Basketball
Basketball league of topless dancers hopes to fill NBA lockout void
NEW YORK — The owner of a group of nightclubs is forming a basketball league of topless dancers to attract attention while the NBA is stuck in a lockout that has shut down the elite league for nearly five months.
Rick’s Cabaret group’s league, consisting of dancers from their 23 clubs, says a former NBA star will be announced next week as coach of the New York team, which will unveil its uniforms next week as well.
The team is expected to play dancers from a Minneapolis club followed by a game against dancers from Miami with a full schedule to be announced in January, by which time the NBA might have already given up on having a season.
NBA team owners and players have been unable to agree on how to divide $4 billion in annual revenues, leading to a bargaining stalemate that has forced the first 1 1/2 months of the season to be canceled with more games likely to be wiped out next week.
NBA players decertified their union in order to press an anti-trust lawsuit in the courts, a move that could stretch out the process of reaching terms on a new deal to have even a shortened 2011-2012 campaign.
