LeBron James’ business partner, Maverick Carter, part of a $5 billion plan to compete with the NBA
A group of investors advised by Maverick Carter, Business partner of LeBron James in the star of the Los Angeles Lakersis wants to raise $5 billion to form an international basketball league that will rival the NBA, according to Bloomberg.com.
According to Bloomberg, $5 billion would come from private equity sources. Although Maverick Carter advises the group, LeBron James is is not part of this ventureaccording to Front Office Sports. UBS Group AG and Evercore Inc. are included to help raise money, which could come from wealthy individuals or institutional investors. Skype co-founder Jeff Prentice and former Facebook CEO Grady Barnett are backing them, along with SC Holdings co-founders Jason Stein and Daniel Haimovich.
As for the league itself, the idea is to field six men’s and six women’s teams, with games played in eight cities around the world, spending two weeks in each city, according to Bloomberg. Singapore is one of the cities where the games would be played. The Formula 1 race schedule is listed as a comparison.
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Other leagues like this tried to compete with the NFL and struggled to break through. It remains to be seen whether this league can be formulated and implemented. For now, it is an idea, but there is a vision as stated above.
The NBA has pushed the envelope when it comes to international markets. The league returned to China after not going for several years. NBA games have been held in Paris since 2020, while the Boston Celtics also went to Abu Dhabi to play a preseason game in October.
It’s a long road to this new league, and it’s certainly interesting to see Carter as one of its main faces, even if James himself isn’t involved. It will be worth keeping an eye on what happens with this potential league going forward.
2025-01-16 17:37:00
