Tag Archives: atlanta

Ones Basketball League Crowns Atlanta Regional Champion at CORE4 in Chamblee; Awards $10,000 Prize

Ones Basketball League (OBL) — the first-ever elite competition that celebrates the most skilled one-on-one players on the planet and created by Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady – crowned its second Regional Champion at CORE4 in Chamblee, Georgia, on Saturday and Sunday. A total of 32 top area and national-level basketball players squared off in spirited action, and it was Glen Rice Jr. (Marietta, Ga.), Antonio Hester (Miami) and Tiras Wade (Tampa) who took the top three places in a weekend filled with exciting and high-quality play across the board.

Rice, the OBL (@oblhoops) Atlanta Regional Champion and recipient of the $10,000 prize, seeded fifth after a 6-1 record on Saturday despite an injured lower leg, won the Championship match, 9-7, over Hester, who had qualified as the #2 seed after going a perfect 7-0 in pool play. Wade, the #1 seed who was also unbeaten at 7-0 on Saturday, bested Atlanta’s Phil Taylor in the third-place game. At 40, Wade was the oldest competitor in the field. All three now advance to the OBL Finals in Las Vegas this summer (dates and location TBA).

“This league is giving players an opportunity to show what they can do, and these three guys took advantage with great play all weekend,” said McGrady. “We are proud that they will be representing the Atlanta region in Las Vegas.”

“It was fun competing with this group of guys, playing a game that we love and seeing who was the best at it,” said Rice, 31, who starred collegiately at Georgia Tech. “I don’t know where everybody came from, but the competition level was great both days. It was better than I expected.”

Tracy McGrady and Dikembe Mutombo

“It was love, man. I enjoyed this weekend and it was such a blessing to be here,” added the powerful Hester, 31, who played at Miami Dade and the University of Mobile and has competed professionally overseas for more than a decade. “Getting to compete with all these pros, it was definitely another level.”

In last week’s inaugural event in Houston, John Jordan, 29, of Houston was the champion. Jordan and H-Town Regional runner-up Matt Kiatipis were both on hand in Atlanta to take in the action. OBL’s next regional event is May 21-22 at Chicago Hope Academy Athletic Center.

Following Chicago, the remainder of the regional schedule is as follows:
• 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.”

OBL media partners include SLAM Media, Playmaker, and Heart and Hustle Productions. Follow Ones Basketball League at https://www.oblhoops.com/.

Ones Basketball Association Unveils Schedule and Venues for First Season of One-on-One Basketball

Seven-time NBA All-Star, Basketball Hall-of-Famer, and entrepreneur Tracy McGrady today unveiled the regional schedule and venues for the launch of the Ones Basketball Association, a first-ever elite competition that will celebrate the most skilled one-on-one players on the planet.

The first year of regional competition will take place in seven cities across the United States, beginning the weekend of April 30th in Houston and concluding in June. The 2022 Finals for the Ones Basketball Association will take place in July.

McGrady has also announced that media and sports industry veteran Jeffrey Pollack has signed on as a strategic advisor to help lead business planning and operations and create best-in-class events and experiences.

“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.”

“In many ways this is the first-ever pop-up sports league,” said Pollack. “We are moving fast, tipping off quickly, and excited to publicly share our proof-of-concept with the basketball community and sports industry. Early feedback will be vital to our planning efforts, and we are ready to test, listen, and learn throughout this first season. Players, fans, and partners will have a rare opportunity to co-create the Ones Basketball Association with Tracy and our team, and it’s exciting to help launch a new celebration of basketball excellence.”

Elissa Grabow, McGrady’s long-time business manager, has also joined the leadership team to help turn McGrady’s vision into reality. “Working for Tracy McGrady for the past 25 years has been the ride of a lifetime and this journey is a true labor of love,” said Grabow. “Tracy is inspired and focused and it all comes from the purest place: his heart. It is an honor to be on this team and help develop the Ones Basketball Association into something special that we believe will build community, provide hope and opportunity, and create a new way to fall in love with the game of basketball.”

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 regional tournament schedule for the first season of the Ones Basketball Association season is:
· 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.
Jeffrey Pollack is a sports business executive and Emmy-Award winner with more than 25 years of leadership experience driving catalytic change, growth, and innovation for family-owned, private-equity-backed, and corporate-based ventures. He was most recently President and CEO of the XFL.

Pollack has been lauded for helping businesses and brands rethink, recalibrate, and evolve, and he has held both executive and advisory roles with the NBA, NASCAR, World Series of Poker, Professional Bull Riders, and Los Angeles Chargers. Pollack is founder of The Sports Business Daily, the original daily trade publication for the sports industry.

