Futures Basketball League: Ryan Harwood on NIL and equity

The Futures Basketball League will pay the top high school basketball players in the country and give them a choice in how they get paid. Players can take their NIL pay in cash, league equity, or both. Founding investor and team owner Ryan Harwood says that choice is the point. Read more: Futures Basketball League: Ryan Harwood on NIL and equity.

“The first money decisions you make set your habits for life,” Harwood told Disruptor Sports. “If a kid learns to ask hard questions before he signs something, instead of after, we’ve already done our job – no matter which option he picks.”

The league went public Tuesday, November 10. Its first season starts April 2027 with 120 players under 18, all from the classes of 2028 through 2031. There will be 12 regional teams, and each roster holds 10 players.

Who is behind the Futures Basketball League

The Futures Basketball League’s founding partners and team owners include LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s LRMR Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Boardroom Sports Holdings, Derrick Rose, Paolo Banchero, Gary Vaynerchuk, Harwood, Ezra Kucharz and SC Holdings, led by chairman Jason Stein and Daniel Haimovic. ESPN reported that owners have paid $6 million to buy into a team.

Related: The SEC Is Trying to Throw Out a Founding Member. Thursday, LSU Finds Out If It Has the Votes.

Harwood, the CEO of Gallery Media Group, said the investment was an easy decision once he saw the problem.

“The gap was obvious,” Harwood said. “America produces the best young basketball players in the world. Then we spread them across hundreds of teams and fragmented events, with no NIL, no consistent coaching, and no real plan for their development. The talent has outgrown the system around it.”

The season runs 10 weekends from April through August and ends with a national championship. MADE Hoops is the league’s operations partner, and Brooklyn-based HMBL Development will handle player training.

Cash, equity, or both

Harwood owns the New Jersey 5s of Major League Pickleball with Vaynerchuk. He said the team lost in the final two straight years before winning the title this fall. That run taught him that talent alone doesn’t win, and he’s bringing the same lesson to basketball.

He was also clear that the money belongs to the players.

“Because it’s their value. They created it,” Harwood said. “We shouldn’t be the ones deciding what they do with it.”

He understands why many families will choose cash, but he sees equity as a different kind of lesson. It turns a player into “a partner in something you’re helping build.” It forces a 16- or 17-year-old to think about risk, value, and what he’s giving up today for something that could be worth more later.

The league says the equity option is still subject to administrative approvals.

Financial literacy is part of the Futures Basketball League plan

The league’s announcement mentions life-skills education, and Harwood said financial literacy has to be part of it.

“It has to. Otherwise, the equity option means nothing,” Harwood said. “You can’t hand a teenager his first real check – or his first piece of a league – and not teach him how it works. That would be irresponsible.”

He listed the basics he wants players to learn. They include how an NIL deal is structured, what they keep after taxes and fees, how to budget when money doesn’t come on a regular schedule, how to read a contract, and how to build a small circle of people they trust. He also wants those lessons to come from people who have lived through it, and not from a classroom lecture.

“We train these kids’ bodies like professionals. We should train them on money the same way,” Harwood said.

ESPN reported that Rose is already meeting with Northern Trust to build a financial literacy program for his Chicago team.

Most players won’t reach the NBA

Each of the 30 NBA teams can carry 15 players on standard contracts, plus a few two-way spots. According to the NCAA, about 1% of college men’s basketball players were selected in the 2024 NBA Draft. Even among the 120 best high school players in the country, most won’t end up with an NBA career.

Harwood didn’t avoid that.

“We should be honest about the math,” Harwood said. “Even in a league this selective, most of these young men will not play in the NBA. That doesn’t make them a failure, and we can’t build a league that treats them like one if they don’t.”

Some players will star in college. Others will play overseas, and some will leave basketball altogether.

“If we did this right, every one of them leaves with a foundation, not just a highlight reel,” Harwood said.

For him, that means mentors and a personal brand to fall back on. As a father, he said, protecting the kid comes first.

NBA stars put their own money in

Harwood said the NBA stars on the ownership list send a message to families that an endorsement can’t.

“Those guys can lend their name to anything,” Harwood said. “They chose to put their own money in and own a piece of it. That’s a completely different level of belief.”

The league still has to work through a possible schedule conflict with Nike’s EYBL and finalize its team markets. More players, owners, and sponsors are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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