UPDATE: This seemed from the start like a leak aimed at discrediting Irving, now comes the report he said no such thing.
Sources tell me that Kyrie Irving never stated that the Nets should begin their own league in response to the bubble.
— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) June 17, 2020
I'm told that after that report came out, he left the group chat.
Beleive who you want on this one.
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It worked so well for the XFL. And the USFL. And the World Football League. And WHA. And... we could go on for a long time here.
Kyrie Irving suggested players start their own league.
Irving has been at the forefront of a coalition challenging the NBA’s restart plan in Orlando — the timing and impact of it on the Black Lives Matter and social justice movements, among other concerns — and he promoted that on a larger conference call last Friday night. He also suggested Nets teammates skip the bubble and floated the idea of the players starting their own league, reports Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
In a recent chat group with Nets players, Kyrie Irving lobbied for skipping the bubble, the Daily News has learned. In that chat, he also proposed that the players can start their own league, according to a source. https://t.co/SqC0wcccPJ
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) June 16, 2020
First, the fact someone leaked this to Bondy speaks to the divide among players on the idea of a return, and the willingness of some to discredit Irving.
I doubt even Kyrie Irving thinks his idea to start a league is feasible, especially done right now on the fly. One can make the argument that NBA fans pay to see the players, so if the players just switched jerseys and formed their own league, fans would follow.
It’s not that simple, of course. It is more than just players, the NBA and its teams are established brands — many people are Lakers fans not LeBron James fans, people are Boston Celtics fans not Jayson Tatum fans, people are Miami Heat fans not Jimmy Butler fans, and that list goes on. Fans of those teams embrace a player when they come to the market, but they boo him when he leaves — just ask LeBron or Kevin Durant (or a host of other stars who switched teams).
Plus, the NBA has figured out how to put on a good entertainment product — it’s more than just the games, it’s an experience in the arena. Even just watching a game on TNT, fans hang out after to see what Shaq and Charles will say. The NBA has figured out how to monetize all of that, and while the owners get rich, the players do well for themselves also. Starting a new league would be starting from the ground up to build what the NBA already has (and in many cases, has mastered).
Irving is asking a lot of good questions about the restart of the NBA and the wisdom of it, the safety of it. The answers, however, are just not clean and simple. Much like the idea of players starting a league. It makes this a challenging issue.
