Check this out at March 29, at 19:00 minutes.
Joe Newman absolutely goes after Andre Levingston and just pulls a hatchet job on the guy and busts out some definate lies/half-truth including:
Levingston stole $40 000 from Newman for the all-star game. But the ABA will not pursue this money.
3000 people showed up for each of the two final Atlanta games and Levingston made a ton of profit off of these games (both obviously factually correct).
Levingston managed to get $50 000 from “the ministry” (no idea what this is) to pay for other teams flights to Halifax… and then Levingston pocketed it.
Every team that traveled here flew into Halifax on their own dime.
There’s more, but take a listen. I have never heard a “CEO” of publicly traded company act in such an unprofessional manner in public…. unreal.
SECTION 23 
I am guessing “the ministry”, if one can believe any of what Newman says, may be a government Ministry, like Sport Canada or Ministry of Health.
I love how Newman says that Mr. Levingston booked the Bahama No-Shows all on his own, “after the season” and that Newman did all he could to help him. Newman doesn’t mention that Bahama was a replacement team, in place of the Westchester Phantoms. The games were regularly-scheduled games, check out all the media that shows the original season schedule.
Newman’s tone of voice is full of bitterness when he speaks of Mr. Levingston. He claims Mr. Levingston “trashed” the ABA. I wonder if Newman actually read the Rainmen’s press releases. There is nothing inflammatory in how the Rainmen announced they were leaving the league.
I have to laugh that the interviewer brings up the idea of a performance bond and Halifax in the same breath. How about forcing the ABA teams to perform and play their games?
“We are not vindictive.” Wow. Considering Newman had just spent the last 10 minutes of the interview ripping Mr. Levingston and the Rainmen, I think this comment speaks volumes.
Apparently Newman his “people-first selling techniques” to make his son-in-law Brad work for less money than he could have earned elsewhere. Nice. I wonder if Newman sees his grandchildren very often.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
The stuff about Halifax with the question starts at 16:00 min.
He is the biggest idiot I have ever heard.
Interesting stuff…
We know Newman is lying or has lied at some point with regards to travel cost payments. Like Chad Lucas said, Newman did claim to be setting up a travel fund for teams to get to Halifax. In this interview, Newman says just the opposite. While Newman is clearly a shit-heel, there probably is some nugget of truth hidden in what he’s said. I trust Levingston, naturally, but I doubt he’s completely clean in all of this himself. Hopefully he’s smart enough to not respond to Newman in any way and just move on.
Either way, F’ the ABA, go Rainmen.
Wow. I would love to know what colour the sky is in the world of Joe Newman, heroic martyr and saint. The amount of revisionist history – not to mention outright falsehoods – in that 10 minutes is amazing. Andre Levingston might have grounds for a slander lawsuit if he so chose, but I think he just wants to wash his hands and move on. And I don’t blame him.
For the record, that issue of $40,000 came up in my emails with both Joe and Andre, though I chose not to get into it in my blog because it seemed too complicated. But since Newman is bringing it up publicly, Andre acknowledged to me that the league did give him $40,000 for the all-star weekend – but he says he has a contract stating that the money was to be paid back “only if the all-star weekend turned a profit,” which it didn’t. So it was neither gifted nor stolen, as Newman claims in not so many words. And as Andre said to me, “What league feels it shouldn’t invest in its own all-star game?” In other words, as any reasonable person would ask, why on earth should Halifax carry all the costs for the ABA all-star game anyway?
In every single conversation I had with Newman before the Rainmen season started, he said he was impressed with Halifax, excited about having them in the league, excited about having the all-star game there, etc. He never mentioned any hesitations about travel before the season, and I’ve already documented how he said the ABA would subsidize travel. Here’s another direct quote from Newman in an article written by my colleague Glenn MacDonald the day before the 2007 all-star weekend:
“I have no doubt this will be a success,” Newman said during a news conference on Friday afternoon. “I’m very confident in the Halifax team. It’s because of the passion and commitment of the owners that they have the all-star game before they have their formal introduction in November 2007.”
