Shuttin’ ‘er Down

This is likely the final post I will make on this blog.  After a year and a half of spending far too much time writing about and researching a small slice of minor league hoops I am deciding to move on.

On November 15 my friend Duncan and I attended the first ever Rainmen home game.  Duncan went to the MetroCentre the day single tickets went on sale to go get the closest possible seats to the visiting bench and we ended up in Section 23.  We showed up and relentlessly rode the Boston Blizzard for the whole game and enjoyed it enough that the next day we went down to the Rainmen offices and bought season tickets.  Duncan even ended up being interviewed for CBC radio.  We went to that first game with the intention of heckling and being total jerks (I think we succeeded) and I tried to do a bit of internet research on the Blizzard so I could walk in with some ammo, but after an hour of playing the role of Google Detective I hadn’t turned up much.  I figured that if it was this hard to find information online about minor league basketball then I should probably share it and save some other people some time, so this blog was born.

The other reason I started the blog was because I, like many sports fans my age, really consider blogs, message boards and other online content to be integral to the experience of being a fan.  I wanted to be able to talk about the team, disagree with people, read cool links other people found and participate in something resembling a community.  Thanks to everyone who reads this, I think it’s at least somewhat succeeded on that front.  I went from being absolutely stoked if I had 10 hits a day in the first month to receiving 1000+ daily hits during the Eric Crookshank suspension fiasco and the not-quite-run-to-the-playoffs.  A lot of the people who have posted comments on here are far more knowledgeable about basketball than I ever will be and even those who I think were total idiots have definitely contributed to what has always been open and entertaining conversations in the comments section of the blog.

I am giving this up because in five days I will be moving to small town Ontario to pursue my master’s degree in modern US history.  I had considered trying to keep this blog up and updating sporadically but a combination of the demands that graduate school place on one’s time and the fact that the vast majority of my “insights” were gleamed from watching games from up close (I really can’t emphasize enough how much more you see in person than on TV/webcasts) have made me realize that it’s simply not feasible for me to continue updating this blog in a way that even remotely resembles what I have done for the past two seasons.

I do want to make sure I thank three groups of people in particular for putting up with me:

1. The real journalists that cover the Rainmen, particularly Chad Lucas.  Like most blogs, I relied on taking information from real reporters, posting links and then adding some snide remarks.  Without real sports reporters covering real stories blogs like this simply will never exist.  I never thought of this blog as an alternative or a competitor to the Metro nee Daily News and Chronicle Herald, but rather as an adjunct to them.
2. Jad, Andre, Andrew and Nancy in the Rainmen Front office.  They put up with me sending them periodic and probing e-mails, never got mad at me for being overly critical or talking about things I don’t understand and have always been incredibly friendly to me.  I know I frustrated them at times but it never showed and without them I wouldn’t have a team to write about.  Like Halifax’s basketball journalists, the Rainmen staff always managed to take me just seriously enough. (i.e. not all that seriously)
3. The players themselves.  I have nothing but the utmost respect for the players I’ve had the opportunity to watch over the last two years.  They all agreed to come to a small, backwater city on the edge of the continent and play basketball in a half empty (on a good night) gym for very little money.  All of the players I met in person were always friendly, regular guys and I wish them all (including players from other teams) all the best.

I also had the opportunity to meet a ton of people who read and comment on the blog and the folks in sections 22 and 23 at the Metro Centre (including our current premier) made being a Rainmen fan a unique and communal experience that is often difficult to find in Late Capitalism.  The visiting fans from Vermont and all the non-Haligonians who post and read this blog have contributed to the experience in a similar way.  My father will be picking up my Rainmen season tickets so if I am in town I will catch some games.

If you’re looking for other sources of sports reading I have two recomendations.  First, the OurSportsCentral message board is a gathering place of a variety of PBL fans and detractors and I’ll probably still post over there from time to time.  There are a lot of people who have been around minor league hoops for decades who post there, and the discussions are always heated.  More generally I would also suggest that reading Dave Zirin (and listening to his weekly podcast).  He’s a Washington, DC based sports writer who is often witty and always insightful, particularly when it comes to the intersection of sports and politics, a topic I have mentioned from time to time but have rarely been able to fully explore.  If anyone feels the need to create their own Rainmen blog or message board feel free to post the URL and I will link to it from here.

