Plans for a new professional basketball league in Japan will be announced at a news conference on Nov. 24 in Tokyo, organizers said in a news release on Friday.
It was unclear how many teams will be in the new league, or whether it will work in concert with the Japan Basketball League or as a rival entity.
NBA Japan managing director Hideki Hayashi said by telephone Friday that he believed there would be at least six teams involved and they would likely be independent of current JBL teams.
"There have been discussions about a new league going on for awhile now. The JBL hasn't approved the formation of a new league, but it appears that the organizers are going forward with their plans."
Hayashi said that he believed current JBL club Niigata Albirex was behind the formation of the new circuit.