JBL: A web based, FM-style, multiplayer Pro Basketball League Has Immediate Openings
 

The JBL is a 30-team multiplayer league in which general managers are responsible for all aspects of managing a pro basketball team, including drafting, signing, trading and managing players, their personalities and styles.

The league was founded and developed by Jason Forte (known here at FOFC as skrath) and he serves as the commissioner, not in charge of any specific team. He is also the developer, and continually works on the league to add features and concepts. The goal is to create an "FM-style" basketball association, where managing personalities adds a layer of depth not found in most sports sims.

The JBL has been in existence in some form since 1991. It is a huge basketball universe that comprises the pro league, as well as high school, college and European leagues (think Football Manager for basketball). While similar to the NBA, JBL differs slightly in its modelling to other basketball simulations, and isn't intended on being a complete replica of the NBA, nor its rules. It is streamlined to focus on the things that matter - roster/player development, statistical analysis, personality management. As the league runs off a custom simulation engine (developed over many years) it is not bound by the same rules or limitations that other sim leagues may have, and allows the commissioner to add new features and keep innovating.

Features of the league:

*Games are simulated each day to a semi-realistic schedule
*Full advanced player stats and metrics, including shooting splits, clutch stats, lineup statistics, detailed boxscores, etc.
*Complete scouting module, including sending scouts to college
*Realistic salary cap management, free agency negotiations, drafting, signing coaches and staff
*A separate college universe that features all 351 Division I teams that feeds players into the pro league, which has all boxscores, stats, news etc available. All players are available to be scouted and drafted. European and other world leagues are opening to full scouting early next year.
*GMs use Slack to keep in touch, trade and discuss the league.
*League podcasts with analysis, previews etc.
*One of our GMs is a merchandise creator, so we have full customised jerseys with players' names on the back etc.

Despite the in-depth nature of the league, it’s pretty easy to set a team and make changes (all web-based with no software to download), but even more satisfying and addictive when engaging fully. You'll be down the rabbit hole in no time, especially if you get into scouting.

I joined the JBL earlier this year, approximately 2 seasons ago, and am hooked. I record a weekly podcast about ongoing stories of interest around the league. Many owners also contribute articles and participate in the Slack channel frequently. It is a very active and vibrant community.

You will also recognize some FOFC members over there, including myself, jcomey and Ramzavail just to name a few.

Here are a couple of links to get a sense of the league:

Home Page
Team Page
Single Season League Leaders (advanced stats)
Live Draft Page
Draft Odds Page (updates after every sim)
Trade Machine (just like ESPN)
Season Awards
College - Declared Draft Eligible Players
College - Tournament Results
JBLNews - Twitter Feed
College JBL - Twitter Feed
JBL Podcasts

When teams come available, I will bump this thread with information.

We are about to start the 2023 Offseason, making it a perfect time to join this league if interested. Available teams include:

Oklahoma City Barons: The Barons are an expansion team with an explosive young talent, Idris Berkeley, a 6'6 SF/SG from North Carolina who was drafted 3rd overall in the 2021 draft (some interesting parallels to Michael Jordan). While the Barons do not have significant draft picks this year, they have a ton of cap room and can be remade quickly on the fly.

If interested, please PM me or skrath. Feel free to ask if you have any questions as well!

If you are a basketball fan I highly recommend this league. It is very imersive. I find myself checking what is happening in the JBL every day before I look at the NBA or any other sports league.

The commissioner is very active without controlling any team and he is always taking feedback and improving things. The league GM's are a great at bunch of guys from all over the world (Australia, US, Philippines), and all are willing to help out new GM's.

I'm looking at some of the stats and the MVP's for most of the years played a max of like 50 games.

How do you scout players?

The league previously had 20 teams (56 game season) and has recently expanded to 30 team, 82 game season.

Scouting is "fog of war" based on scouting budget and coaching abilities. College players can also be interviewed and worked out for personalities, intangibles and team fit.

All European first tier leagues will be available soon, with full scouting ability. High school players can also be scouted. One difference with the league is that I am able to actively develop it and add features each offseason to keep the challenge for GMs.

Example of the first scouting report for the college league that feeds into the pro league.

So if I join, would I have access to whatever the previous GM did? Or am I starting without any sort of scouting ability?

You start with the staff that the prior GM had in place, but you can also change it in the offseason. In any event, while there are some differences in what the scouts see, I don’t think it’s so widespread so that a team with a great scouting coach has an unfair competitive advantage. Just like in the NBA, players who are rated higher in the draft have a better chance of being really good or great than those lower in the draft.