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.

Follow Ones Basketball Association at https://www.obahoops.com/.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta To Host Triller Fight Club’s April 17 Card, Jake Paul vs Ben Askren

Triller Fight Club today announced that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, will be the home for TFC’s inaugural event of 2021, the April 17 boxing Pay-Per-View card headlined by Jake Paul and Ben Askren. This will be the first-ever fighting event at one of the most dynamic venues in the world, which was the home of Super Bowl LIII.

iNDemand, the leading transactional video-on-demand and PPV programming provider in North America, will serve as the exclusive U.S. and Canadian cable, satellite, and telco PPV provider for the event. Fans will be able to order the event on PPV through their existing cable, satellite and telco PPV providers, including Xfinity, Spectrum, Contour, DirecTV, AT&T TV, Dish, Fios, and Optimum (U.S.), as well as Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Videotron, and Sasktel (Canada). FITE, the premier PPV digital platform will handle worldwide live pay-per-view streaming distribution online, and via FITE mobile and Smart TV apps, game controllers and all major OTT devices as well as power TrillerFightClub.com.

The suggested PPV retail price for the event is $49.99 (U.S. & Canada). Fans outside North America can check the FITE link for international pricing.

The four-hour show, which will kick off at 8pm ET with the live PPV main card starting at 9pm ET, will also feature an exciting undercard of fights that will be announced shortly. Triller Fight Club is a partnership between Triller and Snoop Dogg and is spearheaded by Ryan Kavanaugh. 

“Our vision of big fights, big entertainment and world class events can only fit into a world class venue, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium fits that vision,” said Kavanaugh. “April 17th will have an element of surprise and action for everyone, from music fans to the casual and diehard fight fan. The way we will present the night in this state-of-the-art venue will continue to redefine consumer engagement for a global consumer, with world class partners like iNDemand and FITE joining us not just for this event, but for the others we will have in 2021 and beyond.”

“Mercedes-Benz Stadium will continue to be the place where sports and entertainment’s biggest events are held, and we welcome Triller Fight Club for this special event,” said Tim Zulawski, Chief Revenue Officer for AMB Sports and Entertainment. “We look forward to showcasing our stadium to the global audience that Ryan and his team are building, and are proud to be a part of this historic night of boxing and entertainment.”

Mercedes-Benz Stadium serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) and Atlanta United of Major League Soccer (MLS). One of the most acclaimed venues in the world, the Stadium has hosted the College Football Playoff National Championship in 2018, MLS All-Star Game and some of the biggest music and entertainment events in addition to its NFL and MLS tenants. There will be no public sale of tickets for the event. A very limited number of fans and guests will be selected to join in the live event, with details to be announced in the coming weeks, and everything will be subject to stringent local, state and federal protocols due to COVID 19.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Triller again after the incredible success of our Tyson vs. Jones Jr. PPV event last November—it was one of the best-selling PPV events of all time,” said Mark Boccardi, iNDemand’s SVP, Programming & Marketing. “2021 is going to be a great year for the Pay-Per-View event category, and we know that Jake Paul and Ben Askren will put on an exciting main event on April 17th.”

“Triller Fight Club has already reinvented the fight sport presentation genre, and we are excited to be a part of bringing this event to a global audience,” said Michael Weber, COO of FITE. “Triller and FITE are the perfect pair to deliver a flawless, no-filler fan experience worthy of this moment.”

The April 17th card will be Triller Fight Club’s first in a series of 2021 special events, following the debut record setting Tyson vs. Jones Jr. PPV fight in 2020, which shattered all digital fight PPV records and became the eighth most successful fight PPV in history. This event will feature Jake Paul taking on former Bellator and ONE Championship champion Ben Askren in the headline matchup of the night. Paul, whose boxing debut against former professional athlete Nate Robinson set all kinds of records for fan engagement, will face Askren, who transitions to boxing after an MMA record of nineteen wins and two losses, six knockouts and six submissions. Askren made his professional MMA debut in 2009 against Josh Flowers where he won by TKO in the first round. As a former Bellator Champion, ONE Championship Champion, PAN American Champion in freestyle wrestling, two-time NCAA wrestling champion for Missouri and two-time winner of The Dan Hodge Trophy, Askren joins Triller’s Fight Club with a significant amount of experience in the ring.

In addition to being a co-owner, Snoop also provides strategic counsel to Triller Fight Club, helping to select fighters and musical acts for the show-stopping events. An entertainment expert who has successfully maneuvered through a range of projects in a variety of different fields, Snoop secured his spot as a fan favorite during Triller’s first sporting event, Tyson vs. Jones.