LeBron James, Maverick Carter will destroy WNBA with reported rival league

A picture is worth a thousand words. This one might be worth billions and billions of dollars.

That viral photo of a meeting between LeBron James, Maverick Carter, and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic’s agent on a superyacht in the luxurious St. Tropez along the French Riviera was not for NBA supremacy.

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It was to put the pieces in place to possibly destroy the NBA and WNBA.

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Front Office Sports dropped a bombshell today on the latest details of the worst kept secret: Maverick Carter is putting together a rival basketball league with funding backed by the controversial Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, amongst other big-time investors, tentatively slated to begin in the fall of 2026.

(At this point, James is reportedly not involved, but it’s hard to believe LeBron’s bestie and business partner is doing this without King James’ complicit buy-in.)

While the NBA will most likely survive the arms race for top-tier talent, the WNBA is much more vulnerable.

Here’s why.

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The maximum annual salary for a WNBA player is $250,000, with Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young technically the highest paid at $252,450 per season. Her three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson somehow only makes $200,000 annually.

With a contentious labor dispute, even if the players get what they deserve at a much higher annual salary, it will never compare to what the LIV Golf-like basketball league could offer the biggest names like Caitlin Clark, currently still on her rookie deal making on average $84,514.

Carter is reportedly raising $5 billion initially, so A-list names like Clark could be making $250k every quarter of every game, not to mention the equity component.

(Of course mega superstars like Clark make most of their money in endorsements, like the reported eight year, $28 million deal with Nike. Wilson dropped her first signature Nike shoe, the A’One, this year and is said to have one of the most lucrative women’s shoe deals too, having signed a six-year extension.)

Unlike Unrivaled, where players make $222k on average with a minimum of $100k in the WNBA offseason, with spot bonuses like $250k for winning the one-on-one tournament, this new league is a full-time responsibility.

So with six women’s teams to match the six men’s squads, that would drain the WNBA of nearly every big-time name, and given the league’s ratings and revenue are disproportionately tied to names like Clark, it would be hard to sustain the W, who has enjoyed exponentially higher valuations, led by the Golden State Valkyries at $500 million.

This will unnerve the NBA too, since the league’s biggest stars, like LeBron and Stephen Curry, have been frustrated that they’ve been exploited at the benefit of their team’s owners with no ability to get an equity stake.

The Golden State Warriors were worth $315 million when they drafted Curry. They’re now worth over $9 billion, which at the time was No. 1 overall until the Los Angeles Lakers sold for a $10 billion valuation last month. The Indiana Fever went from $90 million to $370 million in only a year thanks to Clark.

The F1-like touring format feels odd, but for WNBA stars and older NBA legends playing presumably a much less strenuous schedule, it will almost certainly be a no-brainer decision.

The NBA is also trying to fast track a new league in Europe, so it’s a great time to be a marquee basketball name, much like it was for golf stars when LIV Golf was created.

And if you’re the WNBA, good luck surviving.

— Enjoy free dish of rich and fabulous players with The Athlete Lifestyle on SI —

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