You'd get what the previous GM had.

I just completed my first season. It's quite addictive and amazing. I've been in MLBPro for years, and this is very similar to that. Well worth the join.

Oh, if you’re talking about scouting trips too, I would think you get your own trips to scout the players and not necessarily tied to what the former GM did. You only “pay” for scouting trips for college players. You get scouting on all current players for free but their accuracy will vary based on quality of the coaches.

How long does a season take to get through?

Pretty much 2 months, and 1 month for the offseason. A year is basically 3 months. We started the 2022 regular season around 4th of July and we are in the Conference Finals currently. The playoffs will likely be over by middle of next week.

Alright, I'm in! What do I need to do?

Sent you a PM!

This looks fantastic - I'm in too if there are any more openings...

I am interested in joining as well.

Just sent you guys a PM - we have one team available, OKC Barons. The draft is Friday evening ET (Barons have 2 second round picks, #33 and #48).

The real question is would the best players of today's JBL beat those of the golden era? Linton 'L-Train' Hughes would smoke the youngsters of today. Hard to see any of the so-called rim protectors in today's game stopping a Fraser McMahon title-winning alley-oop slam, as well.

You won't believe it, but the #1 or #2 pick this year is his son, Juwan Hughes.. L-Train is still around and, in Lebron-esque fashion, has held out at age 41 to play his final season either with or against his son.

J-Train: CJBL | Juwan Hughes
Linton's storied career: JBL | Linton Hughes - Player Profile

And the answer to that is no. The classic era can't be beaten :p

Bump. There is one team left: OKC Barons (details in the second post). Our rookie draft is tonight(!), so it would be a good night to join and see how active the league is.

This has been a very active night.

PM sent

Definitely interested when a team becomes available.

One of our GMs is stepping away due to real life commitments so we are after another GM. Accordingly, the Dallas Predators are now available. We're currently at the All-Star break. Predators will likely have a lottery pick (http://jblfl.com/draftodds) in the 2025 draft which will be 5-6 weeks away, so plenty of time to get across your new team!

Predators roster, draft picks, financials: http://jblfl.com/rosters?team=Predators

Some new features since the start of this thread:

• Live simcast each sim

• New engine that tracks statistics at play type level (such as isolation, pick and roll ball handler, post, hand off etc)

• 30 team D-League opening next season (pro teams can allocate players and sign two way players)

• Player traits, player relationships and locker room dynamics

• College scouting progresses on an increasingly reducing 'fog of war' so that multiple scouting trips produce more information, rewarding deep digging and allowing 'diamond in the rough' finds

• Bi-monthly magazine, The Scoop: http://jblfl.com/scoop1

Here are some screenshots:



Note that this league is incredibly active (both on Slack and articles/podcasts etc). About 200 articles are generated each season (http://jblfl.com/archive-articles). Looking for a dedicated GM! The guys that are in the league and in this thread can speak to its addictiveness ;)

Happy to provide any more information.

Definitely for the fan who enjoys basketball! I can't imagine why people would leave but everyone has different priorities!

Highly recommend!

Fantastic league. Great group of guys. Probably the best run and most fun league that I have ever been associated with.

Alright, where do i sign up? I pmed you skrath.

Murrayyy talked me into it last night and comey had previously said it was a blast and it looks fun, so why not.

I think we got the last spot filled for the time being, but there are spots that come open on occasion

No worries. Thanks bug

We have one team available, the Louisville Colonels. The Colonels are currently in playoff contention so we are looking for a GM to take over once the season is completed in a few weeks as the current GM is stepping away (sorry to see you go Bisbo!).

The team is well placed for another playoff contending season next year with a top 5 player and several young potential stars.

As we are about to enter the playoffs and offseason, there is some time to get acclimatised to the league so you're not thrown in the deep end straight away.

Roster (click for larger):



I will let other FOFC members who are in the league to express their opinions about being a GM in the JBL, but I will say this is an incredibly active league that needs an attentive GM. We have a weekly podcast, hundreds of articles (http://jblfl.com/archive-articles) and press releases (http://jblfl.com/archive-pr) every season (each of which runs for approx 3.5 months) and a truly deep basketball universe.

If you're interested, please read the About (JBL | About) & GM Guide (JBL | About) and PM me!

Here are some new screenshots of the new deeper scouting levels and features. More are added every season. I am about to implement a fully online engine which will automatically simulate games without my input, which should take the league to another level.

