New International Basketball League Plans Launch, Without Maverick Carter

Maverick Carter is no longer involved with the planned international basketball league that aims to disrupt the sport, multiple sources told Front Office Sports.

“Project B,” as it has been called behind the scenes for nearly two years, still plans to launch next fall with 5-on-5 men’s and women’s basketball leagues. Led by Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, the investor group also includes tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens; former WNBA stars Candace Parker, Alana Beard, and Lauren Jackson; and ex-NFL quarterback Steve Young.

The group would not yet disclose the official name for the planned league.

Carter, the longtime business partner of LeBron James, was advising the group before. Over the summer, Carter was spotted on a boat in France with James and Miško Ražnatović, the European agent for Nikola Jokić; multiple sources told FOS that the meeting was about the project. Ražnatović declined to comment Tuesday on whether he is involved. Burnett, when asked about Ražnatović, said, “Miško is a good friend of ours. I was just in Serbia.”

A spokesperson for Carter confirmed he no longer has any role in the organization, formal or informal.

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

James, who was not part of the group when Carter was involved, has long been linked to a potential NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas or elsewhere. NBA rules prohibit team owners from having any stakes in other men’s professional basketball leagues or teams.

Despite Carter’s exit, Project B is still on track, according to those still involved.

Beard, a four-time WNBA All-Star who won a championship with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016, is a cofounder and chief basketball officer for the league.

Shortly after retiring from the WNBA in 2020, Beard joined venture capital firm SVB Capital as a senior associate. She has also been involved in an unsuccessful WNBA franchise bid to bring an expansion team to Oakland.

“I’ve always had my mind set on ownership,” she told FOS.

The venture plans to begin play next fall, with seasons expected to run through April. That would compete directly with the NBA calendar, but possibly not the WNBA, which plays in the summer. When asked about the league onstage last month at the FOS Tuned In summit in New York, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said, “To the extent they’re looking to do something competitive, I’ve stayed away. Obviously that’s their right, if they choose to form a league. I know firsthand it’s not easy running a league. But competition is good, it keeps everyone on their toes.”

Project B plans to host tournaments in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Like Unrivaled—the upstart 3-on-3 women’s basketball league based in the U.S.—it plans to give players equity, although specifics were not disclosed.

“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.”

The group was seeking $5 billion in funding, Bloomberg reported in January. It declined to share how much funding it has actually raised.

Project B has not yet announced who will play in the league, but a spokesperson for the venture says they have “secured commitments from some of the game’s most respected athletes,” including at least one current WNBA player the league will not yet name.

“This is not a gimmick,” Beard told FOS. “We’re playing five-on-five, we’re playing elite basketball. We want the best of the best playing in our league. That’s a full stop.”

In addition to Beard, Prentice, Burnett, Parker, Djokovic, and Young, Project B says it has backing from investment firms Quiet Capital, Sequence Equity, and Mangrove Capital. Sequence Equity cofounder Marcus Stroud declined to disclose the size of their investment but called it “our biggest investment to date.”

Burnett, who played tennis at Michigan with Prentice, said Project B is starting in basketball but aims to duplicate the model in other sports. Burnett, Beard, and others involved in Project B all emphasized the importance of the athletes having equity in the league.

“The players are our partners, they’re one of our largest stakeholders,” Beard said. “They are creating value, and getting paid for that value.”