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Each basketball player dreams of reaching the NBA, but for most, that dream is not realized.
“When you stop playing, a part of your identity as a basketball player fades,” says Scotty Weaver, a former hooper of the university turned into a creator of basketball content. “It’s always that feeling or never does.”
While playing abroad or in semi-professional leagues remains an option, it rarely comes with the recognition that the NBA sacrifices. With the next chapter, Weaver aims to change that.
Co -founded with his fellow basketball creator d’otent Friga, the next chapter (TNC) is a 1V1 Basketball League premier that highlights some of the most dynamic street balls in the game. The players face face to face for cash awards in a format that reminds the fight against the cage.
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The prologue
Weaver was in the world of streetball content long before TNC, starting working with Ballislife making content with his team from the east coast, where he with the outstanding player Isaiah Hodge, also known as Slim Reaper. They left Ballislife and began making their own street ball content with a group called Wild Hunt. Weaver would take his Wild Hunt team to local parks and film five against five basketball videos.
“We had a lot of guys that were characters,” says Weaver. “Slam Dunkers, types that make creative drip, great speakers. Everyone brought their own personality and energy.”
The format of five against five helped attract great crowds, but it made it difficult to pay the players involved consistently.
“To help pay the team, we asked after the event if they wanted to run something about one with people in the park,” he explains. “When that video comes out, we will publish it as the next chapter, and whatever generates will be how we pay him. Therefore, his ability to win is directly to his performance in the video.”
That model encouraged players to speak, play striking and stand out, turning games even better.
They began to introduce one of their players, Lah Moon, in one by one after each parks race, challenging the best and most brave of the crowd. After a series of undefeated actions, Moon finally with his party in the old Hooper Nasir Core, whose dominant show made him stand out in the community.
Feeling that they were in something, Weaver brought the nucleus as another individual player, laying the foundations for what could become the next chapter. The first season had seven players, each one compensated based on how well their videos were made. They filmed the seven episodes in one day and published them a few months.
“The first season was great,” says Weaver. “The players began to see how much money they could earn in this.”
What, as a way for players to win money, has unexpectedly become a possible professional career for Streetball creators?
“We simply pay attention to what people wanted to see,” says Weaver. “What we are building is a basketball league, either one by one, two against two, three against matters or five against the five. At this time, we are focused because they are very ideable.
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The ‘UFC’ or the hoops
The TNC marketing strategy channels the spirit of Vince McMahon and Dana White, building stars highlighting unique personalities and skills. The YouTube Devonte Friga phenom knows this process well, after having grown its personal channel to a million followers.
“We are trying to build the UFC of the basketball one,” says Friga.
He points to one of the prominent players of TNC, J Lew, whom the marketing team skillfully labeled “the most changing hooper on the Internet.”
“There are as many players like that, each with small and unique parts of their game that define who they are. Let’s take nas, for example, online, it is dominant. Not only wins, he wins big, and ensures that he is not an Ortodod, that there is, there is a badge that NBA 2K flew it to capture his crossover movement, although he is not a player of the NBA.
The next chapter for the next chapter
Althegh, most TNC players are Streetballers, the League is experimenting with a new format on June 6: a one -to -one confrontation among former NBA players Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley, with $ 100,000 at stake.
The confrontation will serve as the final of season 2, which had 20 episodes of the two professionals training opposite squads, building anticipation for their long -awaited confrontation. The event cannot be used through Pay-Per-View, a bold movement for a league whose audience is drums for free content.
Still, Weaver is confident that fans will see the value.
“I think it’s about trying your audience that when you ask you to spend your money, there must be a clear sense of value, Wow, actually got something great in return, instead only the same things.
While some details are still being completed, Weaver estimates that advancing, approximately 95% of the TNC content will remain free, with approximately 5% behind a payment wall.
While others, such as the former NBA star, Tracy Mcgrary, with his OBL League, have explored the 1V1 basketball space, the next chapter is to climb their path from scratch.
“Unlike the Tracy League, we don’t need to be some immediately,” says Friga. “What we are building is completely different, and I think it has the potential to become an industry of one billion dollars.”
