The birth of an NBA rival?LeBron James Business Manager Raises $5 Billion To Launch New Basketball League
The birth of an NBA rival?LeBron James Business Manager Raises $5 Billion To Launch New Basketball League
Blog Article
Will the NBA create an international competitor? Maverick Carter (44), business manager of the NBA's "superstar" LeBron James (40, Los Angeles Lakers), is working to attract investment to launch a new basketball league, Bloomberg and Front Office Sports reported on the 17th (Korea time).
The investment target amount is 5 billion dollars 안전놀이터 (7.292 trillion won), attracting private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and individual investors. Among the support groups for this plan are Skype co-founder Jeff Prentice, Facebook former director Grady Burnett, and SC Holdings' Jason Styles, while UBS Group and Evercore are also funding. In the NBA, private equity funds are limited to 20% of the stake and do not play the role of owner.
In their proposal, six men's and six women's teams will play in eight international cities including Singapore for two weeks. The international city tour is similar to the international schedule of Formula 1 for motorsports. Front office sports said that while they have no intention of competing with the NBA, they have ambitions to become F1 in basketball. A date has yet to be decided.
According to Front Office Sports, James is not involved in Carter's role. James, who once expressed interest in owning an NBA team at the end of his career, is currently under an option contract from 2025 to 26. Carter is a "giant" who has expanded his business beyond sports to James' TV and film production.
The NBA has had no competitors since it absorbed the ABA in 1976. The Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and Brooklyn Nets that were in the ABA moved on to the NBA. As for women's basketball, the ABL briefly competed with the WNBA in the 1990s, but they were merged. Several attempts at major sports leagues in the U.S., including the NFL, failed.
To take the lead in the international league, the NBA will hold two pre-season games in China in October next year. The game will be held in Macau for the first time in about five years after Houston Rockets coach Daryl Morey mentioned the Hong Kong crisis on social media. After the controversy over China, the NBA has been accelerating its globalization by playing in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Paris in France.