The Global Basketball League

The year was 1979. The world of professional basketball is in disarray. The NBA and ABA have played to smaller and smaller crowds over the past few years, as fans have abandoned the leagues in droves, turned away by the insatiable greed of the players and corrupt behavior of team executives and league management. The infamous Oscar Robertson lawsuit of 1971 led to a federal injunction which now bans the ABA and NBA from merging together into one American basketball league, causing bitter feuds and multiple other lawsuits between the two leagues. Sports journalists have speculated that, due to crowds turning away from the leagues in such high numbers in favor of collegiate basketball, or in some cases, European basketball, it is entirely possible that both leagues could go bankrupt within two years.

Enter former United States citizens John Sollovic and Sean Adamsov. Longtime friends, these two powerhouse businessmen left the United States together in 1967 to explore business opportunities oversseas. The two have an estimated net worth of over 2.7 billion USD, and run the largest professional basketball league in the world, the Euroleague.

In late 1975, Sollovic and Adamsov opened a line of communication to the NBA and ABA, stating their desire to create one united basketball league that would span the globe. These gentlemen offered well above the worth for each NBA and ABA team at the time, hoping that money would entice the owners to disband from their current leagues and embrace the vision of the two business tycoons. However, at that point, the ABA and NBA were still relatively strong, and no teams would heed the offer.

The 1977 WBC (World Basketball Classic) changed all of that. Organized by Adamsov, Sollovic, and NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien, the WBC saw a team of NBA and ABA players take on the best from the Euroleague. A record 28.9 million U.S. viewers tuned in to see the NBA and ABA players get annihilated, 132-85. Of particular note was CSKA Moscow's center, Vladimir Tkachenko, who dominated the game with 31 points, 17 rebounds, and 6 blocks, after U.S. center Darryl Dawkins publicly boasted before the game that "Vlad won't score a single point on me". Dawkins finished just 1-10 from the field for two points, and was fined $10,000 by the NBA after breaking a reporter's camera in frustration.

The global incident further damaged the reputation of the embarrassed NBA and ABA organizations, who now secretly have reopened negotiations with Sollovic and Adamsov regarding a potential buyout of the leagues. Some owners, furious at the thought of "submitting" to the might of the Euroleague, refuse to participate in the new league, and accept buyouts to fold their franchises. In the spring of 1979, at a joint press conference, Sollovic, Adamsov, O'Brien, and other executives gather to announce the unthinkable: the NBA and ABA will merge into the Euroleague, with the result becoming the GBL: the Global Basketball League, to begin play in the fall of 1979. All players across the leagues will be subject to a league wide disbursement draft, opening the opportunity for ABA star Julius "Dr. J" Erving to play for the Greek powerhouse Olmypiakos, or the aforementioned Tkachenko to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies. The possibilities are endless, and with a global television contract and merchandising agreement, this league has officially become the first global enterprise.

Welcome to the seventh season of the Global Basketball League!

The GBL is a fantasy basketball league that runs on the JSB engine. This site is for entertainment only.


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