HOUSTON – (Staff Report with Information from Official News Release) – Seven-time NBA All-Star, Basketball Hall-of-Famer, and entrepreneur Tracy McGrady released information on his fledgling Ones Basketball Association, including the regional schedule and venues for the launch of the first-ever, elite competition that will celebrate the most skilled one-on-one basketball players.
The first year of regional competition will take place in seven cities in the United States, beginning the weekend of April 30, 2022. The league’s regular season begins in Houston and concludes in the San Francisco Bay Area in June. The 2022 Finals for the Ones Basketball Association will take place in July in Los Angeles.
“Our goal this year is to test and preview how we should best spotlight and celebrate the competition, raw athletic talent, and extraordinary skills of these young rising stars,” McGrady said. “We are proud to partner with Jeffrey Pollack, who will help us develop our game plan on and off the court. His input is already invaluable to me, as we take our first steps as a startup league and set the foundation for a global basketball property that will create more opportunities for athletes and fans and tell new basketball stories.”
Beginning in April, seven cities across the United States will host a two-day, regional, 32-player round-robin knockout tournament with athletes aged 18 and up who are currently not under an NBA contract and have not been on an active NBA roster for more than 164 games (equivalent to two NBA regular seasons). The participants will come from 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. The inaugural events this year will feature only men, and women will be welcomed as equal participants as soon as 2023.
The Ones Basketball Association season:
Houston, April 30-May 1 (The Dub Sports Zone, Richmond, TX)
Atlanta, May 7-8 (CORE4 Atlanta, Chamblee, GA)
Chicago, May 21-22 (Chicago Hope Academy Athletic Center, Chicago, IL)
New York City, May 28-29 (Major R. Owens Community Center hosted by New Heights, Brooklyn, NY)
The DMV, June 4-5 (The St. James, Springfield, VA)
The Bay Area, June 11-12 (The Ultimate Fieldhouse, Walnut Creek, CA)
Los Angeles, TBD (TBD)
The winner of each regional tournament will take home a $10,000 cash prize along with an invitation to the Finals, which will see 21 players (the top three from each region) compete for a chance to win a $250,000 grand prize and be crowned “Ruler of the Court.”
Venues this first year will have very limited public seating, in order to keep the current focus on the athletes, their stories, and the competitive format.
The field for each regional tournament, along with content and media partners, elite player ambassadors, and details about the 2022 Finals, will be announced in the coming weeks.
The NBA once staged the “Pepsi Hot Shot” competition which was a One-on-One basketball, taped and played at halftime of the NBA on ABC weekly Game of the Week in the 1970s.
Follow Ones Basketball Association at https://www.obahoops.com/.