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Maverick Carter is advising a group of investors seeking to raise $5 billion from private capital sources to form an international basketball league ro rival the NBA, reports Bloomberg. UBS Group AG and Evercore Inc. have been tapped to help raise the money. Other backers include Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice, former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, and the investment firm SC Holdings, which is led by co-founders Jason Stein and Daniel Haimovic.

Carter is the longtime business partner of LeBron James. James has expressed a strong interest in becoming an owner of an NBA team when he retires.

The league will comprise six men’s and six women’s teams, with games played in eight cities around the world with two weeks in each city, the people said. The global rotation would be similar to that of Formula 1 races. Singapore is one of the market where games will be played. 

Via Gillian Tan, Matthew Monks, Michelle F Davis/Bloomberg

too much damn dry powder

I don't see it, but maybe if it's during the summer when there's no NBA and G-leaguers and unsigned players can try to showcase their talents. Maybe.

"To rival the NBA", yeah good luck with that. And if they, by some miracle, did become a force to be reckoned with LeBron can kiss his dreams of being an NBA team owner goodbye.

Reeko wrote:"To rival the NBA", yeah good luck with that. And if they, by some miracle, did become a force to be reckoned with LeBron can kiss his dreams of being an NBA team owner goodbye.

this wouldnt even rival domestic european leagues. why would anyone watch that? and with a budget of only one billion for the whole league, i am betting that they dont even have enough money to get any top tier player, neither from the NBA, nor from europe...

Stupid idea. Also theres already Big3.

Always good to have competitions. This is the best way to make games more affordable for the everyday folks.

jk31 wrote:

Reeko wrote:"To rival the NBA", yeah good luck with that. And if they, by some miracle, did become a force to be reckoned with LeBron can kiss his dreams of being an NBA team owner goodbye.

this wouldnt even rival domestic european leagues. why would anyone watch that? and with a budget of only one billion for the whole league, i am betting that they dont even have enough money to get any top tier player, neither from the NBA, nor from europe...

6 teams 1 billion that's 166million per team right? I bet from Europe they would but this would be such a money loser the start up cost is preposterous.. It will never get off the ground.

Reeko wrote:"To rival the NBA", yeah good luck with that. And if they, by some miracle, did become a force to be reckoned with LeBron can kiss his dreams of being an NBA team owner goodbye.

If they rivaled the NBA it would likely make NBA teams cheaper not more expensive so how does that work? LeBron will have to team up with ppl to buy an NBA team he doesn't have close to enough money to do it any other way.

Vegeta10176 wrote:

jk31 wrote:

Reeko wrote:"To rival the NBA", yeah good luck with that. And if they, by some miracle, did become a force to be reckoned with LeBron can kiss his dreams of being an NBA team owner goodbye.

this wouldnt even rival domestic european leagues. why would anyone watch that? and with a budget of only one billion for the whole league, i am betting that they dont even have enough money to get any top tier player, neither from the NBA, nor from europe...

6 teams 1 billion that's 166million per team right? I bet from Europe they would but this would be such a money loser the start up cost is preposterous.. It will never get off the ground.

166 Mio per Team, Yeah. but you have more Bills to pay than just players. Arenas, travels, employees,...

I'm excited for this. I've been wanting to see an International Basketball league for some time now. Other countries have been catching up talent wise to America, so this is the perfect time to get the process started.

Seems unlikely. If you get a player or players that people want to watch, though (there are probably ten or fifteen in the world - at most), then who knows, I guess.

The only way any league will rival the NBA is by getting and keeping players who would otherwise be NBA stars. Seems unlikely.

Only way this works is of they can beat nba salaries and get top players. They want to tour the world 2 weeks at a time, if that can generate a ton of cash reliably, and the new owners are into paying the top players more than 51 percent, then they could snag 20-30 top players to make up their 6 teams.

Imagine half of the top 50 players in the NBA playing on 6 teams, and each making 70 million a year, plus endorsements. I'd watch that.

Plus, owners might not need to own arenas, which could amount to huge savings. They'd have deals locally where they travel.