Report: Global basketball league set to launch next fall

The international basketball league that includes several high-profile athletes as investors does not have an official name but is set to launch next fall, Front Office Sports reported on Wednesday.

Headed by former Facebook executive Grady Burnett and Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice, the league will include 5-on-5 men's and women's leagues, but Maverick Carter -- Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James' longtime business partner -- will no longer be involved, per the report. According to FOS, the project remains on track.

"This group came to Maverick for consultation, which he gave, and he subsequently stepped away months ago," a spokesperson for Carter told FOD. "He is no longer working with them or any other basketball league in Europe."

FOS reported in July that a meeting on a boat in France involving James, Carter and Misko Raznatovic, the agent for Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic, was about the unnamed league known as "Project B."

Asked to comment by FOS on Tuesday, Raznatovic would not say if he was involved in the project.

Alana Beard, a four-time WNBA All Star and a 2016 WNBA champion with the Los Angeles Sparks, is among the current and former athletes invested in the project. A 2025 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Beard is the league's co-founder and chief basketball officer.

"I've always had my mind set on ownership," Beard told FOS.

Along with Beard, fellow former NBA stars Candace Parker and Lauren Jackson are also invested, along with former NFL quarterback Steve Young and tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens. Investment firms Mangrove Capital, Quiet Capital and Sequence Equity have also provided financial backing.

With the first season set to begin next fall and run through April, the Project B league would be up against the NBA calendar, but not likely the WNBA, which starts its season in the summer.

"To the extent they're looking to do something competitive, I've stayed away," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last month at the FOS Tuned In summit in New York.

In addition to North America, the league has tournaments planned for Asia, Europe and Latin America.

"We're paying multiples higher than is available right now in the world of women's sports," Burnett told FOS. "We are paying the highest salaries and equity packages in women's team sports, and this will be some of the best players in the world. We want this to be incredible basketball."

Who will play in the league has yet to be revealed, but a spokesperson said the commitments they have secured include an unnamed WNBA player and "some of the game's most respected athletes."

--Field Level Media