NBA: Minor League

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

WTF? You think they are looking for five billion to become a rival to the Big Three?

Lets try to stick to arguments that are reality based. Clearly their intentions would be an international league.

Everyone has been trying to bring you back to reality, you just have no interest in it.

The reality is in the link. Seems you didn’t read it.

I’ll help you.

Here is the first sentence:
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.

Yes, we’ve all seen that.

Here is what you are struggling to understand: just because that is their goal, does not mean it’s attainable.

[SNPA]

Everyone has been trying to bring you back to reality, you just have no interest in it.

The reality is in the link. Seems you didn’t read it.

I’ll help you.

Here is the first sentence:
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.

Yes, we’ve all seen that.

Here is what you are struggling to understand: just because that is their goal, does not mean it’s attainable.

People can read. They can look at my posts. I’ve made several statements about it possibly not working.

Back to talking reality:

“UBS Group AG and Evercore Inc. have been tapped to help raise the money, which may come from wealthy individuals and institutional investors such as sovereign wealth funds, according to people who asked to not be identified as the information is private. 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. Representatives for Carter, UBS, SC Holdings, Prentice and Burnett declined to comment. Evercore didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”

lol. Some of ya’ll so scared of change you can’t even contempt its possibility when it’s literally written out for you.

[DAWill1128]

Vince McMahon was expected to lose 375 million bringing back the XFL. These guys want to get into that business?

[knicksfan974]

PGA/LIV was a more serious threat; there are no "teams" in Golf. You just need to poach individual golfers into your tour and host tournaments and voila. Basketball is a team sport - you need to assemble actual teams to play, and that takes at least a dozen players per team; you need to build brand and marketing for each team; you need to create contracts with each player, not just tournament prizes and individual "join this whole league" deals like in golf.

I don’t know golf. I know basketball and I know how agents think. Again, James via Carter is already involved.

Five billion is plenty. They could start with payrolls around 500m and still have a couple billion to stand up the league.

Every year stars and superstars are available. All they have to do is time it right to poach 3-4 top guys over a two year window and that league takes off.

As for the Curry and scrubs comments…role players can make double too. You don’t think Monk would bolt for 40m?

Imagine cities competing like the Olympics to host the tour each year.

It's a great idea, in theory but not every single player is chasing money first..

To be fair, most are. Just throw enough money on the table and you will be able to sign just about anyone.

[knicksfan974]

I'm open to new rival leagues that might eventually offer a better product than the NBA does. But in order to be succesful this new league must be able to sign the top guys like Wembanyama. I would be watching and you bet especially the international global audience would also welcome the new league with its global superstars. Global basketball fans would be tuning in to watch the best basketball on the planet, and if it is some other league than the NBA then so be it.

[zimpy27]

Yeah this will work if it's seen as competitive as the playoffs. Money is the big motivation to players.
If you put the salaries in it will work.

Sports media is probably the best to get into, finding something that works could be huge.

[zimpy27]

I don't see the absence of a salary cap as a significant advantage for a pro basketball league. Isn't the NBA about the only basketball league with a salary cap. Can't all the leagues in Europe, China, South America et al pay their star players more than any NBA max contract?

They could but watered down talent wise. This league is 6 teams that all have concentrated talent, it's the only way it would work.

[jk31]

FIBA is a strong league and has had some great teams, but it's not on the same leve

FIBA is no league but an association that unites all national associations worldwide. if you mean the euroleague, they are not part of FIBA and to be specific are even a rival product to the FIBAs EuroCup

Fair enough. I was alluding to the Euro League of which you've referenced. FIBA is just their governing body.

no, fiba is NOT the governing body. The governing body of the Euroleague is run by a private company called ECA which is running the Euroleague as rival league to the highest FIBA league in europe which is called the EuroCup. The whole FIBA vs Euroleague debate is leading to national team qualification windows being during the season and locking all euroleague players out of these qualifying windows, resulting in strong national teams being forced to run their C or D lineups. I remember serbia being close to not qualify for the eurobasket or world cup or so a few years back because of that.

[SkyBill40]

FIBA is no league but an association that unites all national associations worldwide. if you mean the euroleague, they are not part of FIBA and to be specific are even a rival product to the FIBAs EuroCup

Fair enough. I was alluding to the Euro League of which you've referenced. FIBA is just their governing body.

no, fiba is NOT the governing body. The governing body of the Euroleague is run by a private company called ECA which is running the Euroleague as rival league to the highest FIBA league in europe which is called the EuroCup. The whole FIBA vs Euroleague debate is leading to national team qualification windows being during the season and locking all euroleague players out of these qualifying windows, resulting in strong national teams being forced to run their C or D lineups. I remember serbia being close to not qualify for the eurobasket or world cup or so a few years back because of that.

I see. Interesting. Thanks for the backstory.