To come out after the fact and claim that 1) Halifax was a problem from the start; 2) it was all up to Andre to arrange a travel deal; and 3) Levingston secured some kind of $50,000 grant and then pocketed it for himself(?!) is seriously skewed.
Listen to Newman’s “we’re not vindictive” propaganda-cast and then read any statements from Levingston over the past two weeks, and it’s abundantly clear who’s doing the trashing and who’s taking the high road.
Bravo Lucas. I completely agree. But where were you the last 2 games? Just joking.
Classless. I did figure, as Chad confirmed, that there was some story behind all of Joe’s spin, but it’s obvious Newman will say whatever he wants to blame others.
Sadly enough this is a side note. Eric Crookshank was named to the First Team All-ABA squad today, as the league announced their annual awards.
The American Basketball Association released the 2007-2008 All Star teams as well as the league’s Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year Awards. They are:
ABA Most Valuable Player:
Anthony Anderson (5’11”-G-81, college: Massachusetts), Manchester Millrats
ABA Coach of the Year:
Will Voigt , Vermont Frost Heaves
First Team All-ABA
Anthony Anderson, Manchester Millrats
Mario Kinsey (6’2”-G-82, college: Sam Houston St.), Texas Tycoons
Cardell Butler (6’4”-F-81, college: Utah St.), San Diego Wildcats
Eric Crookshank (6’7”-F-80, college: Idaho St.), Halifax Rainmen
Terrance Greene (6’4”-G/F-81, college: Nevada), Vermont Frost Heaves
Sun Yue (6’9”-G/F-85), Beijing Aoshen
Second Team All-ABA
Robin Kennedy (5’11”-G-74, college: Nevada), Orange County Gladiators
Tommy Mitchell (6’3”-G-82, college: Siena), Montreal Royal
Issa Konare (6’8”-F-80, college: High Point), Vermont Frost Heaves
Samuel Audet-Sow (6’6”-F-80), Quebec Kebekwa
Jerome Habel (6’10”-F-85, college: San Diego St.), San Diego Wildcats
Third Team All-ABA
Darwin Carter (6’0”-G-76, college: Angelo St.), Maywood Buzz
Kenny Wright (6’0”-G), Long Beach Breakers
Antonio Burks (6’6”-F-82, college: Stephen F. Austin), Vermont Frost Heaves
Devaughn Lamont (6’10”-C-84, college: Cal.St.-Monterey), San Francisco Rumble
Jamal Kendrick (6’8”-F-75, college: Baylor), San Diego Wildcats
ABA Honorable Mention:
Cordell Jeanty (6’5”-F-79, college: John A.Logan CC) (Montreal Blizzard), B.J. Puckett (6’9”-F-83, college: Clayton St.) (Atlanta Vision), Al Stewart (5’10”-G-83, agency: Rice and Rice, college: Drake) (Manchester Millrats), Jamaal Brooks (6’5”-G-83, college: New Haven) (Boston Blizzard), Joey Britto (6’6”-G-83, college: Mass.-Dartmouth) (Jersey Express), Tarron Williams (6’7”-F-76, college: Cal.St.-San Bernar.) (OC Gladiators), Sean Dixon (6’2”-G-85) (Atlanta Vision), Ismael Caro (6’0”-G-82, agency: Paris Global Sports, college: New Haven) (Manchester Millrats), Charles Fortier (6’4”-G-79) (Quebec Kebekwa), Staten Jamel (6’6”-G-83, college: Minn.St.-Mankato) (Beijing Aoshen), Jomo Belfor (6’0”-G-83, agency: Tank Sports, college: JMU) (Westchester Phantoms), Randall Williams (6’8”-F/C-82, college: Tarleton St.) (Texas Tycoons).
I think the most disapointing (though not surprising) thing about Newman’s collection of insinuations, half-truths, and outright lies is that Levingston took the high road and hasn’t said anything bad about the ABA or Newman. I just wonder how a person (Newman) can go after someone who took the high ground (Levingston) in such a vicious way.
That said: No one listens to what Newman says, anyway. So at the end of the day it doesn’t matter.
Hell hath no fury like a Newman scorned!