mobile app bar

“Tracy McGrady has $570,000 in cash rewards for Ones Basketball League”: Former Magic and Rockets superstar invests $10 million on his idea for 1vs1 basketball league

Akash Murty
Published

"Tracy McGrady has $570,000 in cash rewards for Ones Basketball League": Former Magic and Rockets superstar invests $10 million on his idea for 1vs1 basketball league

Tracy McGrady is spending millions on his idea of  1v1 basketball, the Ones Basketball League’s 1st season is already going on with its Finals due in July.

One of the greatest offensive juggernauts of all time, who could torch anyone and everyone on a basketball court one-on-one now has a league of his own that celebrates players great at 1v1 basketball.

Tracy McGrady who has Kobe Bryant’s and almost every other legend’s agreement in him being the best scorer of the basketball knows how being better than everyone else on the court doesn’t always translate to success all the time.

Also read: “Michael Jordan led the playoffs 10x in PPG”: His Airness led his peers 10x in both regular and post season

Although he made over $160 million in his 16-year NBA career just through salary and accolades wise he was far more of an underachiever of how big of a household name he was in the NBA.

So, he decided to trust himself with the idea which allowing athletes who have the talent to go against anyone on the basketball court. The former Rockets star is also giving a lot of money to the winner.

What’s Tracy McGrady – backed ‘Ones Basketball League’ is and how much money can one earn if they win it all? Let’s find out.

In OBL, which started earlier in February, six cities across the United States are hosting a 2-day, regional, 32-player round-robin knockout tournament with athletes aged 18 and up. They also – should not be currently under an NBA contract and not have been on an active NBA roster for more than 164 games (equivalent to two NBA regular seasons).

The participants are coming through a combination of open-sourced video submissions and the advice of basketball insiders. The aim is to welcome both best-in-class talent and players who may still be under the radar of most basketball fans.

McGrady will be investing just under $10 million, all told, including $10,000 for the regional champs and $250,000 prize for the eventual OBL champion.

Also read: “Stephen Curry’s shoes were banned by the NBA because of Nike”: How the NBA’s deal with Nike had the Under Armor Steph Curry 4’s outlawed

Also, McGrady has already found a prominent media group to back him. He has a digital distribution deal with Paramount-owned Showtime network that allows the network to show OBL content on its YouTube channel.


SHOWTIME Sports will also produce short-form digital content for distribution across its social networks from the remainder of the inaugural OBL season through the league’s Las Vegas Championship in July. It will also distribute a behind-the-scenes, all-access documentary probably after the season.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

x-iconfacebook-iconinstagram-iconlinkedin-icon

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

Share this article