If the season does get canceled, I am sure someone will get a league up and running. Even for just one season, there is money to be made.
Some players are signed contracts with European teams, if another league gets a few big names, it will do ok.
I'd still stay with the smaller cities, that way the star power would be a draw since they don't get to watch that level of basketball.
Heck, let them play at high school gyms. The city I live in has about 35k people, if Dirk Nowitzki was playing at the high school, it's safe to say the place would be packed.
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