Anyway, it’s been fun.  Thanks for reading and commenting.

Levingston Working for the PBL to Expand League in Canada

The League sent out a press release today:

PBL Announces Halifax Rainmen Owner as Director of Business Development in Canada

July 29, 2009 – Premier Basketball League (PBL)

Chicago, IL…The Premier Basketball League announced today that President and CEO of the Halifax Rainmen, Andre Levingston has been appointed Director of Business Development for the league in Canada, effective immediately.
Levingston will head up the franchise expansion and team development north of the border. “Andre knows what it takes to get a team going in Canada, his experience and knowledge gained from the Rainmen’s success makes him a natural for this position,” said Tom Doyle CEO of the PBL. “Andre’s professionalism will lend well with growing our league through-out Canada.”

Plans to expand the league in Canada will become more active now that Levingston is heading up the effort.

“I’m extremely excited the league has appointed me to this position,” said Levingston. “This gives me the opportunity to assist in growing the PBL brand in Canada while giving other cities an opportunity to have professional basketball. This also gives our college athletes the opportunity to further develop their skills after college,” added Levingston.

I am curious about whether Andre or the Rainmen will receive any financial compensation for the owner’s time, but more to the point, I think it’s a good sign that the PBL is redoubling efforts to find new franchises in Canada.  Hopefully my long standing claim that an ownership group in Moncton needs to be found for the well being of the Rainmen has not fallen on deaf ears.

Levingston is a natural salesman and his experience putting a team together from scratch makes him the ideal candidate for this kind of position, but I have to wonder how many legitimate markets there really are for minor league hoops in Canada.

• Moncton – ideal for travel reasons, an event city, but not even close to being a basketball hotbed.
• Montreal – dead market.  Too many failures have just wrecked that market.
• Ottawa/Hull – Big population, popular university programs but dates for sporting events are tough to get due to the use of those spaces for conferences and the like.  The city has been pursuing a second professional team for the last few years, but they may not view the PBL as big enough for them.
• Toronto – not buying minor league anything.
• Burlington? Mississauga? Hamilton?  Potential markets, I suppose.
• Winnipeg? Flights only and well outside the footprint, but who knows what US teams will appear in the west in the coming years?  There’s already rumours of a team in Vegas.
• Saskatoon?  Regina?  There have been minor league hoops teams in Sasketchewan before, but I just don’t know enough about the place to make a call on it.
• Calgary?  Edmonton?  Edmonton have an IBL team, but they’ve drawn about 300 a game for the last two years despite getting an impressive amount of media attention.  Who knows if winter sports will do better?  I feel like you’d need both Calgary and Edmonton on board to make any of the traveling work.
• Vancouver?  Victoria?  Burnaby/Richmond/Coquitlim?  I can’t see the math working on flying into Vancouver for anyone unless a few teams on the pacific are added.

So as it stands I’d have to say that a Toronto suburb, Moncton and Ottawa are probably the best targets, but even then I think we’re three or more years away from seeing any real movement on this.

Levingston Raiding the CBA, Strick Looking for Front Office Gig and a Reminder to Tryout for to Play at the Metro Centre

Lots to update, thanks for the most part to Mathew Wuest and the Halifax Metro.

First off:  Remember when the team was being announced last year and everyone on this blog was saying “this team needs role players”?  Yeah… well Levingston agrees now. He’s saying that he wants to go find three or four dominant guys and surround them with role players.

After the season, Levingston was talking about bringing back Jimmy Twyman, Eric Crookshank, Michael Anderson and Tony Bennett.  He mentions that he wants to bring back Eric and the Voice – Bennett is a question of money, and I think I would bet a limb on Eric’s return.  Twyman is mentioned as only being viable as a back up, which I think is a good call.  Anderson isn’t even mentioned and it’s implied that the team are looking for a new starting small forward.

