Quote: (12-20-2017 07:07 PM)RoastBeefCurtains4Me Wrote:
You are almost certainly correct in predicting this. However, I will give LaVar some credit and say this is a good idea, and could be made to work with the right marketing, showmanship, and tie-ins or sponsors. Definitely easier said than done, but I think it is absolutely doable by the right person.
It's not a good idea at all. It's a terrible, amateurish idea with basically zero possibility of becoming anything less than a disaster.
And you don't go belly up on a tens or hundreds of million dollar investment as a publicity stunt, especially when you're barely a multimillionaire.
Even Donald Trump and Vince McMahon, already highly successful businessmen with world class contacts and loads of capital, could not make the USFL and XFL work -- and, if I'm not mistaken, lost money and damaged their brands in the process.
In Trump's case, he even had one of the best running backs of all time in his corner (Herschel Walker).
Meanwhile, has Big Baller Brand even signed an athlete whose last name isn't Ball? Hell, have they even shipped any shoes?
Most top basketball prospects would be idiots to forgo college, considering it is BY FAR the easiest and most successful path to the NBA. It is THE pipeline.
Where is Brandon Jennings right now? Emmanual Mudiay? Dante Exum? Dude isn't even the best PG prospect on the Jazz anymore.
But even if a player did want to avoid college ball, there are already tons of international clubs to play for, all of which have established programs, good players and coaches, and are familiar to NBA scouts.
And there's also the NBDL, which doesn't pay $10k a month but has a direct relationship with NBA teams and is filled with players currently signed to NBA rosters.
With this in mind, why would any decent prospect sign with "Big Baller League"? Even dropping a few draft spots would cost players more than they would make in the league.
And without players, where is the league?
Forget about the tons of capital, personnel, etc. needed. Even with all that, they won't be able to attract enough talent to make it worthwhile.
Again, the NBDL is filled with NBA players, yet it's fanbase is basically nonexistent and its max pay (for noncontracted players) is $25k.
If LaVar had said he was going to start something like a more professional version of the And-1 street team or Harlem Globetrotters and tour them around for exhibition matches with top college or international pro teams, that would be slightly more probable.
But creating a whole league? With what experience, what capital, what players?
I would say it's going to be a trainwreck, but this is just more bullshit and hot air by LaVar because he and/or his sons are already unhappy about being in Lithuania.
The difference between LaVar and people like Trump, Vince McMahon, Kanye West, etc. is that the latter three guys actually have incredible amounts of talent, intelligence, and work ethic.
You can't just bullshit and bullshit forever without delivering and expect to hit 9 or 10 figures. Lonzo is having a mediocre rookie season, the BBB shoes still haven't even shipped, the ink is barely dry on LaMelo and LiAngelo's contracts in Lithuania, and LaVar is already pitching these grand schemes that would take hundreds of millions to make work.
This is becoming more and more of a joke, but the not-so-funny part is that it may end up costing both LaVar's sons and other young men who are stupid enough to get caught up in his pipe dreams.