Sent from my SM-F936U using RealGM mobile app

[Wingy]

For those unable to click links…

6 men’s / 6 women’s.

8 cities around the global. Two week intervals.

The list of investors is legit. These guys can do this if they really want. LeBron seems already in via Maverick Carter.

I’ll ask again, why would a superstar play in a salary capped league when there is a chance to play for multiples the money, in fewer games and with more global fame? I’ll await an answer.

Because the fans are following the top league. With 5b you won't have a competitive league. Some people will watch the fake NBA but basketball fan will watch the top league. Why would anyone watch LeBron James + 4 g leaguer vs Steph Curry + 4 high schoolers

While I think you’re exaggerating, I had the same thought. I’m struggling to watch the NBA anymore, so why am I going to care about Wemby and a small handful of other stars (who are all taking a massive amount of money) and a bunch of dudes willing to take whatever scraps are left? What, are we going to have, a bunch of teams like last year’s Spurs? Oof.

Then you introduce time zone factors. Maybe not everyone, but it’s hard for me to avoid seeing or hearing scores. Just too much going on in life to remember to avoid a sports site, or a news feed. Then once that happens, I don’t love watching a game when I know the outcome unless I’m invested and a real fan of that team. So immediately, I can’t see myself subscribing to a service for these games, and would only watch if it’s something I already have. Even then, it would be out of curiosity only, and can’t foresee myself jumping onboard. There’s zero possible way they can significantly differentiate from the existing product. In fact, by definition they are watering it down.

I just can’t see arena revenue, and online ad views sustaining a league like this. Like I stated early - too much inertia. There are simply too many entertainment choices and busy lives. En masse, there’s no way people will invest the energy to switch to a new thing

[LuDux1]

Fair enough. I was alluding to the Euro League of which you've referenced. FIBA is just their governing body.

no, fiba is NOT the governing body. The governing body of the Euroleague is run by a private company called ECA which is running the Euroleague as rival league to the highest FIBA league in europe which is called the EuroCup. The whole FIBA vs Euroleague debate is leading to national team qualification windows being during the season and locking all euroleague players out of these qualifying windows, resulting in strong national teams being forced to run their C or D lineups. I remember serbia being close to not qualify for the eurobasket or world cup or so a few years back because of that.

I see. Interesting. Thanks for the backstory.

Sent from my SM-F936U using RealGM mobile app

Minor correction: EuroCup is Euroleague's second level competition, FIBA's highest league is Champions League

[toooskies]

Someone will need to take big losses for a long time and not care about the money. The fact that they're already looking for investors means it's already a bad idea.

[Wingy]

I'm open to new rival leagues that might eventually offer a better product than the NBA does. But in order to be succesful this new league must be able to sign the top guys like Wembanyama. I would be watching and you bet especially the international global audience would also welcome the new league with its global superstars. Global basketball fans would be tuning in to watch the best basketball on the planet, and if it is some other league than the NBA then so be it.

How are they going to establish better basketball when they are literally splitting up the talent?

There will undoubtedly be player purists when it comes to history and tradition just like there were for the PGA. Heck, per some of his comments I’ve seen, a guy like Wemby just might be one of them.

[cpower]

For those unable to click links…

6 men’s / 6 women’s.

8 cities around the global. Two week intervals.

The list of investors is legit. These guys can do this if they really want. LeBron seems already in via Maverick Carter.

I’ll ask again, why would a superstar play in a salary capped league when there is a chance to play for multiples the money, in fewer games and with more global fame? I’ll await an answer.

Because the fans are following the top league. With 5b you won't have a competitive league. Some people will watch the fake NBA but basketball fan will watch the top league. Why would anyone watch LeBron James + 4 g leaguer vs Steph Curry + 4 high schoolers

While I think you’re exaggerating, I had the same thought. I’m struggling to watch the NBA anymore, so why am I going to care about Wemby and a small handful of other stars (who are all taking a massive amount of money) and a bunch of dudes willing to take whatever scraps are left? What, are we going to have, a bunch of teams like last year’s Spurs? Oof.

Then you introduce time zone factors. Maybe not everyone, but it’s hard for me to avoid seeing or hearing scores. Just too much going on in life to remember to avoid a sports site, or a news feed. Then once that happens, I don’t love watching a game when I know the outcome unless I’m invested and a real fan of that team. So immediately, I can’t see myself subscribing to a service for these games, and would only watch if it’s something I already have. Even then, it would be out of curiosity only, and can’t foresee myself jumping onboard. There’s zero possible way they can significantly differentiate from the existing product. In fact, by definition they are watering it down.

I just can’t see arena revenue, and online ad views sustaining a league like this. Like I stated early - too much inertia. There are simply too many entertainment choices and busy lives. En masse, there’s no way people will invest the energy to switch to a new thing

maybe for entertaining perspective...like Steph Curry going for 20 threes a night ..Lebron James going for 5 dunks as 40 years old... but that is not basketball.. call it a new sport

[Ruma85]

I don’t know golf. I know basketball and I know how agents think. Again, James via Carter is already involved.

