i frankly dont get the distinction between fantasy basketball and a sports simulation... i mean in some sense isn't fantasy basketball a really really lame game engine? where you aren't playing a game like basketball but it is a game, with real life players, that you control.... Maybe fantasy sports need licensing fees too... but I dont see how we would be any worse off on legal ground than a fantasy basketball site.
EDIT: i am not a lawyer... obviously we would probably be sued and thats probably all it comes down to... so i'm not saying buzzerbeater thinks we can do this.
I am also not a lawyer. However, if you think about video games for various sports, they need to get licensing from the leagues to use the team names and player names. I see this website as much more like a video game, where you're running a team, rather than a fantasy sports game, where everything is based on real-world (e.g., NBA) stats.