Russell Westbrook may have stepped away from the NBA, but retirement has not taken him far from basketball. The former MVP has now joined Project B, an ambitious international league that wants to rethink how professional basketball operates. More than a ceremonial role, Westbrook is entering the venture as a co-founder, executive, and equity holder.
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It places him inside a project that could eventually challenge the established basketball ecosystem on a global scale.
According to The Athletic, Westbrook has joined Project B as a co-founder and its new chief strategy officer. He will also take an equity stake in the league and serve on its board of directors, giving him a direct voice in how the venture develops.
“At every step of my career, what was most valuable to me was making sure everyone had a seat at the table,” Russell Westbrook said.
His involvement goes beyond simply lending his name to a new competition. “With Project B, we’re challenging the norm and bringing a new vision to the intersection of premium sport, culture, entertainment,” he added.
“We’re reimagining the experience with players not only as key value drivers, but also as shareholders and decision-makers.”
That philosophy sits at the center of Project B’s unusual model.
The upstart league is reportedly targeting $5 billion in capital and has attracted backing from institutional venture capital firms. Its leadership also brings experience from tech and global sports, with Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice and former Meta executive Grady Burnett among the figures involved.
Moreover, athletes like Novak Djokovic and Steve Young have also joined the party.
Rather than building a conventional domestic league around permanent arenas, Project B plans to take basketball across continents. The league is scheduled to debut in Early 2027. It intends to operate through two-week tournament hubs across major cities in Asia, Europe, and South America.
The concept resembles Formula 1 more than the traditional NBA schedule. Teams would travel between international festival-style events rather than playing an 82-game calendar concentrated in one country, with painstaking travel plans.
That global approach is only part of the challenge to the existing system.
The ambition behind Project B extends well beyond building another sports league. At its core, it’s an attempt to fundamentally rewire the relationship between athletes and the institutions they play for.
Rather than operating as employees within a traditional league structure, players would hold equity and sit at the table for major decisions, functioning as true shareholders in the enterprise they’re helping build.
That distinction alone would set Project B apart. But paired with the financial terms being floated, it becomes something harder to ignore.
The inaugural women’s circuit is reportedly offering starting salaries of $2 million, figures that would send ripples through the existing WNBA ecosystem and force a broader conversation about what professional women’s basketball can and should look like economically.
For a league still assembling itself from scratch, that combination could prove to be its sharpest competitive edge. Recognizable names drive visibility, and visibility drives growth, but getting those names through the door requires more than just a compelling pitch.
Offering players both serious compensation and genuine ownership transforms recruiting from a transaction into something closer to a partnership. It gives athletes a reason not just to sign, but to invest personally and professionally in what Project B is trying to become on the global stage.
Russell Westbrook: From NBA Superstar to Basketball Executive
Brodie now finds himself at the center of that experiment immediately after ending an 18-year NBA career. He officially retired in August, closing a playing career in which he became the NBA’s all-time triple-double leader and one of the most recognizable point guards of his generation.
His transition has already offered a striking contrast.
The timing couldn’t have been more fitting. Just days before the Project B announcement, Russell Westbrook was spotted living out retirement the way most people only dream about – cruising the Italian coast on a luxury yacht alongside fellow newly retired point guard Chris Paul.
A video of the two playing basketball on deck circulated quickly, the kind of carefree moment that signaled both men had well and truly stepped away from the grind of professional basketball.
Or so it seemed. Within days, Westbrook had traded the yacht for the boardroom.
The move makes a certain kind of sense for someone who has never been content standing on the sidelines. Rather than drifting into the familiar retirement circuit of TV appearances and casual commentary, Westbrook has stepped directly into the machinery of what could become one of basketball’s most disruptive ventures.
As chief strategy officer and a board member, he won’t just be lending his name to the project – he’ll have a genuine hand in shaping it, from how Project B courts players and structures its business, to how it positions itself as an entertainment product and pushes into new markets around the world.
That makes Russell Westbrook’s involvement significant beyond his own post-retirement plans. If Project B succeeds, he will not merely have joined another basketball league. He will have helped build one.
For a player who spent his career refusing to operate quietly, that may be the most fitting next chapter. Westbrook is no longer chasing triple-doubles or NBA Championships. He is now betting on a different future for professional basketball.
One in which the players have a stake in the league they help create.