Tracy McGrady wants to bring one-on-one basketball to the global mainstream. “3×3” configurations are gaining in popularity, but one-on-one basketball is associated more with streetball than a sustainable profession. The NBA Hall of Famer is looking to change that with the Ones Basketball League by creating opportunities for players to showcase unique skills, Black celebrities to own and manage sports franchises, and one-on-one basketball to amass a worldwide audience.
The league, also known as OBL, first launched in 2022 but took time off to refocus its efforts. The result is OBL: Battle of the Cities. The new iteration involves eight teams, from eight cities, with games starting on May 15.
Team New York, led by Hip Hop artist Jadakiss, held tryouts at Life Time Sky in midtown Manhattan on March 30. Jadakiss, McGrady, and league staffers were on-site to see 22 local one-on-one players make their cases for the three roster spots. McGrady told reporters at the tryouts the framework for the “alternative sport” to succeed as a business already exists.
“There are underground leagues, one-on-one basketball leagues, that have been going on forever. I’m talking about where these guys are really putting wagers on these players, right? So if I have a guy from my community, that I truly believe in his ability. And then we got somebody, our rival crosstown, and we get on social media and we go back and forth, ‘Ah, Imma put $10,000 on my guy.’ ‘I’m betting on my guy!’ ‘Alright, I got this on my guy!’ And that’s how this stuff happens, in this culture. So I want to bring it to the forefront,” McGrady explained.
McGrady's one-on-one league returns with new ‘Battle of the Cities' format
McGrady also explained his league's new format, which has players representing their own cities and competing against each other. The former NBA star, and current NBA on NBC analyst, said he hopes it'll bring an authentic feel to OBL's product that other sports lack.
“When you look around sports, or you look around the NBA, or basketball, you don’t have that dynamic of a Steph Curry playing in Charlotte, where he’s from. Or LeBron James playing in Cleveland, which he did… These guys are not playing in the respective cities where they were born and raised. I want these guys to have that feeling of, where they grew up. Everything that they know about this city: the faces, the people, the stores, the schools. … Having that support from the community they grew up in,” McGrady said on Monday.
The seven-time NBA All-Star picked cities with rich streetball histories, and celebrity owners with ties to them, to give the OBL real cultural stakes. Sports fans may argue about which cities produce the best talent, but McGrady wants to create a stage on which those battles can take place.
“I expect them to represent New York culture of basketball well. This is the Mecca of basketball, so. I expect them to do well, because if you don’t, there’s going to be a lot of trash-talking on social media. And, it’s not going to be Leaky [Isaiah “Leaky Roof” Brown, Brooklyn's 2022 OBL winner, whose nickname stems from an issue a “bucket” would solve], or their names. It’s going to be, ‘Hey, New York was trash,’ right? So, that back-and-forth banter is what we want to see. Who has the best hoopers in what region?”
One-on-one requires a unique skillset, which doesn't include passing. But the format is conducive to physically intense competition. That attracted players like Queens' Hegel Augustin, who played professionally in Slovenia and Austria over the last two years. The 27-year-old said that while McGrady's star power is how he discovered the OBL, the league's rules reminded him of “playing at the park” and also drew him to tryout.
“It’s one-on-one, it’s no help. It’s just me and you out there. So, you put me in something with me and somebody else, I think I'm always gon’ come out on top. I think it gets real scary out there,” Augustin told ClutchPoints in an exclusive interview.
McGrady reveals why he chose Vince Carter, Jadakiss as OBL team owners
The league's other teams will be based in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami, Orlando, and Raleigh. The celebrity owner for Atlanta's squad has yet to be announced. The other seven teams' owners are Muggsy Bogues, actor Larenz Tate, Quinn Cook, Tim Hardaway Sr., Vince Carter, and John Wall.
McGrady said that inspiration for the league came amid his search for a “next passion” after retirement from the NBA. Years after the original iteration of the OBL went on hiatus, McGrady and Carter – infamously cousins – became minority owners of the NFL's Buffalo Bills in December of 2024. The former told reporters on Monday that the lack of Black owners in professional sports made him want to use OBL's relaunch to create those exact opportunities.
“When you retire, you try to find that challenge — you try to find that next passion. … When you invest into the Buffalo Bills, and you look around and you don’t see too many people that look like you, you want to create that opportunity for guys that look like you as well. … I’m just giving these guys opportunity and ownership. And also creating a platform for the guys who have passion for one-on-one basketball,” McGrady said.
Shifts in ownership of professional sports franchises typically involve a multitude of both dollars and zeroes. That wasn't the case for the OBL, which required $0 of investment from its celebrity GMs. This was intentional, with McGrady telling ClutchPoints why he didn't want these opportunities to come at any direct financial cost to his new partners.
“As celebrities, as these guys are, oftentimes we get people with their hand out. Wanting investments, wanting money from us. And that’s not something I wanted to put the pressure of on those guys. It’s really just more about them seeing my vision and creating that opportunity for them. … I don’t know too many people from Raleigh, but I know John Wall is from Raleigh. I know the impact he has on basketball there. One-on-one basketball is prominent in these cities,” the two-time NBA scoring champion explained.
Jadakiss on Team New York, searching for ‘dogs,' and facing Voltron
OBL owner Jadakiss is known for his lyrical storytelling, delivering political commentary and punchlines in his signature, gravely tone over beats that match a frequented topic: the grit of New York's streets. But in between grisled shouts at players trying out for Team New York, Jada caught up with ClutchPoints for an exclusive conversation about the process.
Before the tryouts began, the artist's expectations had clearly been tempered. While he didn't mention his own star power as a potentially nerve-wracking factor, he explained to ClutchPoints that some players may be anxious to play in front of McGrady, saying “a couple of more tryouts” could be necessary to determine who makes his roster.
That didn't stop him from proclaiming New York as having the toughest hoopers to stop from getting a bucket. Asked about other OBL owners including former NBA stars like Carter, Hardaway, and Bogues, the Yonkers native joked that it was the result of the universe's typical collusion against the Big Apple.
“You know, New York always — everybody teams up against us and tries to formulate, Voltron. And somehow, we always come out victorious. We gon' be good, man. We got dogs, man,” Jada declared.
By the end of the night, it was clear that Kiss had found who he was looking for. Selden, NY's Jarell Cowell said the OBL's format and rules played a role in that arc.
“Usually, in the traditional ones, you get one shot. Then the [other] person gets it. In here, you can chase your rebound. You can get warm in many different ways. I like the style of play,” Cowell, who's played in the Philippines, Spain, Puerto Rico, and popular one-on-one tours like StreetStarz, explained.
Six finalists, including Augustin, caught enough of Jadakiss' attention to separate themselves. The rapper told ClutchPoints that each player that impressed him at tryouts had one thing in common.
“They had dog. The dogs was dogs, the pups was pups. Some dudes just wanted to be here, some dudes you could see that they, you see what it is. You see who really want it, you see dudes staying after, you see dudes here. Some things is self-explanatory.”
OBL tryouts in other cities are underway, as the other celebrity owners search for talent to represent their city. It feels safe to say, though, that no team already has a better plan to celebrate a potential championship win than New York's.
After seeing New York Knicks rookie Mohamed Diawara and New York Liberty star Natasha Cloud link up with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Jadakiss says Team New York is next, if they win it all.
“Don’t let us win. Then I’mma do the real — we’ll have a real parade. With a float. I’mma get the Mayor involved, we gon’ block off the — we gon’ do it for real.”
