Dream Sporting Event: NBA Lockout League

By Rick Morris

With the NBA players scattering to the four corners of the globe, the question comes to mind about what would happen if they leveraged their star power to form an all-star barnstorming league? We decided to take a look at what it might resemble.

First step: nominate six players to be team captains to conduct a draft. We went for an amalgam of recent league MVPs and franchise players to win NBA championships. That set up a “Kevin Durant lottery” as he was the obvious top choice for whichever player took the top spot. A random drawing gave that top pick to Team Wade. The draft that we conducted took into account the many factors that players would likely utilize in making their selections: from pure respect for talent to personal biases to chemistry formed through past associations.

In terms of the structure, presumably the players association would shop this league to a network or combination of networks. Anyone presently dealing with the NBA would certainly be out of the mix.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the new Comcast-owned NBC Universal family shells out the necessary money, with weeknight games on Versus (soon to become the NBC Sports Network) and Saturday games on NBC (doubleheaders with both games taking place in a domed stadium). In every city, non-NBA arenas would almost certainly be needed.

Each team would play ten games, two against every other team. At the end of the regular season, the teams with the four best records (with total best margin of victory among teams tied serving as a tiebreaker) would square off in semifinals and then a championship.

In the event that the lockout would end before this barnstorming league had completed the season, the remaining games could be finished on a vastly compressed schedule over the summer. Given the possibility, perhaps probability of a winter without pro hoops, the alternate scenario sketched out here is plausible if the union could muster the necessary unity among its top players.

Here is how we see the draft unfolding:

ROUND 1

1 TEAM WADE: Kevin Durant

2 TEAM KOBE: Dwight Howard

3 TEAM DIRK: Steve Nash

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Chris Paul

5 TEAM ROSE: Amar’e Stoudemire

6 TEAM LEBRON: Chris Bosh

ROUND 2

1 TEAM LEBRON: Stephen Curry

2 TEAM ROSE: Carmelo Anthony

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Danny Granger

4 TEAM DIRK: Brook Lopez

5 TEAM KOBE: Blake Griffin

6 TEAM WADE: Deron Williams

ROUND 3

1 TEAM WADE: Kevin Love

2 TEAM KOBE: Rudy Gay

3 TEAM DIRK: Joe Johnson

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Ray Allen

5 TEAM ROSE: Monta Ellis

6 TEAM LEBRON: Russell Westbrook

ROUND 4

1 TEAM LEBRON: Pau Gasol

2 TEAM ROSE: Zach Randolph

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Tyreke Evans

4 TEAM DIRK: Brandon Roy

5 TEAM KOBE: Michael Beasley

6 TEAM WADE: Andrew Bynum

ROUND 5

1 TEAM WADE: LaMarcus Aldridge

2 TEAM KOBE: Lamar Odom

3 TEAM DIRK: Andre Iguodala

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Marc Gasol

5 TEAM ROSE: Paul Pierce

6 TEAM LEBRON: Kevin Martin

ROUND 6

1 TEAM LEBRON: Chauncey Billups

2 TEAM ROSE: Rajon Rondo

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Manu Ginobili

4 TEAM DIRK: Kevin Garnett

5 TEAM KOBE: John Wall

6 TEAM WADE: Danilo Gallinari

ROUND 7

1 TEAM WADE: Eric Gordon

2 TEAM KOBE: Luis Scola

3 TEAM DIRK: Jason Terry

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Tony Parker

5 TEAM ROSE: Joakim Noah

6 TEAM LEBRON: OJ Mayo

ROUND 8

1 TEAM LEBRON: Anderson Varejao

2 TEAM ROSE: Carlos Boozer

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Al Jefferson

4 TEAM DIRK: Caron Butler

5 TEAM KOBE: Jameer Nelson

6 TEAM WADE: David Lee

ROUND 9

1 TEAM WADE: Luol Deng

2 TEAM KOBE: Al Horford

3 TEAM DIRK: Paul Millsap

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Dorell Wright

5 TEAM ROSE: Josh Smith

6 TEAM LEBRON: Mike Conley

ROUND 10

1 TEAM LEBRON: Elton Brand

2 TEAM ROSE: Gerald Wallace

3 TEAM DUNCAN: David West

4 TEAM DIRK: Jason Kidd

5 TEAM KOBE: Derrick Williams

6 TEAM WADE: Mike Miller

ROUND 11

1 TEAM WADE: Jrue Holliday

2 TEAM KOBE: Hedo Turkoglu

3 TEAM DIRK: Antawn Jamison

4 TEAM DUNCAN: Ben Gordon

5 TEAM ROSE: Shawn Marion

6 TEAM LEBRON: Grant Hill

ROUND 12

1 TEAM LEBRON: James Harden

2 TEAM ROSE: Raymond Felton

3 TEAM DUNCAN: Rip Hamilton

4 TEAM DIRK: Tyson Chandler

5 TEAM KOBE: Devin Harris

6 TEAM WADE: Kyrie Irving

The rosters would look like this:

