Photo Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

JBA Players Still Haven’t Been Paid

LaVar Ball’s initial idea of the JBA (Junior Basketball Association) as an NCAA alternative may have been a decent idea, but what he since made out of the idea makes us think that it was less idealistic than mercenary.

Would you go to a JBA game? A league that features no top-100 recruits? A league that basically is on one level with some AAU games? Yes, why not, I’d watch it! I bet you won’t when you find out that LaVar is charing more for a ticket than most NBA arenas.

For the opening games on June 21 in California, tickets started at $40 and went up to $99, before fees obviously. This led to basically no one coming to the games, that nontheless take place in 10,000-plus-seat arenas.

On top of the prices and the league’s poor level of play, it seems as LaVar and his associates are also ripping off the league’s players.

Last month, we reported that former Los Angeles Ballers player Brandon Phillips wasn’t paid what he was promised. The JBA representatives have even stopped answering his phone calls.

Phillips, who was cut for LiAngelo Ball after only four games, says that the JBA still owes him $1,400 in unpaid salary and $200 in bag fees. Brandon basically gave up his eligibility for roughly $1000.

Now in the latest episode of Ball in the Family, league director Alan Foster was seen talking to Chicago Ballers player Shawn Lee, who told him that he hadn’t been paid, and that the JBA had missed three paychecks.

A surprised Foster then went to ask other JBA players about their paychecks only to find out that they also hadn’t been paid. He said:

 

“I don’t know what we’re gonna do about this, but we have to get to the bottom of it and find out exactly what happened.”