Image Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

Maverick Carter and investors reportedly seeking $5 billion to launch international basketball league to rival NBA

Investors can create a space but it would be a tough task to crack the viewership game.

Image Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

The NBA will reportedly get a rival league in future if Maverick Carter gets support from the potential investors in pursuit of international basketball league. Maverick Carter is LeBron James’ business manager and has an ambition to start a different league.

Maverick Carter is connected with some investors including Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice, the investment group SC Holdings and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, Bloomberg reports. The investors will raise $5 billion to form an international basketball league.

LeBron James’s business partner, Maverick Carter, is reportedly leading a group of investors aiming to raise $5 billion to establish an international basketball league to rival the NBA, per @business.

(h/t @FOS ) pic.twitter.com/SSCsiWiyyI
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 16, 2025

As per reports of ESPN, the group is being led by UBS Group AG and Evercore Inc. They will include private equity and sovereign wealth funds. This league is an attempt to make basketball popular worldwide and Maverick Carter is taking a front seat to push this idea.

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Challenges to start rival league to NBA

However, starting a new league would be a challenging thing. Such ideas have been formed in the past but they have failed to challenge the NBA. The American Basketball Association (ABA) started in 1967. The league introduced exciting features like the three-point line and the slam dunk contest but it merged with the NBA in 1976.

The NBA is a biggest brand in United States and the league is also leaving a huge impact on the worldwide basketball. ABA also tried to break NBA’s monopoly on professional basketball but couldn’t survive.

On this day 47 years ago, the NBA and ABA “merged,” as the NBA expanded to include the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs.

It represented the end of the ABA, a League that existed for only nine years. But its legacy lives on still today.
❤️🤍💙 pic.twitter.com/aQUiOZXRG2
— ABAthrowbacks (@abathrowbacks) August 5, 2023

Meanwhile, investors are optimistic on this project due to Carter’s connections in the NBA world. They can build a strategy to rival the NBA by creating a new space. Media’s role and players’ preferences will be key factor for this idea.

The biggest challenge is NBA have a great fanbase and they have built this in last 78 years. Investors can create a space but it would be a tough task to crack the viewership game. Even the NBA is struggling to get numbers in the current season.

NBA is currently the biggest league in the world and it started in 1946. This league has built a value of basketball when other big sports like football were ruling the world. It would be interesting to see how the investor approach the idea and challenge a giant like the NBA.

Image Credit: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

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A native of Jaipur, Rajasthan, journalist, and a complete soccer and basketball fan, he found the huge interest with basketball by watching videos of Allen Iverson and Tony Parker, but fell head over heels in love with the sport during the Warriors’ championship era (2015-2018). A sports game addict since his late PS1, he’s also passionate about the Eagles, Inter Miami and the Fever. He’s fortunate to have seen all his favorite teams win championships. He also has a special love for cricket and football (soccer), where he is a fan of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Barcelona.