The Biggest Threat the NBA Has Ever Faced

Since its formation in 1946, the NBA has solidified itself as the world's strongest, most recognizable basketball league.

Young hoopers from around the world aspire to play for storied franchises like the LA Lakers or Boston Celtics and to have their number retired alongside some of the game's all-time greats.

However, in a modern world where money talks most, super-rich investors from the Middle East are threatening to harm not only the reputation of the NBA but the very existence of the league itself!

Before we get into that, we need to understand what's happening in Europe right now with the weakening of its most prestigious soccer leagues…

The emergence of a super-wealthy soccer league in Saudi Arabia, one that offers hugely inflated salaries, has lured some of the sport’s biggest names to play for low-level teams in the desert. The most notable example to date is Cristiano Ronaldo.

At the end of 2022, Ronaldo signed a record deal to play for Saudi club Al Nassr worth $210 million for two years, plus a $100 million signing bonus!

The season before, Ronaldo had played for Manchester United and he supposedly rejected a move to play in the MLS in order to receive his big payday. Now granted, at 38 years old Ronaldo is playing towards the end of his career but many high-profile clubs are still interested in him.

With hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal, if the Saudis were willing to give an ageing superstar hundreds of millions of dollars- which for them is worth pennies. Just imagine how much they would offer for elite young talents!

Well, actually we don’t have to imagine, because in 2023 French Club PSG accepted a $310 million bid for their rising star, Kylian Mbappé.

The bid came from Saudi Pro club, Al-Hilal, and would’ve made Mbappé the richest soccer player on the planet with the potential to earn up to $776 million playing a single season in Saudi Arabia! Surprisingly, Mbappé shut the talks down almost immediately citing his reluctance to play for the country and instead, win trophies at the highest level in Europe.

The list of high-profile soccer players who have joined the Saudi Pro League in recent years is pretty extensive. But that’s just soccer, right? Something like that would never happen to NBA!

Well, someone who has been keeping a close eye on the Saudi situation is none other than LeBron.