Edge of Sports: David West vs. Goliath

West is now the new chief operating officer of the Historical Basketball League, which has the audacious vision of actually paying college players for their labor.

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David West was a two-time All-Star NBA forward who played fifteen seasons in the NBA. He was also an activist-athlete, someone who never shied away from using his platform to make political statements, particularly on the subject of racial justice. Now he has a new battle, against one of the great foundations of sporting injustice: the NCAA and its multibillion-dollar empire of unpaid labor that masquerades as amateurism.

West—who retired from the NBA last summer after winning two consecutive championships with the Golden State Warriors—is now the new chief operating officer of what is called the Historical Basketball League. The HBL, which hopes to launch by 2020 in twelve cities across the country, is audacious in its vision. It would be a league that actually pays college players for their labor.

This template—an effort “to bring what’s going on under the table above the table,” in West’s words—has a touch of genius. The plan is to recruit top high school players to compete during the summer months, for salaries ranging from $50,000 to $150,000. Then, during the fall, winter, and spring, they would attend a nearby college, where they can practice lightly and concentrate mostly on their studies.

The idea is that without basketball as a constant focus, far and away the most prioritized responsibility for scholarship athletes, these players would actually get an education. The HBL will cover their tuition as long as the players can get into a local school on their own academic merits. In addition, players would have full control of their own commercial likenesses, be able to sell products, adorn cereal boxes, accept gifts, and all the things that cause the NCAA to clutch its pearls and reach for the nearest fainting couch.

“I want to be on the right side of history, it’s that simple,” said West. “These guys playing with passion and for the love of the game . . . deserve an opportunity to share in the profits they help generate. We need to change this narrative. We need to create a path that gives players the option to take a more professional step toward their careers and personal development.”

This connects strongly with something All-American basketball player Laron Profit once told me about playing in the revenue-producing world of college sports: “We are not student athletes. We are athlete students because the second we come on campus there is never a question about what we are there to do and who we are there to serve.”

The new model challenges the economic foundation of college basketball and raises an important moral question about the practices of the NCAA.

Why doesn’t the NCAA allow players to control their image or their likeness? Why aren’t they paid for the billions in television money and concessions they produce? Why do they lack rights afforded to other workers?

Andy Schwarz, a co-founder of the HBL and currently its chief innovation officer, told me he was “thrilled” when West agreed to join its board. He said potential investors felt the league was missing “a person with deep basketball knowledge to lead our basketball operations on a day-to-day basis,” a bill that West fit to a tee.

“He understands the business of the game, what it takes to be successful at every level as a player, and how to identify talent,” Schwarz said. “He’s well connected with his former teammates and opponents, with coaches, and with NBA team and league execs. He could’ve easily landed a coaching or front office position in the NBA if he’d wanted, but instead he chose to join the HBL.”

The new league’s future remains undetermined. To make it work will require coming up with some $30 million to $40 million. The league will also need to convince high school recruits raised on March Madness that this new idea is worth the risk.

But anything that provides options for seventeen-year-old players beyond the world of indentured servitude offered by the NCAA should be roundly welcomed. The HBL brings to the table the one thing the NCAA, with its cartel structure, abhors above all else: competition.

Let the games begin.