Alex Becker
Well, I know what I’m betting on this summer.
SlamBall, the sport that combines basketball with trampolines and midair collisions, has just signed a deal to be televised on ESPN for this upcoming season.
For those of you who don’t know, SlamBall was a sport founded in 1999 by Mason Gordon and Mike Tollin which played its official seasons in 2002, 2003, and 2008. However, despite its long hiatus, SlamBall decided to give it another go after #BringBackSlamBall got over 200 million impressions on Twitter last year. After going viral on social media, SlamBall garnered over $11 million in funding from investors such as Blake Griffin, Michael Rubin, and Gary Vaynerchuk which led to it announcing its 2023 return last August.
Now, TMZ reports that the high-flying basketball league has just signed a television deal with ESPN for the next two years, meaning we’re about to get at least two seasons worth of SlamBall. Though no monetary figures have been announced, ESPN says it will air the entirety of SlamBall season using ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN +.
The SlamBall season is only a month long and will run from its opening night on July 21 to the championship game on August 19. There are six teams in the league with each team rostering about nine guys. A wild stat: players in the SlamBall league range in age from 36 to 53 years old.
That’s not even the craziest part of the league. While none of the players are very big names in the basketball community, some of the coaches are wildly famous. For starters, former NBA players like John Starks and Kenny Anderson are part of the league (as well as some other old NBA heads I hadn’t heard of). Yet, even more insane is that Ken Carter is the coach of Team Rumble. Does that name sound familiar? It should because there is a literal movie about him with none other than Samuel L. Jackson playing the lead. Yep, the real-life Coach Carter has made his way from coaching high school basketball to SlamBall (he actually took home the first ever SlamBall championship in 2002). You know you’re the real deal if Jules Winnfield is playing you.
Regardless of the big name talent, I’m just excited to see dudes my dad’s age throw down tomahawk jams using trampolines. Especially with only baseball going on right now, I plan on getting way too into SlamBall and probably losing my entire TFM salary betting on it.
To get you all as pumped as I am, here are some SlamBall top plays from previous seasons.
