With the NBA lockout expected to cancel games, Impact Basketball will host its own league feature only NBA players. Many notable stars such as Chauncey Billups, John Wall, Zach Randolph and Stephen Jackson have already committed to playing for the Impact Basketball League.
"This is an effort on our part to get these guys as ready for training camp as they can get, without going to training camp," Joe Abunassar, head trainer of Impact Basketball, told the New York Times in in a phone interview. "That’s the allure of it."
The official name of the league is Impact Basketball Competitive Training Series.
Eight teams will likely debut in the series on Sept. 12, and a champion will be crowned on Sept. 23 following a two day playoff. Roughly 500 tickets will be sold for the games in Las Vegas, and all proceeds will go to charity. Luckily for fans living outside the area, these events will be streamed live on the Internet.
As for Chauncey Billups, he will probably be playing alongside his Knicks teammate Iman Shumpert.
"The way we’re going to play — with all the N.B.A. guys, with a lot of intensity, with not making it a circus, so to speak," Abunassar said. "These guys are here to get the best basketball they’ve gotten."
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