NBA’s Gary Payton II launches Skate Board Association, a new professional Skateboarding League

National Basketball Association (NBA) star Gary Payton II is exploring new professional avenues beyond basketball and has launched a new professional skateboard league called the Skate Board Association (SBA).

The SBA is a six-team street skateboarding league, with its inaugural 10-game season scheduled for next summer in Big Bear Lake, California. Payton co-founded the SBA with Royce Campbell and Sheldon Lewis, saying he started the league out of his childhood passion for skateboarding.

“Growing up, I always wanted to be a skateboarder. The skate park was right next to the basketball court. I would skate there with my friends and they would skate the park, and I would hoop,” Payton said in an interview.

“I was like, ‘Why hasn’t there been a professional league like the NFL, NBA, or NHL for skateboarding? Let’s change the sports game and the skateboard game,’” he added.

Payton will serve as director of VIP relations and will also own one of the SBA’s six teams. Each team will consist of six athletes—three women and three men—plus reserves and coaches, with both men and women receiving equal pay.

Gary Payton II is launching a professional skateboarding league 🔥

“Growing up, I always wanted to be a skateboarder. The skate park was right next to the basketball court, I’d skate there with my friends and they’d skate the park and I’d hoop.”

via @alyroe pic.twitter.com/VG4x4uiHQp

— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) September 2, 2025

Eighteen athletes have already been signed to nonexclusive contracts, including 2020 Olympic silver medalist Kelvin Hoefler, SLS Select Series champion Manny Santiago, X Games skateboard street gold medalists Ryan Decenzo and Pamela Rosa, and silver medalist Samarria Brevard, among others. Another 18 athletes will be signed before the SBA’s inaugural draft in Los Angeles at the end of the year.

The 32-year-old reiterated that through the SBA he aims to create stability and recognition for professional skaters, while also bringing in other athletes as team owners.

“I want the skaters to be valued, and to get them the right sponsorships so they can take care of their bodies, take care of their families, buy their own crib. Skaters put more of their body on the line than athletes in most sports other than football. Why don’t they get the same treatment as NBA players when they are taking more risks than we are?

“To be an owner of an SBA skate team is bringing us back to playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater—picking the guys, picking the brands to skate for. So many people have that connection to skateboarding,” Payton concluded.

The inaugural season of the SBA will be held in Big Bear, a mountain town near Los Angeles, with plans to expand to more cities in the future.

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