Would a new pro basketball league ever be able to compete with the NBA today?

[bison]

Decades ago the ABA set out to do precisely that and was able to be viable for some years. Of course times were different, the NBA was still new with an uncertain future and was still fending off competing leagues of various forms.

Different situation today of course. The NBA is a multibillion dollar juggernaut with a broad international audience and a very financially stable business model. Despite that, many fans bemoan things like lack of defense, travelling, flopping, easy scoring and strict rules that penalize players with the most trivial of technical fouls.

Ideally a new competing league might allow for more physical play, less technicals and honest officiating. A new league would also be able to tinker with a slew of new ideas with regard to shot clock, scoring, tournaments and other facets of the game without the baggage of complaining purists or ruining tradition. It might be able to steal some talent from the college ranks, the NBA and abroad considering roster space is limited in the NBA and playing time is usually not guaranteed. (Perhaps not top tier talent, but you always might have a disgruntled star like kyrie who would do something crazy like join another league :lol: You could probably get washed up fan favs like Melo and Jamal Crawford)

Even if the goal, like the ABA, was not to ever beat the NBA but simply to force a small merger, would that even be feasible? Also maybe a competing league is the push the NBA needs to revamp itself and keep it fresh?

[L.Kizzle]

No. When the ABA was around, the NBA wasn't even 20 years old. And that wasn't even the first league to compete. The BAA and the NBL (two competing leagues) merged to form the NBA. The Eastern League and ABL in the 50s and early 60s as well.

All that happened in the leagues 1st 20 years. The league will be 80 years old soon, it's not going anywhere.

[Norcaliblunt]

One of these days the players will create their own “new league” just like they created their own “new media”. They’ll realize they can produce and stream games the same way they do podcasts and own 100% of the content. Only thing the nba has is the stadium infrastructure for the live event economic aspect of it. But just the games alone? They could be played and streamed anywhere with anyone. All star level pick up games played in lebrons home gym is content that would get billions of views.

It’s the future. Jake Paul basketball kind of stuff.

[Patrick Chewing]

I think if a new league was created, and a couple of bad apples from the NBA jumped ship and crashed one of their games and just sat courtside to watch, I think it would generate some interest and buzz. Then, during halftime of one of the games in the new league, these couple of NBA bad apples just pushed the public address announcer to the side and got on the mic and said they were here to take over and that there was a third man that was also coming, then yeah, I think this new league could possibly topple the NBA in ratings for like a whopping 84 weeks or some crazy number like that.

[bison]

No. When the ABA was around, the NBA wasn't even 20 years old. And that wasn't even the first league to compete. The BAA and the NBL (two competing leagues) merged to form the NBA. The Eastern League and ABL in the 50s and early 60s as well.

All that happened in the leagues 1st 20 years. The league will be 80 years old soon, it's not going anywhere.

I made this thread because I saw the XFL just started a new season after being shut down by COVID. Granted I’m probably one of the few who even noticed the XFL was even having games again, they’re still a new league that managed to line up investors, use of pro sized stadiums and a television contract, which the ABA never had or struggled with. And the NFL has been around longer and is more popular than the NBA, so it’s hardly out of the question if you can win over investors, maybe one or two celebrities to buy into it.

[bison]

I think if a new league was created, and a couple of bad apples from the NBA jumped ship and crashed one of their games and just sat courtside to watch, I think it would generate some interest and buzz. Then, during halftime of one of the games in the new league, these couple of NBA bad apples just pushed the public address announcer to the side and got on the mic and said they were here to take over and that there was a third man that was also coming, then yeah, I think this new league could possibly topple the NBA in ratings for like a whopping 84 weeks or some crazy number like that.

That’s some WWE sh1t.

Nice.

[highwhey]

OP, you should ask Lebron23, he's a very knowledgeable poster. Are you familiar with him?

[bison]

Louie is incapable of contributing any original thoughts to any topic here. He regurgitates social media posts onto this forum without know what they mean other than that he might get replies to it, kinda like a chimpanzee who gets rewarded with peanuts if he pushes numbered buttons in a particular order. This lack of consciousness also means he lacks self awareness so my insults don’t register with him which is why you need to get off his nuts and stop protecting him like he’s you’re pet chihuahua.

[iamgine]

Depends. Does the new league have owners ready to bankroll it for years and years to come? If Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc funds it then it has a chance to succeed.

[BigShotBob]

Depends. Does the new league have owners ready to bankroll it for years and years to come? If Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc funds it then it has a chance to succeed.

They'd have to rub elbows with the rich Arabian Princes since they're starting to take over sports such as Golf now

[ArbitraryWater]

my man bison spit some of the most vile racist shit possible and is back after a day like nuthin happened


you gotta love it

[Jasper]

will never happen now.

Why - granted the NBA has the best players and EURO , and Chinese ball is pretty relative.

