Is LeBron James's reported international league legit - or just a ploy for NBA ownership?
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The internet was abuzz with LeBron James, Maverick Carter, his business partner, and Nikola Jokic's agent on a boat, sipping wine somewhere, throwing off his sports, those people over there, and my friend Nick Wright.
He's very close with LeBron and his people and mentioned that conversation was about an international basketball league, almost similar to LIV Golf with the Saudis and their money.
I don't think this is going to be Saudi money, but just an alternative basketball league.
They're planning on it being six men's teams.
Six women's teams.
Full-time responsibility for players, which means you cannot play in the NBA and play in this international basketball league.
Players can get equity.
Do you see this as, let's just say, a leverage ploy for a guy like LeBron because we know LeBron wants to get in on NBA expansion and NBA ownership, or is this a viable alternative to poach real-time NBA talent?
Yeah, I think more so the former because we know he wants to own a team.
They've been vocal about that.
They haven't been operating in the shadows.
They've been very public with that.
And so, um, if that's the goal.
Then the other league funding this other, getting involved in this other league doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you're trying to tamp down what you might have to pay to get in the NBA and using this as kind of, something to say, hey, Adam Silver, we've got the guys together, we have the money together.
We could do this, you need to figure something out for us on the other end.
So maybe its that you look at valuations and the sales of these teams and Celtics and Lakers, and I can only imagine how high that number is, to get into Seattle or get into Vegas, expanding into these new cities.
It's going to be an astronomical figure.
So, LeBron, part of, I believe, Fenway Sports Group, would have to put together a significant amount of money to get in.
Maybe that's the factor here that that is kind of behind the scenes that, we're not really thinking about reporting on, but maybe that's what's there ultimately.
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