in the NBA in the coming years. The talent level over here is so much better than in the past."

Iverson impressed the 13,000-plus crowd scoring 28 points and dishing nine assists in 43 minutes while starters Samuel Dalembert (15 points, 18 rebounds) and Chris Webber (13 points) also shone against a CSKA team fatigued and effected by minor injuries. Former US college star Trajan Langdon was the pick of the Russian crop with 16 points and 8 boards.

Earlier yesterday, the Suns defeated last season's EuroLeague runners-up Maccabi Tel Aviv 119-102, leaving CSKA as the only other EuroLeague team, besides Barcelona, to upset NBA opposition, having beaten the LA Clippers 94-75 last week. Overall, in NBA versus Europe meetings, the record stood at 6-2 in America's favour.

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