Five billion is plenty. They could start with payrolls around 500m and still have a couple billion to stand up the league.

Every year stars and superstars are available. All they have to do is time it right to poach 3-4 top guys over a two year window and that league takes off.

As for the Curry and scrubs comments…role players can make double too. You don’t think Monk would bolt for 40m?

Imagine cities competing like the Olympics to host the tour each year.

It's a great idea, in theory but not every single player is chasing money first..

To be fair, most are. Just throw enough money on the table and you will be able to sign just about anyone.

It's possible, though it' something we will most likely never found out, my point is for most players there's a certain amount that would be enough for them to sustain anything that they could ever dream for there family/friends & of course themselves, & than there's a small percentage that just want to keep chasing money, until the clock runs out.

[Wingy]

maybe for entertaining perspective...like Steph Curry going for 20 threes a night ..Lebron James going for 5 dunks as 40 years old... but that is not basketball.. call it a new sport

I can imagine only a minuscule fraction of a fraction would consider that better…certainly not enough for business viability.

The fact Steph hasn’t already asked out of the Warriors shows he’s an old school lifer. No way in hell is he leaving the Warriors for some upstart league.

Watching old Lebron finally sustain some major injury, playing just because he’s in it with an old business venture/partnership bud…would just be sad. Would be an unfortunate, pathetic end in some cockamamie league for an ATG. Obviously his life, and his legacy is secure, but as a general basketball fan something I just hope I never see.

[MaxZaslofskyJr]

Yeah, but the NBA wasn't exactly popular at the time in the 70s either. Plus the ABA was made strictly so they could merge with the NBA in mind. The idea was buy an ABA team for peanuts, merge it with the NBA, and then your investment doubles or whatever.

You raise a good point but I'm thinking there might be a parallel strategy of sorts. Part of the ABA's strategy was to create franchises in more out-of-the way places, beat the NBA to the punch expansion-wise and get their foot in the door for an NBA team. We've been hearing for years about the NBA wanting to go more international. Maybe that's the new leagues long-term eventual gambit somehow? Keep in mind that they still might have some time to further position themselves towards this goal. Just throwing it out there.....

[wegotthabeet]

Formula One is mentioned as a model.

I suggested this years ago as a future model for the NBA. Make the NBA a tour in essence until the playoffs.

But why? Has this ever worked? It works in individual sports (and yes, I get that F1 has a team behind their drivers, but people tend to identify with the drivers most of all), but has it ever worked in team sports.

Team sports are all about the identity that's closely associated with the city they are from.

No it obviously wouldn’t work for team sports even if the NBA is star driven and individualist for a team sport.

I do however think that the NBA should copy the NFL. One game a week, but for 24 weeks. Having these games during the weekend would allow the potentially vast international audiences access to regular season games at viewable hours. Keep the playoffs as is.

[Nate505]

If they're serious about doubling salary they'll get some good players not just 40 year old dudes in wheelchairs .

Who is going to play in it?

Let's say they do double the salary. Is that going to drive Jokic to play there? Luka? SGA?

And if they do, what exactly is the appeal of this league? In the NBA it's not just the money, it's the legacy. Here it would literally be just the money. There would be no legacy. It's a traveling basketball show.

it won't be the cream of the crop probably b list stars players who feel underpaid and under respected . Twilight prime guys . Young dudes who could have their salary quadrupled . Guys like that .

Ok...but why would this be compelling to watch?

That's what makes no sense to me about this plan. Eight barnstorming teams playing against each other in different cities...for what exactly? Money? Why do I care which league these guys make their millions in. For some trophy at the end of the year? Why do I care about some newly minted trophy from a league that has no history.

I mean, maybe they can make some rule changes and offer a more appealing game against teams that in theory are more deep given there are less teams (if they can attract that much talent, which I kind of doubt), but with no real stakes, who cares.

[Nate505]

I'm open to new rival leagues that might eventually offer a better product than the NBA does. But in order to be succesful this new league must be able to sign the top guys like Wembanyama. I would be watching and you bet especially the international global audience would also welcome the new league with its global superstars. Global basketball fans would be tuning in to watch the best basketball on the planet, and if it is some other league than the NBA then so be it.

What better product are they going to offer?

The biggest thing the NBA has going for it product wise is the history. Look, I detest the modern version of the NBA, but I'll still watch a lot of the playoffs and the Finals this year, because they are playing for something that Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Bird, Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Lebron, Steph, Kobe, etc. played their hearts and souls for. It means something to me.

What does Wemby vs Cooper Flagg playing against each other in Singapore have to offer? Great players for sure, but if the stakes are meaningless, it's like watching a pickup game with great players. Sure, if I'm walking by the park I'll stop and watch for a bit, but that's about it.