Former Detroit Pistons player Mark Aguirre was tabbed last week as the president of basketball operations for a startup summer league that features former NBA players and intends to have a Detroit team by 2017.

Details about the Detroit club are to be released by the end of this year.

Aguirre, 56, was with the Pistons from 1989 to 1993 and won a pair of NBA titles in Detroit. Now, he's the top basketball recruiter and in charge of game logistics for the New York City-based Champions Basketball League, the new organization said in a statement. Aguirre also played for the Dallas Mavericks and L.A. Clippers, and was an assistant coach with the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.

The new league says that in 2017 will play a July-August schedule with 16 teams — including a Detroit squad that has yet to be formed. Teams will play 14 games each and a championship game would be played in September in Las Vegas.

"A Detroit team will be formed for the 2017 season. The ownership group and venue have both been under development and will be announced in the fourth quarter of this year," league chairman and CEO Carl George said Wednesday in an email to Crain's. It's not clear who the league has talked to regarding ownership or where it would play.

Only one team, the New York-based Gotham Ballers, led by team president Walt Frazier and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe as general manager, has been announced.

The CBL intends to begin league play with rosters of former NBA players in 2017.

Under a multi-year deal whose terms were not disclosed, cable network ESPN3 agreed in March to carry some of the league's games live, including the championship in September.

In addition to Detroit and New York, the league said it intends to have teams in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The new league is keen to note that it's not challenging that NBA.

"You would have to be crazy to compete with the NBA. This is for those players after they leave the NBA, and will later be set up for each of the (other) sports," George said. "Champions games are designed with the fan in mind featuring athletes in the stands, post-game meet-and-greets, contests to win game merchandise and a youth pre-game shoot around on court with the pro players."

The league calls social responsibility "a cornerstone" of its operations, and intends to host "hundreds" of charity games, youth basketball camps and clinics in non-NBA cities year-round.

Players announced as part of the Gotham Ballers roster include several well-known former NBA fixtures such as Shawn Marion, Eddy Curry, Kenyon Martin and Daniel "Boobie" Gibson. All but 11 names announced are in their 30s.

The league is limiting itself to former NBA players who have been out of the league three years or less, or up to five years if they had been NBA All-Stars.

George said player salaries will average about $200,000 annually, and that would be hinged on their participation in games and golf outings and other events for a commitment of about 100 days a year.

How the league intends to generate revenue to finance those salaries and game operations remains to be seen. The league pegged average ticket prices at $25. The average NBA ticket last season cost about $56.

George isn't saying much about how the CBL is capitalized, and it's capitalization that has doomed so many other startup leagues. It is known the CBL, through its parent Champions League Inc., offered $2 million in debt securities, with a minimum $25,000 buy-in, beginning last year, and had sold $359,460 by the end of 2015, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from December.

The league hasn't disclosed its investor list beyond George. He did say the league was founded "by a group of investors, players and sponsors to create an extension league for professional athletes in all sports, starting with basketball."

George hasn't disclosed which specific sports or other details.