Far be it for little old me to question the veracity of David Stern's not-so-subtle pronouncement that the NBA may expand to Europe within the next decade, but there are a few people in the league who have some experience over there who wonder how in the world such a feat ever would happen.

It's not that they don't think it couldn't work from a basketball standpoint. After all, basketball is an increasingly popular sport across the pond, fans stream to European games, and everybody I talked to seemed to think that even more would come out for NBA games, particularly ones that feature European players.

But there was a great deal of skepticism expressed when players and coaches started to think about the travel demands involved, particularly for teams based on the West Coast.

	Gary Payton and the Sonics would have to endure a 10-hour flight to play in Europe.

"I'm wondering how we're going to do that," said Seattle SuperSonics coach Nate McMillan, who took a trip to Europe a few years back as a player, when the Sonics played some preseason games in Italy and Germany. "How would the travel work out? I don't see it happening. I just don't see it happening. I just think it is way too far."

Yes, Stern is a master manipulator, one of the best ever at getting things to work out favorably for a league that indeed has grown worldwide. But Stern cannot manipulate the logistics of travel, and that would be a 10-plus hour flight for teams coming from the West Coast.

"The only way we could do it is if we had an entire fleet of Concordes at our disposal," said Sonics center Jerome James, who played in France, Italy and Yugoslavia last year.

Also, here is another issue. Check out this story from James.

He once was playing in a playoff game for the team owned by Vlade Divac in Yugoslavia, and they were about to lose to a bitter rival. As James said, "You don't lose there."

So with about a minute left in the game, fans started to rush the court. They were so displeased with the team's performance that they wanted to beat up the players.

"I grew up in the streets," James said. "I could feel what was about to happen. So I was in the tunnel going to the locker room before any fans got down to the court."

Other players who have played in Europe tell of fans throwing coins that have been heated by lighters, even rocks. But Sacramento's Hedo Turkoglu says those stories are overblown.

"I don't think that would happen to any NBA team down there," Turkoglu said. "In Yugoslavia, the teams have a problem with each other. There are politics there, you know."

Turkoglu says he thinks teams would be successful in Greece or Turkey, Spain or Italy and even France. He says fans would flock to arenas to see players that they have only read about in magazines or watch occassionally on television.

But once again, he says, the travel would be outrageous. Here is a pretty good example: The Kings were playing in D.C. just before the All-Star break, and the president of Yugoslavia was in town. He was heading back to Yugoslavia, so Turkoglu's teammate, Divac, caught a ride with him. No problem.

But on the way home, Divac had to travel by himself. He flew from Belgrade to Amsterdam, where his flight to the States was delayed three hours.

"And I still would have made it back to practice on time, but I got stopped at customs in San Francisco," Divac said. "I didn't have any bags to check, just one carry-on bag. But the customs guy picked me out and wanted to search me in and out. I must have looked like I was going to do something."

	“	I honestly don't know if you could get kids to want to play over there (in Europe). Especially the young kids. They like the idea of being home, being in the United States. As they see it, this is the NBA. Yes, it would be NBA over there, but... ”
		— Frank Johnson, Suns coach

"He couldn't find another president to bring him back, so he had to ride commercial," Yugo teammate Peja Stojakovic joked.

It's a pretty good story, but it also illustrates the problems with flying internationally. Canada is one thing, but the EU is quite another.

New Phoenix coach Frank Johnson played in Varese, Italy for a few seasons, ones that he thought were going to wind up his playing career. He has an interesting perspective.

"The fans in Italy were great," Johnson said. "They were very enthusiastic fans. I loved it. I loved the food. My family enjoyed it over there. My wife got to speak Italian fluently. We loved it. We met some good friends that we still are in touch with. It was a great experience for me. But me going over there, I was 33 years old. I had visited Italy before, when I was in college, and I thought, 'It would be nice to come over here as my career his winding down and play.'

"I honestly don't know if you could get kids to want to play over there. Especially the young kids. They like the idea of being home, being in the United States. As they see it, this is the NBA. Yes, it would be NBA over there, but..."

And if you are looking at it from the perspective of the teams in Europe, how about their travel? Say Stern puts even five teams in Europe. That means that those teams would have to play 80 percent of their games abroad, cruising through the United States on one extended road trip.

We'll leave the final words to Gary Payton, who always can break down a situation to its core. He was asked if he liked Stern's idea of placing NBA teams on another continent.

"I hope not. That's too damn far," said Payton, who has two Olympic gold medals and has been overseas with the Sonics. "I don't think it would work to travel way over there. That's a long road trip. And they got to come over here, too. I don't know how they are going to do that, with an 82-game season. I wouldn't want to go over there. I'll be OK to stay here."

Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.