The sports world raised its collective eyebrow on Thursday when reports emerged that LeBron James’s business partner Maverick Carter was advising a group of investors looking to raise $5 billion for an overseas basketball league to compete with the NBA.
But according to a new report by Puck’s John Ourand, LeBron is not involved in the venture. Per Ourand’s newsletter, “the story, of course, raised all sorts of fascinating questions. Would LeBron be involved? (No, according to multiple knowledgeable sources.)”
That report is likely a sigh of relief for the NBA, a league that has widely been speculated as ripe for competition by wealthy investors interested in creating a competitor.
According to the original report in Bloomberg, such investors include sovereign wealth funds (similar to the Saudi PIF, which several years ago disrupted the entire men’s professional golf ecosystem by creating LIV Golf). Other investors include Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice, a former Facebook executive, and a private equity firm.
Details around the potential league are sparse, but it’s said to be structured more like a Formula 1 circuit than a traditional league like the NBA. Six men’s and six women’s teams would travel to various locations and play round-robin style tournaments in each location, with a winner determined at each stop along the way.
Could this potential league attract some of the NBA’s biggest stars? Given the $5 billion fundraising goal, that seems to be the plan. Whether the NBA — which already has issues getting stars to play in its own games — would allow its most valuable talents to compete overseas, outside of the league umbrella, seems to be a big hurdle that the upstart league would need to clear.
Nevertheless, the weight of Maverick Carter certainly means something here. Even if LeBron James is not involved in the venture yet, it’s difficult to imagine he’d completely steer clear once the league gets off the ground. By that time, James may well be out of the NBA, and would be unburdened by working for a competitor.
There’s clearly still plenty to figure out. But the world of professional basketball might experience some disruption sooner than many think.
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