The team competed in the Junior Basketball Association (JBA), a league created for high school and junior college players as an alternative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The JBA was first announced on December 20, 2017, when media personality LaVar Ball said to Slam magazine that he would create a professional league targeted at high school graduates and fully funded by his sports apparel company Big Baller Brand.

[3] Among them was Semaj Booker, who had previously made national headlines as a runaway child at age nine.

[4] During an episode of Ball In The Family, it was revealed that joining alongside Booker were Ismael Muhammad, Joe Saterfield Jr., and Erwin Weary Jr.[5] At its tryout in Houston, Texas at a later date, the league brought in three-star recruit and former Southern Utah commit Jerell Springer to the Seattle Ballers squad.

[6] On June 16, 2018, the JBA announced former UCLA basketball player Charles O'Bannon as the Ballers' head coach.