LeBron James’ Manager, Maverick Carter, Leads $5 Billion Push For Global Basketball League, Dubbed ‘F-1’ For Hoops

Maverick Carter, who has worked as LeBron James‘ manager for years, is aiming to raise $5 billion to fund a new basketball league startup.

Carter is serving as an adviser to a group of investors, which will include private equity funds and potentially sovereign funds.

To achieve their goal, the investors have turned to Evercore and UBS to assist in reaching their goal. The project is backed by SC Holdings – co-founded by Jason Stein, Daniel Haimovic, Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook exec Grady Burnett.

The NBA currently restricts private equity stakes in teams to 20 percent, while sovereign wealth funds are allowed a maximum of five percent ownership.

The proposed league will feature six men’s and six women’s teams, playing games across various international locations, excluding North America. Singapore has been named as a possible host city.

The league aspires to be “an F1 for basketball” and not a direct competitor to the NBA, which has gone without a domestic rival since the ABA merger in 1976.

Plans for the league include six men’s and six women’s teams playing in eight cities worldwide, rotating every two weeks. This setup mirrors the Formula 1 model.

While Carter and James share a long-standing friendship and business connections, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar is not directly involved in the league.

Over the years, the basketball world has evolved with numerous leagues and formats, with the NBA, WNBA, NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments, the Olympics and the FIBA Basketball World Cup taking center stage.

As basketball continues to grow globally, federations like the EuroLeague and its European leagues, Australia’s NBL, the Chinese Basketball Association, and nontraditional formats like the Big3 and Unrivaled play a key role.