Not much is known about Project B
There could be a new basketball league on the horizon that might start in 2026. The league has no name, as it is just known as Project B. The league will play at the same time as the National Basketball Association and will presumably compete with the NBA for players. The league will be playing games in North America, Europe, Asia and in Latin America. There is no word on what cities will have franchises, what the league plans to do in terms of getting games before people on TV or with a streaming service. The league will be independent of the NBA. The NBA has plans to start a European League in 2027. Project B also has a women’s league on the drawing board.
The NBA’s history is filled with rival leagues. The NBA started as the Basketball Association of America in 1946 as a competing league. The National Basketball League had been around since 1937 and was a Midwest industrial semi-pro league that featured company teams. There are five NBA franchises that were in that league, the Atlanta Hawks, the Detroit Pistons, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Sacramento Kings, all of those franchises were in different cities in the NBL. In 1947, NBA owners enticed the American Basketball League’s Baltimore Bullets ownership to jump leagues. The BAA poached the NBL for teams in 1948 because the league wanted George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers. The BAA also took Rochester and Fort Wayne whose owner Fred Zollner had a lot of money. The 1949 NBA had 17 teams. Soon it had just eight. The American Basketball League failed as a competitor in 1962 and the NBA took in four American Basketball Association franchises in 1976. The NBA may have competition soon.
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The NBA’s first superstar George Mikan started off in a rival league,
