LaVar Ball has made a decision that would be shocking for the average basketball dad in America, but not for LaVar: he is starting his own basketball league to compete with the NCAA, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.
The league will be called the Junior Basketball Association, and will be for nationally-ranked high school graduates who don’t want to play college ball. Ball will pay his players (apparently from Big Baller Brand money. No, seriously), and he hopes to host the league’s games in NBA arenas.
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."
Players will of course where BBB shoes and a BBB uniform.
People will look at this and clown LaVar Ball as they always do, but the idea itself isn’t bad. It would allow kids to get a jump-start on their professional career instead of having to play amateur basketball for a year. The only problem is that LaVar will likely turn it into a circus, and trying to compete with an established American sports league pretty much never goes well.
You can read the rest of Rovell’s report here, and see the JBA’s logo, which is a silhouette of LaVar’s oldest son, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, dunking a basketball.
LiAngelo LaMelo Ball, LaVar’s sons who are playing professionally overseas, are not involved in this league.