Could an alternate pro basketball league succeed?

by: James Brooks

Enough of this.  The NBA needs to be careful with how far they are willing to take this lockout.  They are quickly losing fans and if they go so far as to cancel an entire season, the repercussions could be irreparable.  I am a die-hard NBA fan, and more than likely even if the season is cancelled I will return and watch just as many games as before.  But I don't think I am in the majority.  A few games is one thing, especially while football is still on, but an entire season lost could turn many fans off. 

It also leaves an opening for what I am suggesting.  An alternate professional basketball league.  Let's assume for the sake of argument the entire 2011-2012 NBA season gets cancelled.  What's to stop an group of people with enough money and leverage to try and start up a competing league?  It's being shown time and time again that these guys just want to play basketball.  Even going so far as to play charity pickup games, barnstorm tours, and signing European contracts.

Here's where "The League" comes in. (This is what we'll call the alternate league for this article.) 

What if a company with enough resources, such as say Nike for example, were to sponsor such a league giving it legitimate backing and reputation.  They could then find say 10 owners to start with.  People with enough money to support the expenses of running a professional basketball franchise.  And there are plenty of those people walking around this world.  Lots of very wealthy people love to invest in professional sports franchises. 

Then get a handful of the major stars on board.  Right now Kevin Durant is sitting around getting paid nothing and playing pickup basketball games for FREE because he just wants to play basketball.  If an "owner" were to approach him and offer him pretty similar money to what he would be making in the NBA this season, why not?  Plenty have already proven this is possible by signing Euro contracts in the case of a cancelled season.  "Hey Lebron, here's 17 million dollars to come play in my league this year since you're not playing anywhere anyway and making nothing for it."  And the owner would surely make back the investment on a guy like James.  His face prints money. 

Get the major stars on board by paying them basically what they would have made and others would follow.  Again, it has also been shown that everyone else in the NBA will follow and copy what the major stars do.  So then you could easily fill 10 rosters with quality players.  Right now there are hundreds of NBA caliber basketball players sitting around doing nothing.  Also keep in mind this isn't like the NFL, you only need to pay 12 players on a team.  And with only 10 teams (just an example number), each would have at least a couple stars on them, making these highly competitive games, and what's more important, VERY intriguing to the basketball fans.

I don't care what the jersey says, if Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant are playing against Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony, I'll watch.  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.  What basketball fan wouldn't? 

And here's the simple economics of it:  If people are willing to watch, people will advertise.  And if people are willing to advertise, networks will pay to show these games.  When networks pay, people make money.  Say a network with no NBA ties like NBC or CBS, were willing to air these superstar packed games (with more star power and better quality than regular NBA games).  I'd love to watch Kevin Love play, but not with those scrubs in Minnesota, I'd rather watch Top Chef.  But give me 10-15 quality basketball teams playing against each other night in and night out on national television, and I'm all in.

With no NBA going on and the best 150 players in the world playing in "The League" it might just become the new standard of professional basketball.  The NBA may not even have the chance to come back.  If all the good players are already playing against each other in "The League" then what would be their incentive to go back to the NBA?  And what would be the incentive to watch this star-less NBA?

I realize it's a little more complicated than what I've laid out here, but this is a simple outline.  But NBA, be careful, it might just be crazy enough to work.