TEAM WADE

Kevin Durant

Deron Williams

Kevin Love

Andrew Bynum

LaMarcus Aldridge

Danilo Gallinari

Eric Gordon

David Lee

Luol Deng

Mike Miller

Jrue Holliday

Kyrie Irving

TEAM KOBE

Dwight Howard

Blake Griffin

Rudy Gay

Michael Beasley

Lamar Odom

John Wall

Luis Scola

Jameer Nelson

Al Horford

Derrick Williams

Hedo Turkoglu

TEAM DIRK

Steve Nash

Brook Lopez

Joe Johnson

Brandon Roy

Andre Iguodala

Kevin Garnett

Jason Terry

Caron Butler

Paul Millsap

Jason Kidd

Antawn Jamison

Tyson Chandler

TEAM DUNCAN

Chris Paul

Danny Granger

Ray Allen

Tyreke Evans

Marc Gasol

Manu Ginobili

Tony Parker

Al Jefferson

Dorell Wright

David West

Ben Gordon

Rip Hamilton

TEAM ROSE

Amar’e Stoudemire

Carmelo Anthony

Monta Ellis

Zach Randolph

Paul Pierce

Rajon Rondo

Joakim Noah

Carlos Boozer

Josh Smith

Gerald Wallace

Shawn Marion

Raymond Felton

TEAM LEBRON

Chris Bosh

Stephen Curry

Russell Westbrook

Pau Gasol

Kevin Martin

Chauncey Billups

OJ Mayo

Anderson Varejao

Mike Conley

Elton Brand

Grant Hill

James Harden

And here’s the schedule for the entire season:

Saturday, November 12 on NBC: Draft/Selection Show

Wednesday, November 23 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Kobe (Meadowlands)

Saturday, November 26 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Duncan (Indianapolis)

Saturday, November 26 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Lebron (Indianapolis)

Wednesday, November 30 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Dirk (Chicago)

Saturday, December 3 on NBC: Team Kobe vs. Team Wade (St. Louis)

Saturday, December 3 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Rose (St. Louis)

Wednesday, December 7 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Rose (Lexington, KY)

Thursday, December 8 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Dirk (Columus)

Thursday, December 8 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Lebron (Cincinnati)

Friday, December 9 on Versus: Team Rose vs. Team Kobe (Louisville, KY)

Saturday, December 10 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Wade (Detroit)

Saturday, December 10 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Duncan (Detroit)

Wednesday, December 14 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Duncan (Philadelphia)

Thursday, December 15 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Rose (Baltimore)

Thursday, December 15 on Versus: Team Dirk vs. Team Lebron (Pittsburgh)

Friday, December 16 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Kobe (Meadowlands)

Saturday, December 17 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Wade (Atlanta)

Saturday, December 17 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Dirk (Atlanta)

Wednesday, December 21 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Duncan (Greensboro, NC)

Thursday, December 22 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Lebron (Knoxville, TN)

Thursday, December 22 on Versus: Team Dirk vs. Team Rose (Nashville)

Friday, December 23 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Wade (Raleigh)

Sunday, December 25 on NBC: Team Lebron vs. Team Kobe (Indianapolis)

Sunday, December 25 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Dirk (Indianapolis)

Wednesday, December 28 on Versus: Team Wade vs. Team Lebron (St. Paul)

Thursday, December 29 on Versus: Team Kobe vs. Team Dirk (Chicago)

Thursday, December 29 on Versus: Team Duncan vs. Team Rose (Cleveland)

Friday, December 30 on Versus: Team Lebron vs. Team Wade (Kansas City)

Saturday, December 31 on NBC: Team Dirk vs. Team Kobe (Detroit)

Saturday, December 31 on NBC: Team Rose vs. Team Duncan (Detroit)

Tuesday, January 10 on NBC: Semifinal (Dallas)

Wednesday, January 11 on NBC: Semifinal (Houston)

Sunday, January 16 on NBC: Championship (Atlanta)