Honestly, this is the best online sports sim I've ever been a part of. It's an extremely detailed pro basketball universe that has everything you could possibly want. Extremely immersive and realistic, it totally captures what it must be like to be the GM of a pro basketball team. The Commissioner is superb - he keeps things running and is constantly adding new features to the game. And the JBL community is like no other - very active on Slack with incredible content - articles, podcasts and more - produced by the community. I'm sorry I had to step down due to time constraints. The Colonels are a good young team that's taken the next step and is fighting for a playoff berth this season. Take good care of them for me!

Join Join Join!

Join, draft your next franchise player, develop a man crush, and buy his jersey!



Or keep it casual and just hang out on slack and JBL's simcast during the daily sims, when games are simmed one at a time:

If you are looking for FM-style immersion in simulation using an American sport, there really is nothing closer than JBL. I have been interested in sports management simulations for over twenty years now, starting with Front Page Sports Football and Baseball Mogul. I have played all iterations of Front Office Football dating back to FOF2, and was heavily engaged and active in several FOF MP leagues including IHOF, GEFL and WOOF. I have continually bought Wolverine Studios professional basketball sims. While all of those simulations are excellent, nothing has sucked me in more than JBL.

Over the last year, I have found myself more and more attached to this league. Along with a fellow general manager (Bedouin) we put out a weekly podcast running almost two hours in length. This simulation is truly addictive and the community is extremely active and fun to be around. The simulation is easy to learn because it relies on real-world basketball knowledge but also difficult to master. You need to manage player relationships, put players in the right position to succeed, have a system in place where the players have a logical fit, etc. Even after almost 18 months of real life in the league, I am still learning new things about how the sim works.

I could go on and on. I really suggest anyone just check it out, or reach out to skrath if they have any questions. Hope that you will join us!

RKG has it right. There's not a sim league that touches the immersion and fun of this one. Commish has created something which I prefer to any of the text sims I've played, but the fact that it's online means that as a human being not chained to a computer all day I can participate no matter where I am, whenever I have the time. The stats and results are immersive, giving you everything you could want. And best of all, Commish is constantly adding new features in a way that blows other sims out of the water. It's a great group of highly active GMs who produce more content than any league I've been in, so that you're drawn to participate yourself, as you can, rather than feeling forced to by a requirement. I've got three team jerseys coming in the mail for me and my sons, and I don't even wear jerseys, that's how immersive this damn league is. Joining it has easily been my best text sim decision of all time.

(This is Aeons for you JBL-heads trying to figure out who Autumn is. Damn I haven't been on FOFC for a while.)

I am not sure what else I can add. This is the most immersive league I have ever been in. I am a HUGE basketball fan but I am more interested in JBL news and scores than NBA news and scores. I highly recommend this league to anyone interested in basketball and online leagues.

Pmed my interest! Though I accidentally put the wrong team in my message! Sounds like a great league and the web based nature makes it easy to access and stay in involved.

How many openings are there?

Just the one as of now, that being Louisville.

Recommend wholeheartedly on the league...the dedication goes from the top down, and runs pretty much across the entire league. In my 21 years in the online league community, this rates right at the top of the overall experience. And that's saying something, given a few of the leagues I've been fortunate to be a part of over that time.

Okay, I'm interested but if the open spot has been taken, maybe I can be on a waiting list in case someone else drops.

Stick around and get to know the league Chief!

Definitely the best sim league I’ve been a part of. If you are interested definitely check it out as there are plans on allowing GM’s to control college teams in the future. Super fun league just to get immersed in and to learn some of the mechanics while you wait for a team.

Chief- you would certainly enjoy this one

Players in the past, when there have been no openings, have been assistant (to the) GM for one of the established GMs to learn the ropes. Because there is no off-web engine, you can't play SP to learn how things work, so hands-on experience before you become a GM makes it easier to jump in.

I'll take a look.

I will second what everyone else is saying, there is nothing else like it that i have seen. This is the only league I have ever been in that makes it seem as if the players are real. Oh, the commish is awesome and top notch also.

Yo skrath, when are we getting controllable college teams? ;)

Dropped you a PM.


Next season! Engine is now entirely online and I need to work on the new recruiting module, but we'll be ready for your return in the summer ;) Who are you planning on taking on?

Oh sweet! I reckon I'm in a position now where I can contribute again. I'll have to have a proper look at the site tonite and refresh my memory re: the college teams - looks great btw, awesome progress!

Not sure I can bring myself to take a look at the Rockets however...

It's all 351 Division I real teams and recruiting from 12,599 real high schools. Come back onto the Slack for a chat - I'll reactivate your account.

Rockets have had a tough run but are back in the playoffs for the first time in five years!