The National Basketball League of Canada issued a release on Tuesday inviting National Basketball Association players to join their league if the NBA season is interrupted by a work stoppage.

"We’re definitely realistic in what we’ve decided to do," Halifax Rainmen owner Andre Levingston, interim president of the NBL, which plans to begin play in the fall, said Tuesday.

"We don’t think we’re gonna be able to land no LeBron James or Kobe Bryant because those guys will be fine (financially) during a lockout and I’m sure have their own regimen that keeps them in shape.

"But NBA guys need a basketball game and we definitely think we can lure the Tier 3 type players, the guys that maybe make the NBA minimum (salary), that would be interested in this opportunity."

Two former NBA players, forwards Desmond Ferguson and Kirk Snyder, suited up with the Rainmen last season in the Premier Basketball League.