Yes, a thing called the Bikini Basketball Association exists, and it will begin play on June 22 — let the record show that the first game will be between the Miami Spice and the home Illinois Heart. That same day, the Las Vegas Desire play at the Houston Inferno.
But wait: there’s another bikini choice on the horizon. The eight-team Beautiful Ballers League is scheduled for a June 1 debut. Holy cow, which league will prevail? Let’s take a closer look.
The other entrant in the five-team Bikini Basketball Association is the Philadelphia Diamonds. Schedule here.
Now, the first thing you should know about the BBA is that there are no actual bikinis. We’ll let them explain.
The women, however, won’t actually be playing in bikinis, as the league’s name suggests. They’ll wear tight sports bras and spandex shorts — similar to Olympic volleyball or track and field athletes. Some big-name sponsors have reached out to the BBA to become the official outfitter of the league, but the league is keeping that quiet until an official partner has been chosen.
The BBA was created by Cedric Mitchell and A.J. McArthur in 2012 and was originally to consist of eight teams: the Atlanta Peaches, Chicago Desire, Hollywood Hotties, Los Angeles Ice, Miami Spice, New York Knockouts, Minnesota Mist and Orlando LadyCats.
And the Peaches, in fact, had signed Deiondra Sanders, daughter of Deion Sanders.
Incorporating sex into athletics is the biggest criticism the BBA receives. McArthur said that was expected.
“We have our goals and we’re keeping our eyes on these goals,” he said. “We’re sticking to our guns and we know (the critics) will come around.”
But then things began unraveling. Donovan Price, owner/GM of the Chicago Desire, decided to pull his team out. Others followed. Now the league consists of the five teams you see above (no official word as of yet on where the games will be played). Also, controversy!
Getting the league started has provided some bumps in the road along the way. The BBA caught flack in September when a flyer for tryouts with the Miami Spice was found to be too risque, and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system wouldn’t allow tryouts to be held in its schools’ gyms. The Spice was also criticized for revealing a logo that was very similar to the defunct Seattle Supersonics’ logo. They have since altered their logo to look much differently.
The Atlanta Peaches (with Sanders), Orlando LadyCats and Minnesota Mist split off to help form a rival league, the Beautiful Ballers League. Joining those three teams will be the Miami Storm, Brooklyn Diamondz, Los Angeles Dolls, Birmingham Belles and New Orleans Spirit.
Tryouts currently going on in all those cities if you’re interested. Will these players wear bikinis? That’s unclear at this point — the BBL website is short on details, and no one is calling us back. Just know that you have two “bikini” basketball leagues to choose from now, where before you had none. America is great.