"Everybody wanted that for Michael Jordan" - Stephen A. Smith highlights LeBron James' 'flagrant' moves to cast doubt on $5 billion league plans

On Thursday, news surfaced that LeBron James's longtime friend and business partner, Maverick Carter, has been working as an advisor to a group of investors looking to create a new international basketball league to rival the NBA. Per a Bloomberg report, the plan is to create a league with twelve teams, split between men and women.

The league will reportedly be staged worldwide rather than tied to a state, city, or country. Although Bloomberg reports that LeBron James isn't one of the investors, the fact that James' longtime friend and business partner is involved has been enough to catch the attention of the NBA community.

Longtime sports TV personality Stephen A. Smith weighed in on the situation during Friday's episode of 'First Take' while speaking with NBA insider Brian Windhorst.

As Smith argued, although the Lakers forward has been a major blockbuster star in the NBA throughout the years, a few things James has done or has not done have not pleased franchise owners.

For instance, Smith pointed out that LeBron James's choice to leave Cleveland was revealed to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert through television, just like the rest of the world. Furthermore, Smith noted that while he supports the player empowerment movement initiated by James, owners probably don't share the same excitement.

"They still have to let you in. In order to let you in, they got to take a bunch of things into consideration. ... Everybody wanted that for Michael Jordan because of what Michael Jordan did for the league."

"The price is going to be about $7 billion": Stephen A. Smith weighs in on price for LeBron James owning an NBA franchise

Over the past few years, LeBron James has discussed owning an NBA team several times. As Stephen A. Smith pointed out on Friday's episode of 'First Take', last year, James spoke about bringing a team to Vegas before the Los Angeles Lakers won the in-season tournament.

With the NBA In-Season Tournament finals in Sin City, James indicated that he would love to own a team in Vegas someday. However, the way Smith sees things, just because the four-time NBA champ and future Hall of Famer wants to bring a franchise to Vegas doesn't mean it will happen.

"The price is going to be about $7 billion. Having said that Windy, he needs additional investors and all of that stuff. We all know that LeBron James could come up with the money. He come up with investors, plenty of investors that would love to connect with LeBron James, especially to own an NBA franchise."

Additionally, from Stephen A. Smith's perspective, the Lakers star is using the whole situation as leverage against the NBA, given that he has aspirations of owning an NBA franchise one day. If the league doesn't let James take over a franchise, he can get involved with this new international league.

While he might not be part of the rumored ownership group now, a smaller league attempting to rival the NBA would likely jump at the chance to have James on board as an investor someday if the opportunity arises.