{"id":118319,"date":"2025-01-16T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=118319"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:10:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:10:50","slug":"international-basketball-league-in-works-to-rival-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/16\/international-basketball-league-in-works-to-rival-nba\/","title":{"rendered":"New International Basketball League In The Works To Rival NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA is good business. Over the last couple of decades, the league has been exploding all over the world. NBA owners have seen their franchise values shoot up, and everyone wants to get in on the money-making opportunity. There have been loud murmurs about an NBA expansion<\/a> coming soon. However, exactly who will be leading those franchises and where they will be located hasn\u2019t been figured out yet. Recently, Bloomberg reported<\/a> that a group of investors are looking to raise $5 billion to form a new international basketball league. The league will rival the NBA. LeBron James<\/a>\u2019 business partner, Maverick Carter, is reportedly one of the advisors for this project, showing exactly how real this league could be.<\/p>\n

New International Basketball League In The Works To Rival NBA<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A Rival League in the Works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to Bloomberg, this new international basketball league would try to rival the NBA and WNBA. The league would consist of six men\u2019s teams and six women\u2019s teams. Games would be held in eight different cities across the globe. Each city would host games for two weeks at a time, creating a rotating international schedule. The cities included in the rotation are still unconfirmed. Singapore is reportedly one of the potential markets under consideration. Other major Asian markets could be involved as well.<\/p>\n

As far as the money goes, UBS Group AG and Evercore Inc. have been hired to help raise capital. They will be looking for private, institutional investments and even sovereign wealth funds to reach their lofty goal of $5 billion. The NBA hasn’t tapped into all of these investment options yet.<\/p>\n

Maverick Carter\u2019s Involvement Is Important<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Furthermore, Maverick Carter’s involvement is definitely worth noting. Carter\u2019s extensive business network and connections could be pivotal in attracting both investors and players. There\u2019s no confirmation that James himself will have a role in the league. However, Carter\u2019s association with James has already sparked speculation about the potential for his involvement down the line. However, at this stage, Carter\u2019s role is described as an advisory one, with no clear details on how hands-on he will be. Still, LeBron has made it clear he wants to own an NBA team one day, but could that be changed by owning a basketball league?<\/p>\n

A New International Basketball League Will be a Challenge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the end, competing with the NBA is a tough task. Even with billions of dollars of investment, taking on an established league like the NBA will certainly be an uphill battle. Its success will depend not only on the ability to raise substantial capital but also on the willingness of top players to leave the security of the NBA for a startup league.<\/p>\n

For now, the plans remain in the early stages, and many questions remain unanswered. But given the involvement of high-profile figures like Maverick Carter, this is a development worth tracking closely as it unfolds. Whether it can succeed where others have failed in creating a credible challenge to the NBA will be one of the most fascinating stories in sports over the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NBA is good business. Over the last couple of decades, the league has been exploding all over the world. NBA owners have seen their franchise values shoot up, and everyone wants to get in on the money-making opportunity. There have been loud murmurs about an NBA expansion coming soon. However, exactly who will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":118373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1608,61],"tags":[38,49304],"class_list":["post-118319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-basketball","category-international-basketball","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba-expansion"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118319"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118374,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118319\/revisions\/118374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}