While there’s plenty of talk out there about plans for new sports leagues, it’s rare to see one boldly taking aim at an established top league. It’s also rare to see one with involvement from a figure as prominent as Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ long-time business manager and business partner. Both of those factors are at play with a new group reported on by Bloomberg Wednesday, which is looking to raise $5 billion to launch an international men’s and women’s basketball league “to rival the National Basketball Association”:

A group of investors advised by Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ business partner, is seeking to raise $5 billion to form an international basketball league to rival the NBA, according to people familiar with the matter https://t.co/wGNB5U80Od

— Bloomberg (@business) January 16, 2025

Here’s more from that piece, from Bloomberg’s Gillian Tan, Matthew Monks, and Michelle F. Davis:

A group of investors being advised by Maverick Carter, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ business partner, is seeking to raise $5 billion from private capital sources to form an international basketball league to rival the National Basketball Association, according to people familiar with the matter.

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.

…The league will comprise six men’s and six women’s teams, with games played in eight cities around the world with two weeks in each city, the people said. The global rotation is modeled on a similar schedule to that of Formula 1 races. Singapore is one of the markets where games will be played.

There are a lot of interesting elements there. Perhaps the three that stand out the most are the amount of funds looking to be raised, the global idea with rotating markets rather than traditional home teams, and the inclusion of both men’s and women’s teams.

On the funding side, $5 billion is a massive amount, and it certainly speaks to this group actually wanting to challenge the NBA and the WNBA. The NBA’s salary cap is currently $140 million per team, but there are a number of ways to exceed that, so the top salary number for 2024-25 is actually $217.8 million (the Phoenix Suns). The top six teams would get you to $1.18 billion.

A startup league would have to spend more than that to entice players away from an established league. And it would likely take a lot of its advantages from being able to offer more than the NBA’s highly-artificial “max contract” that has players like James ($48.7 million this year; Steph Curry is tops with $55.8, with the top possible numbers changing depending on players’ history with teams) making much less than they would in a freer market. Past rival leagues like the ABA, AFL, USFL, WHA and so on often spent huge amounts on some of the biggest stars, and found some of their biggest success from that.

There would also be big costs for women’s players’ salaries (especially in an era where there’s already one U.S. offseason league in Unrivaled), costs for coaches and executives, league costs, and more. So a $5 billion total raise for a launch sounds about right. And while it’s certainly unclear if this group will actually get that money, it ups the seriousness of this bid that they’re talking about that figure (and that they’re considering sources of funding the NBA doesn’t fully allow, such as sovereign wealth funds from other countries).  This isn’t set up like the 2022 USFL or 2023 XFL, or even the current women’s basketball Unrivaled, leagues looking to make a smaller mark in the main league’s offseason. With $5 billion, a actual NBA/WNBA challenge might be possible.

The globally-based idea is also interesting. And part of that is because of basketball’s international popularity and existing international stature, which includes prominent men’s and women’s teams in leagues around the globe. It’s possible to see this working even without traditional “home” markets and schedules. And while travelling around the world every two weeks rather than having an actual home court certainly wouldn’t appeal to all players, but if it comes with more money and less games, that could be an offset.

The globally-based games also might make for a more interesting media rights conversation, maybe especially around streamers available in many countries. But, two prominent ones there, Amazon’s Prime Video and NBC’s Peacock, have upcoming deals with the NBA. So there could be a LIV Golf-esque effect where media suitors aren’t lining up for a rival. Still, globally-based games with top players would have at least some appeal to many media companies, and their level of appeal would be an interesting discussion if this league does come together.

It’s also notable to see this league possibly try to really combine men’s and women’s professional basketball. Yes, there’s some of that with the NBA and WNBA (the NBA owns the majority interest in the WNBA and has provided significant backing there over the years, the league’s rights are currently tied to the NBA (but maybe not after the upcoming deal), and most, but not all, WNBA teams have shared ownership with NBA teams), but this sounds like an even closer combination. (However, the details here are very scant to date.) And that could be a notable decision, with interest in women’s basketball (including the WNBA, with the new Unrivaled 3-on-3 league, with women’s college basketball, Olympic basketball, and more) dramatically on the rise lately, and with WNBA salaries (and rookie salaries in particular) possibly ripe for outside disruption (although the actual financial picture for many stars goes well beyond strict salary).

Beyond that, Carter’s participation is certainly significant. In addition to serving as James’ business partner since 2006, he’s co-founded companies with the NBA star, including the SpringHill Company. And while there’s no specific reporting here on James and his interest or lack thereof in this league, Carter’s connections will certainly have people talking about potential involvement from James in some manner.

But Carter’s involvement to date comes with the caveat that the reporting here so far is just that the group is “being advised” by him. It doesn’t include any details on how significant (or not) that role is. That could be a very loose one-off assignment for a consulting fee of “If we were to launch this league, what would we need to consider?”, or it could mean a much more notable ongoing role.

At this point, there are more questions than answers about this venture. And it may not ever come together into anything of significance. But it’s definitely notable to see this report, and to see somewhat-public musings about an attempt to challenge the NBA, and to see Carter’s name linked to those. This will be worth tracking.