(Reuters) – Former National Basketball Players Association Executive Director Michele Roberts will help to oversee the launch of a four-team basketball league that will be played on an interactive LED court, Fan Controlled Sports & Entertainment said on Wednesday.
Fan Controlled Hoops, a 4v4 full-court brand of basketball that will allow fans to call the shots, will tip off Feb. 7 in Atlanta and also counts former NBA All-Star Baron Davis as a strategic advisor alongside Roberts.
Additional NBA players still to be named will serve in various roles within FC Hoops.
The league comes from the creators of Fan Controlled Football, which began play in 2021 and has featured Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens and former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel among its players.
Roberts, who in 2014 became the first woman to head a major professional sports union in North America, said one reason she had joined FC Hoops as a strategic advisor was to help revolutionize they way fans consume and interact with sports.
“Basketball and sports going forward in the future is just not going to be like my father’s or my grandfather’s sport. I don’t know what it’s going to look like but it’s going to probably look a lot like FC Hoops,” Roberts told Reuters.
“And so what I want it to be is a league that no-one says ‘what’s that?’ That’s what I want to see happen.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; editing by Clare Fallon)