I am not convinced you win the PBL championship of Eric Crookshank is your first or second offensive option.  His athleticism isn’t as dominant as it was in the ABA and his post up and mid-range games are just way too inconsistent to lean on down the stretch.  However, I do think you win the PBL championship if Eric is scoring off put backs, deflecting passes and rebounding.  I think he needs to look to re-invent himself as an energy guy who creates total chaos on defense and crashes for offensive boards.  I think Bennett is a fantastic starting shooting guard, but he needs to have a small forward and point guard who can actually shoot the ball to make up for his low percentage from deep.

Levingston drops some names on the new players he’s pursuing and for the most part they are former CBA guys.  With the collapse of the Continental Basketball League there are a lot quality minor league players out there.  Some of them certainly mid-level European talent (i.e. German League type guys) but have chosen to stay in North America for various reasons.  Unfortunately, some of the minor league talent out there choose to stay in the US due to passport issues and those players won’t be heading North to play for the Rainmen.  Some of the names mentioned in the article include:

• PG Jason McLeish, a NYC native who had a strong D1 career at Eastern Kentucky.  Definitely a legit starting PG.
• Trayvon Lathan, a 6′6″ shooting guard who played D3 ball and is currently playing for the Los Angeles Lightening in the IBL (a team that features a crazy assortment of washed up NBA guys).  I have a hard time seeing him as anything other than a back up wing player.
• DeAndre Thomas, a 6″8 big man… who could be a massive coup if it is who I think it is.  The only detail we get on him is that he’s friends with Bennett and is 6′8″, but a 6′8″ DeAndre Thomas played for the Indiana Hoosiers for a year before leaving the team in 2008 as part of absolute clusterfuck that was Hoosiers basketball.  He then suited up for Robert Morris (College, not U) in the NAIA.  The guy is massive – he was 285 -300 lb when he left Indiana.  He didn’t exactly light the NCAA up, but “Big Dre” has the sort of size that the Rainmen were looking for all year, but fitness is obviously a major concern.
• Galen Young, a 6′7″ minor league veteran.  Back in the late 90s he played for UNC-Charlotte and was a 2nd round pick by the Milwaukee Bucks.  He was cut before the season started and has played in various overseas leagues and the CBA ever since.  He was CBA player of the year in 2007 and would bring experience, leadership and versatility to the team.  In his prime he was a triple double machine but he’s exactly ten years older than me and will be 34 by the time training camp starts.

Of course, none of these guys are actually signed and there’s no indication that they’re interested in joining the Rainmen, but it’s nice to know that the team has already started looking seriously at players.

The second article in the Metro is about Strick.  Appearently he’s lost weight and is trying to get into shape for next season.  He’s another guy who age is catching up to him, but he plays a game that exploits his veteran experience and compensates for his lack of athleticism.  If he does return, Levingston says, it will be in a reserve role.  What’s more interesting is that he’s helping the Rainmen out by serving as an informal scout and helping the Rainmen staff find talent in NYC, and it sounds like he’s gunning for a spot in the front office of the Rainmen.  I am not convinced that the Rainmen need a dedicated GM, but I’d like to see them bring Strick in as an assistant coach and player for this season and give him some additional scouting responsibilities.  I think he could learn a lot from Berry and he’s respected by players.  Every Rainman I’ve talked to has said that he is the smartest player they’ve ever played with and if he was willing to accept an assistant/scouting role then I think you’ve got to give him a go on that.
Finally, just a reminder:  The Rainmen are playing host to a streetball tour called 94Inc in early August.  Basically, it’s a team of former And1 guys who figured they can do this themselves without a big company exploiting their labour.  Obviously I back this.  If anyone is interested in playing against them, there will be an open run on August 8th to try out for the local opposition.  Keep an eye on the Rainmen’s website for details.  Hopefully we’ll see Eric somehow be involved in this – I doubt we’ll see him play, but it would be cool to have him coach.

