LaVar Ball is making his own basketball league, paying up to $10,000 a month for top high school prospects
Are you ready for the JBA?
LaVar Ball is a man full of ideas, creating Big Baller Brand as a disruptive force among corporations. Whether you bought the merchandise or support Triple B at any level, Ball has certainly made its presence felt at a mainstream level.
Now, LaVar’s looking at another disruptive venture, this time taking aim at the NCAA and college athletes. Ball is founding the Junior Basketball Association, a league that’s focus is paying top high school prospects up to $10,000 per month for playing in the league, as LaVar shared with SLAM Magazine.
The plan is to create a league young players can turn to to get paid coming out of high school, creating an alternative to playing in the NCAA. The league will be ran using NBA-styled rules, compared to NCAA rules that don’t match the pro level.
College athletes and money have long been a controversial topic, and this looks to be an answer of sorts. Whether a player would rather play in the JBA as opposed to being an unpaid one-and-done player at a top-ranking school remains to be seen. The NBA’s development league has been growing itself as another alternative as well, with an age minimum of 18.
The BA will make itself available to “all nationally ranked high school seniors” and will “cater” to top-ranked players. All players, naturally, will have Big Baller Brand gear and shoes provided for them as well.
Is it crazy? Sure. Will it work? Who knows. There’s certainly space and a need for this kind of service, but it’s also a huge risk for young players. Will NBA scouting teams feel confident enough about top prospects who compete in the JBA, against JBA players? There are significant draft implications to consider, should this launch successfully.
The official site has already been put together, though it’s mostly just a placeholder for the time being. If you had Lonzo Ball being the logo for the league in your parlay, it just hit:
Let’s see how this whole thing plays out, now.