If you’ve ever been to San Antonio, Texas, you know the streets and town are painted in only three colors – silver, black, and white.
Yes, the San Antonio Spurs are everywhere in the city whether you go to the mall, a local restaurant, or of course, the tons of billboards along the highway. So, how would another basketball league fair in a city that is all about the Spurs?
It’s an interesting question because that may be the case, as one report states that a hip-hop mogul will be starting his own basketball league that will compete salary-wise with the NBA D-League.
An inaugural 24-game, 12-team season will begin in January of 2013.
It will challenge the NBA's D-League by paying as much as $3,000 per month and serve as an overseas player feeder.
The league will be based in Miami, San Antonio, San Marcos, Sugarland, College Station, Ft Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Sebring and Corpus Christi.
For the Spurs, this shouldn’t be an issue. I’m sure they won’t lose many viewers of their live audience because even if you live in San Antonio and you don’t like the Spurs, there are still opposing teams that will visit the Alamo City at least twice a year.
As for the Spurs’ D-League affiliate the Austin Toros, this too shouldn’t be an issue as the majority of their crowd is Austin based. There may be some San Antonio based folks who travel to Austin to see the Toros, but the majority are already Austin residents.
This “new” league reminds me of the current American Basketball Association (ABA); where even during an NBA lockout season, the ABA struggled to fill high school gyms even when an NBA player like George Hill was playing in the games.
As for players who don’t make it to the NBA, this is a good option if they choose not to go to the D-League. Though the D-League may not pay as much as this new league, it’s still an easier way to make it into the NBA as NBA teams work and filter their ways through the D-League.
If you’re a struggling player who joins this league, how are you going to draw any attention to the rise in your game in this new league? Here’s another question, will major college cities like College Station and San Marcos go to these games instead of Texas A&M and Texas State games?
All in all, I still think this will be a huge challenge for any new basketball league considering the NBA is pretty much the second largest sport in America to just the NFL. The NBA might have more known stars today than almost any sports league, and even some D-League players are known amongst the average fan.
I’m from San Antonio and though this league will host some games here, I’ll most likely find myself at the AT&T Center from October to possibly June.