But Three on three has taken over that extension of additional ball/ and IMO it will grow better.

[bison]

my man bison spit some of the most vile racist shit possible and is back after a day like nuthin happened


you gotta love it

Bro I’m not racist. I was hacked.

[bison]

will never happen now.

Why - granted the NBA has the best players and EURO , and Chinese ball is pretty relative.

But Three on three has taken over that extension of additional ball/ and IMO it will grow better.

This is a good point because Euroleague can make inroads into the domestic market, so maybe a competing isn’t necessarily ‘competitive’ but a cultural collaborator. That’s probably Adam Silver’s preferred route. The NBA has been testing regular season games in Europe for a minute now.

[HylianNightmare]

my man bison spit some of the most vile racist shit possible and is back after a day like nuthin happened


you gotta love it

God Bless America

[highwhey]

Bro I’m not racist. I was hacked.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure

[ArbitraryWater]

Bro I’m not racist. I was hacked.

bro youre better than highwey thats for sure. that guy is heartless. atrocities will be commited and he will yap about political implications whist never judging the culture to prevent those deeds from happening. its sad. needs jesus badly.

[L.Kizzle]

I made this thread because I saw the XFL just started a new season after being shut down by COVID. Granted I’m probably one of the few who even noticed the XFL was even having games again, they’re still a new league that managed to line up investors, use of pro sized stadiums and a television contract, which the ABA never had or struggled with. And the NFL has been around longer and is more popular than the NBA, so it’s hardly out of the question if you can win over investors, maybe one or two celebrities to buy into it.
Competition means they're gonna go head to head against one another. XFL and USFL start after the SuperBowl.
This new basketball league will not go head to head with the NBA. All the stars have contracts with NBA franchises.

Even of some billionaires decided to join forces, they need players. TV deals, who's gonna give this new league with no players a TV Deal? ESPN/ABC tied in with NBA. Turner tied in with NBA. NBA been trying to get basketball back, give them to NBC. Fine, but they still need players. They can sign Bronny James and Wemby I guess and Carmelo. He still wanna play.

[Norcaliblunt]

All of you completely don’t get it historically, going back to the past, or up to now.

The NBA started off without great TV deals. It was a “live event”.

Nobody is going to compete with the live event/people in the stadiums aspect.

It’s the new streaming use your imagination Jake Paul transforming combat sports, podcasts transforming news media shit that will compete with the NBA.

And eventually the live and interwebs will collide for basketball.

[KNOW1EDGE]

No, I don’t think so.

Does anyone watch/follow the g-league?

[Norcaliblunt]

Why shouldn’t there be another way for the athletic freaks like Zion, Kawhi, or anyone else
who can’t do the 82 game season plus the playoffs?

Why not stream all star matchups like boxing matches? Where stars can be fully rested and ready for competion?

Zion vs Anthony Davis completely healthy rested one game.

[L.Kizzle]

Why shouldn’t there be another way for the athletic freaks like Zion, Kawhi, or anyone else
who can’t do the 82 game season plus the playoffs?

Why not stream all star matchups like boxing matches? Where stars can be fully rested and ready for competion?

Zion vs Anthony Davis completely healthy rested one game.
They can play in Ice Cubes 3 Ball league. They play once a week.

[paksat]

the ABA is back and having played in it...

it will never compete with the NBA until they raise the salary. The owners of the teams there are mostly well off, but they have to raise the salaries to make it a viable alternative.

i'll put it this way, if you could make half a million playing in the ABA vs playing in the g league... you'd play in the ABA I would hope. That's where things need to get serious, they have to start ripping the NBA's talent pool away from them just for starters.

[Norcaliblunt]

They can play in Ice Cubes 3 Ball league. They play once a week.

But that’s old dudes.

I want to see Zion, Davis, Leonard, Durant, Lebron, and whoever still athletic going at it for something that maters besides any NBA or other league shit. Just a straight up pure basketball game. Like a boxing match. Then we can switch the lineups or the winner can keep on trucking until defeated.

Golf tried to do it with “the match” or whatever.

[Norcaliblunt]

Mayweather is one of the highest paid athletes because he controlled every aspect of his career. The matchups, the money, the rules, yada yada yada all the way.

That’s gonna be the evolution of basketball and whats gonna compete with the current structure.

You already see similar shit in the NBA with player empowerment, load management, and everything else. It’s all about player /athlete control.

They talk about reducing the season all the time. Stars want to play with each other.

Eventually something will shift.

[90sgoat]

Euroleague should expand into the US and do a league that encompasses, the US, Canada and Mexico.

Keep the Euroleague rules and pick up all the overlooked white college talent.

Make clubs, not franchises, like in Europe, with players being able to play for their clubs from a young age. Make them local. Have players come up like Messi from age 12 in Barcelona. That's how you get die hard fans.