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LaVar Ball Unveils College Basketball Alternative With Junior Basketball Association

LaVar Ball yesterday said 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," according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. Ball said that his Junior Basketball Association -- which 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 L.A., Dallas, Brooklyn and Atlanta. Ball said that he was "partly motivated by the comments made earlier in the month" by NCAA President Mark Emmert at SBJ/SBD's Learfield Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. Emmert was asked whether Ball "was good or bad for the college game." Ball: "Those kids who are one-and-done. They shouldn't be there with the NCAA trying to hold them hostage, not allowing them to keep the jersey they wear while selling replicas of them in stores. So our guy isn't going to go to Florida State for a year. He's going to come to our league." Rovell noted players will "wear the company's products, including BBB shoes and a BBB-branded uniform." No venues have been "rented and ticket prices haven't been set." He also "doesn't have any players yet." The logo for the league "features a silhouette of Ball's son," Lakers G Lonzo Ball (ESPN.com, 12/20).

TALL TASK FOR BALL: In DC, Des Bieler writes Ball is "hardly the only one criticizing the NCAA and other entities that profit off the labor of college athletes." But turning his idea into a reality is "another matter, particularly as his company is in its own early stages and doesn’t have anywhere near the resources of, say, Nike or Adidas" (WASHINGTON POST, 12/21). YAHOO SPORTS' Chris Mannix wrote there "is a league for players who don’t want to go to college" -- the NBA G League. The G League "isn’t bound to the NBA’s one-and-done rule." The money "isn’t great -- salaries for non-NBA players range" from $19,500-$26,000 -- but the league "provides players with benefits, housing and NBA-level coaching." Ball claims his league is an "opportunity to be seen by pro scouts." The G League is "literally coached by rising NBA assistants, and its games are watched by NBA coaches regularly" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/20). NBCSPORTS.com's Rob Dauster writes the idea is "innovative." But NBA teams would "prefer having future pros spend a year" with Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari or Bill Self over "having them spend a year playing in the JBA" (NBCSPORTS.com, 12/20).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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