LaVar Ball seems to be all over the place these days. When he’s not hawking Big Baller Brand apparel, he’s criticizing Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton. Now he plans to start his own basketball league for NBA prospects:
LaVar Ball said Wednesday that he is launching a basketball league for nationally ranked players who have graduated from high school but don’t want to go to college.
Ball said his Junior Basketball Association — which he said is fully funded by his Big Baller Brand — plans to pay the lowest-ranked player a salary of $3,000 a month and the best player $10,000 a month. Ball is looking for 80 players to fill 10 teams that will seek to play at NBA arenas in Los Angeles, Dallas, Brooklyn and Atlanta.
“Getting these players is going to be easy,” Ball told ESPN. “This is giving guys a chance to get a jump start on their career, to be seen by pro scouts; and we’re going to pay them, because someone has to pay these kids.”
Ball said the rules of his league will follow those of the NBA instead of college — 12-minute quarters and a pro 3-point line.
Ball said he was partly motivated by the comments made earlier in the month by NCAA president Mark Emmert, who was asked at a SportsBusiness Journal conference whether Ball was good or bad for the college game.
“Is this about someone being part of a university and playing basketball or any other sport with that school’s jersey on, representing that institution, or is it about preparing me for my career, my professional career as a ballplayer?” Emmert responded, just a few days after Ball’s son LiAngelo left UCLA to turn pro before even playing for the school. “If it’s the latter, you can do that inside a university and that might be a really good way to go. But if you don’t want to and you don’t think that it’s right for your family, then don’t come.”
There has been a lot of talk about how much money the NCAA is making off of black ball players. Someone compared the NCAA to a plantation in the 1980s and I thought it was laughable. The NCAA is making 20 times the money it made in the ’80s. With teams switching conferences to increase the value of TV contracts, they no longer give pretense to the fact that the NCAA is a business. With conferences negotiating their own TV deals they have upped the ante, and at times cut out the NCAA from certain ventures.
Go Big Or Go Home
America loves guys who think and act big. Lavar is one of them. You have to admire his chutzpah, if nothing else. He started the Big Baller shoe brand. Pundits and haters said it would flop. The Shock Exchange hasn’t seen any numbers but the brand appears to be doing good. At an average price of over $500 the shoe is big and bold just like Lavar. Athletes and entertainers have supported the shoe, which has helped keep Big Baller’s buzz going. The idea of a black man making money for himself and cutting off Nike, Adidas and Under Amour is an idea that has come. Entertainers understand this and wearing a pair of ZO2s is a much a political statement as it is a fashion statement.
The Junior Basketball Association could also become a political statement. Dr. Boyce Watkins thinks the league should be supported as an alternative to the NCAA.
Lavar Ball’s league should be supported by everyone. The NCAA is full of racist crooks
— Boyce Watkins (@drboycewatkins1) December 21, 2017
Whether Ball has the funding to pull off such a venture or can attract enough elite high schools players to make it intriguing to the public remains to be seen. Ball predicted his son Lonzo would be a lottery pick and play for the Lakers. He made bold predictions about his other two sons, LaMelo and LiAngelo, and they have all come true. The Junior Basketball Association could be a tall order, but history suggests it is hard to bet against Lavar Ball. Go big or go home. Let’s go!
On Trump And The Global Economy
Trump And The Global Economy Town Hall took place October 24th in Fort Greene. It Featured Professor Lance Brofman, Coconut Rob (Coconut Rob Smoothies), Wuyi Jacobs (AfroBeats Radio) and Ralph Baker, author of Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead.
The event was well-received by the community. We parsed through President Trump’s proposed tax plan and [i] how it was pure economic folly and [ii] high net worth individuals could potentially game the system by shifting income around. Apparently, Kansas Coach Bill Self did this when the state of Kansas cut taxes in the past. We discussed the pros and cons of technology on workers and the economy. How will the economy and country prosper under Trump’s leadership vis-a-vis Obama? What’s behind the verbal sparring with black athletes, ESPN’s Jemele Hill and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un?
