NEW YORK—The NBA is in discussions with the UFC about combining forces a week after Los Angeles Laker Lebron James threw what he said was an unintentional elbow that left Detroit Piston Isaiah Stewart bloodied and enraged. The sports world has always had its share of fights, including outright brawls, as emotions run high in professional athletes competing physically and psychologically at the highest levels. But many analysts say that this particular squabble is different than the altercations seen in other sports—and has the potential to be much more lucrative. The biggest difference, they say, is simply that: the bigness. James and Stewart are among the biggest, most gifted athletes in the world, both coming in at around 6’ 8” and at 250 pounds. Even as untrained fighters, they would be a spectacle and make for an intriguing matchup in an MMA cage. On condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing, a UFC spokeswoman said that her company’s execs were extremely impressed by James’ elbow, intentional or not, and that they felt that Stewart’s aggression was really scary but also very marketable. She said that one of the details still being worked out for “combatsketball,” which is the NBA’s proposed name of the hybrid sport, is whether the ball itself can be used as a weapon and if a “free throw” should be redefined to include judo, jujitsu, and wrestling moves.
