Amare suggests that the players start their own league

[Roy H.]

“If we don’t go to Europe then let’s to start our own league,” Stoudemire told a group of reporters. “That’s how I see it. It’s very serious. Yeah. It’s very, very serious. It’s a matter of us coming up with a plan, blueprint and putting it together. So we’ll see how this lockout goes. If it goes one or two years, then we got to start our own league.” That’s how Stoudemire had intended to end the interview, but he was persuaded to expand on that thought a few minutes later. “If it don’t resolve then we’re thinking about starting our own league,” he continued.

Link

[Donoghus]

I can see the players doing a bunch of exhibition benefits but creating their own league?

That's a huge undertaking and who exactly would organize it?  The players themselves?  You'd have to think they'd have to bring in people to get something like that up & running.  The question is who would that be.

Extreme longshot at best, IMO.

[Interceptor]

Amare is cognizant of that. You can see in the quote, that he offers it as an option if the lockout goes on for one or two years. That is plenty of time to find financing and hammer out the thousands of details.

[indeedproceed]

THere are a whoooole lot of organizers with plenty of NBA arena experience that are sitting on their keester right now.

[Chris]

Amare is cognizant of that. You can see in the quote, that he offers it as an option if the lockout goes on for one or two years. That is plenty of time to find financing and hammer out the thousands of details.

Right, and then 10 years down the line, the league is either a huge failure, or they are in the same situation where the players and owners are fighting over revenues and systems, just with new faces and names.

[Interceptor]

Right, and then 10 years down the line, the league is either a huge failure, or they are in the same situation where the players and owners are fighting over revenues and systems, just with new faces and names.

Maybe, maybe not. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the threat of it is a guillotine hanging over the heads of the current owners, as they are technically more replaceable than the players. It's the elephant in the room for those that say the players have "no leverage".

[Roy H.]

Right, and then 10 years down the line, the league is either a huge failure, or they are in the same situation where the players and owners are fighting over revenues and systems, just with new faces and names.

Maybe, maybe not. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the threat of it is a guillotine hanging over the heads of the current owners, as they are technically more replaceable than the players. It's the elephant in the room for those that say the players have "no leverage".

The owners may be replaceable, but are their arenas and the television deals they've negotiated equally capable of being replaced?  My guess would be no.

[Chris]

Right, and then 10 years down the line, the league is either a huge failure, or they are in the same situation where the players and owners are fighting over revenues and systems, just with new faces and names.

Maybe, maybe not. I hope it doesn't come to that, but the threat of it is a guillotine hanging over the heads of the current owners, as they are technically more replaceable than the players. It's the elephant in the room for those that say the players have "no leverage".

The owners have to believe it is viable for it to be leverage.  And I do not believe the owners think it is anywhere close to viable.

Those owners know exactly what it takes to make a successful league, and they know that it really just is not something that has any likelyhood of happening anytime soon.

2-3 years down the line when more stars are no longer under contract?  Maybe they could try.  But that is a long time for a lot of players to go without paychecks.

[kozlodoev]

“If we don’t go to Europe then let’s to start our own league,” Stoudemire told a group of reporters. “That’s how I see it. It’s very serious. Yeah. It’s very, very serious. It’s a matter of us coming up with a plan, blueprint and putting it together. So we’ll see how this lockout goes. If it goes one or two years, then we got to start our own league.” That’s how Stoudemire had intended to end the interview, but he was persuaded to expand on that thought a few minutes later. “If it don’t resolve then we’re thinking about starting our own league,” he continued.

Link

Yeah. Good luck with that. I think some of those people really underestimate the effort that goes into running an enterprise of NBA's magnitude.

[Chris]

Does anyone know if Trump is connected with the owners/league at all?  Because if not, I have a feeling we will see his name as someone willing to fund a league.

[bdm860]

I can see the players doing a bunch of exhibition benefits but creating their own league?

That's a huge undertaking and who exactly would organize it?  The players themselves?  You'd have to think they'd have to bring in people to get something like that up & running.  The question is who would that be.

Extreme longshot at best, IMO.

Definitely a longggggg shot, but it's an interesting idea.

The players would need some financial backing, but a problem there (despite there being a limited number of billionares  ), is alot of the good financial backers are already taken.

Michael Jordan.  He would be great as an investor in a new league, since he's pretty much the face of basketball (like Mikan was with the ABA).  Too bad he's already an NBA owner.  Lesser extent with Magic and Bird.

Mark Cuban.  A great owner for any sport, but he's not going to compete with himself.

Paul Allen.  Mark Cuban without the personality.

The Russian owner of the Nets.  Seems like the foreign version of Mark Cuban.

Robert Johnson.  (First black billionare?).  He already did the NBA thing though.

Jay-Z.  Turning himself into a legitimate business man, and a guy the majoritiy of the players would want to associate with (would you rather work for Jay-Z or just about any of the other 30 owners).


You need some powerful guys willing to invest that command attention.  Larry Ellison seems like a good one(or he is associated with the Warriors?), Russell Simmons (more money than Jay-Z, just as hip-hop, but not as cool to the current players).  Spike Lee (not enough money).  Bill Gates and Warren Buffett don't seem like the type.  Who's the Europe racecar guy who bought his daughter like a $100 million house here?  Get him and a few other foreign billionaires.  Maybe get some super sports agents: David Falk, Scott Boras, they know the system and how the money works (there's really only a few agents/agencies that handle like 90% of the players). A media mogul like Rupert Murdock (and he's perfect since Fox is like the only major network that has never had NBA basketball, but is into sports).  Donald Trump like Chris mentioned.  Steven Spielberg (and some plugs in his movies would help too). A few major investors could scare the league.

Maybe with some serious financial backing you could get a league, but not a 30-team league so a lot of players would be out of a job.

Fun to think about, but wouldn't happen (although I wish it would).  I do read about the NBA/ABA wars and think how cool that would have been to experience as a fan (especially in today's world).

[StartOrien]

I've pointed it out before, and I'll do it again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuDyJF9oiMk

These are the amount of people who came to see Rudy Gay, Jermaine Taylor, Jeremy Evans, JaVale McGee, John Wall, OJ Mayo, JJ Hickson, and Iman Shumpert for a day pass that I think cost something like 5 dollars.

[Donoghus]

THere are a whoooole lot of organizers with plenty of NBA arena experience that are sitting on their keester right now.

My biggest question is whether or not they could get their act together.

Creating a new league is a huge undertaking.

[Interceptor]

The owners may be replaceable, but are their arenas and the television deals they've negotiated equally capable of being replaced?  My guess would be no.

Why not? Negotiating deals with arenas, networks etc is plenty of work, but it's a long way from being impossible to do, so it's just a matter of time and resources. Is there some other sport and/or entertainment activity that is ready to jump in and replace the hole that the NBA would leave if it ceased to exist?

The owners have to believe it is viable for it to be leverage.  And I do not believe the owners think it is anywhere close to viable.

I don't think that the owners are fools. NBA started somewhere, and as Indeed pointed out, there will be people with the expertise that are knitting sweaters right now.

[StartOrien]

There's only two men suited for the job:

William Bellamy and Daniel Cortez