Rainmen Scouting Players, Hosting Streetball Game

Two bits of fairly minor news:

First, Les Berry and Andre Levingston are in San Francisco and NYC scouting pro-am leagues for talent.  The San Francisco pro-am league is one of the better summer leagues where you might find unsigned talent, and NYC is obviously home to a ton of very gifted basketball players.  Levingston identifies the need for a legit centre and a legit point guard as priorities.  It’s nice to know that the scouting is underway and that the organization sees the same flaws as most intelligent fans do.  Scoring wing players and athletic power forwards are a dime a dozen in the minors but guys who are true floor generals or physical beasts in the paint are not so easy to find.

Second, the Rainmen will be hosting an AND1 knock off tour on August 9th at the Metro centre.  There’s an open run the day of the game to determine who will play against the likes of “Baby Shaq” and “8th Wonder.”  Tickets for the event are pretty darn cheap: $17 on the floor, $11 in the lower bowl.  No word on if we’ll see any past or future Rainmen playing in the game.  I’m not sure if I will be buying tickets for this or not.

Levingston in Metro, Calls Halifax Home

Andre is on the front page of the online edition of the Metro (I haven’t seen the paper version).  It doesn’t have any juicey bits of info about new players or staff or future plans but in it Levingston re-iterates a lot of the things that make him so likeable.  It’s pretty much impossible to meet that guy and not genuinely like him.

What Happens When Newspapers Gut the Newsroom?

It’s a rhetorical question.

This happens.

This was an “article” written by the PR department at Dalhousie and posted on the Dal website.  The Metro picked it up as a weekend online feature without even re-writing it.

I think we still get scores and game results, but the thing that is seriously missing when newspapers gut staff and pages is features and longer, in depth articles.  It’s sort of annoying when it comes to sports but hard news is in just as bad situation.

For the record, I love noon hoops although I haven’t been out in months (and showed up rarely even when I did go).  I just think it’s absurd for a newspaper to rely on PR departments for content.

Les Berry to Return as Head Coach

The Metro is reporting that Les Berry will be back as the head coach of the Rainmen next year.  Great move.  I’m happy.  If he has the freedom to build this team from the ground up on his own, go through a proper training camp, play some exhibition games and make all the personnel decisions then I see no reason why the Rainmen can’t be a contender next year.  He did great coming into an absolutely terrible situation this year and if he is allowed to do his job unhindered then I think we’re in for a great season.

On the PR front, it is great to have the coach return and even better that it’s a local guy who people are already familiar with.

I can’t find many details, but I don’t imagine there will be many more released.  I sort of feel like this was a bad time to announce it – the NBA finals are happening, we have a new government and tomorow’s sports coverage dominated by the Stanley Cup finals which are happening tonight.

Darrell Dexter Wins Majority Government

Not directly NDP related, but Darrell is the only party leader with season tickets to the Rainmen, Eric did a campaign event for the NDP and, according to Frank Magazine, the NDP hired Nancy Sheppard on contract to help out with PR work.

I wouldn’t expect this to have a substantive impact on the operation of the Rainmen.  The MetroCentre is managed by Trade Centre limited which is a provincial corporation, but it’s safe to say that the interim president, Scott Ferguson, was a vice president before that and is likely to stay on as president in the long term.  The one impact that this could have is Darrell and his wife Kelly being too busy to renew their season tickets.  I will try to get a hold of him and ask.

In self indulgent note:  The CBC read a hilarious e-mail that I wrote on the air.  Good times.

Profile of Eric Crookshank

There’s a pretty good longform interview with Eric on the Haligonia website.  It’s 12 minutes long and while there aren’t tons of new details in it I think it gives you a pretty accurate idea of what Eric is like.

Interview with Jermaine Anderson

The best player to ever suit up for the Rainmen gave an interview a few weeks ago which I just found.  It’s a bit fluffy with not a lot of details but there was one very interesting quote:

You had a tremendous individual season, what were the reasons behind your success?
J – First and foremost any success that I have is through God’s will, and the way I felt in some games it was through his grace I was able to even play. But I worked extremely hard in the offseason with a guy named Daniel Frieberg and playing in the summers with the national team really helped my game develop. Having the opportunity to play against teams such as Greece, Germany, USA, and Argentina has given me valuable game experience against some of the best teams and players in the world. Any time I get a chance to play for my country is definitely a blessing and a way to get better.