A high-profile meeting last week in France between LeBron James, his business partner Maverick Carter and Nikola Jokić’s agent Miško Ražnatović was about plans for a new $5bn international basketball league, according to a report by Front Office Sports, which cited multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The proposed league, spearheaded by Carter, would feature six men’s and six women’s teams that travel together to eight global cities in a touring format. Inspired by LIV Golf and Formula One, the league aims to offer players equity stakes, something NBA rules currently prohibit for active athletes.
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Ražnatović, a powerful figure in European basketball, posted a photo of the meeting on Instagram over the weekend. The caption, tagged in Saint-Tropez, teased: “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026.” That photo fueled speculation about a potential team-up between James and Jokić, but sources confirmed to Front Office Sports the meeting was unrelated to the NBA.
Carter began pitching the league earlier this year, with Bloomberg reporting in January that he is seeking to raise $5bn in funding. Backers already include the Singapore government, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, SC Holdings, UBS and investors such as Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett.
Unlike the WNBA-adjacent Unrivaled league, which allows dual participation, Carter’s venture is expected to require full-time commitments, effectively ruling out NBA participation unless league rules change.
The NBA, meanwhile, is pursuing its own expansion into Europe. Commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum met with UK prime minister Keir Starmer in London last week to discuss plans for a Europe-based NBA league in partnership with Fiba. As part of that effort, the NBA announced that the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies will play regular-season games in Berlin and London in January 2026.
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EuroLeague officials have pushed back against the NBA’s expansion talks. “We said to them, like we said publicly, we don’t believe that the new league is something that would help the market,” EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejūnas told the Athletic on Tuesday.
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