Chad Lucas (Halifax reporter) Catches Newman in a lie

[CHris902]

Check it out. (http://thechronicleherald.ca/hullo/read/18/17591/17591#msg-17591) It's his blog, not an article but I wonder if his correspondence will lead to an article.

It's pretty balanced but he has some good insights. And he does call Newman out on one boldfaced lie that he's been spreading:


In one of his emails this week, Newman told me that before the season Andre Levingston said he would arrange a “travel deal” that “would make flying to Halifax no more expensive than ground travel.” I mentioned this to Levingston and he said he told Newman he’d look into a travel discount but promised no such thing.

On the other hand, when Halifax hosted the ABA all-star game in January 2007 Newman told me straight-up in an interview that the ABA itself would help teams get to Halifax. Here’s what I wrote in a story the day after the game:

Newman said the league will subsidize travel costs to bring top teams into Halifax, not just eastern competition. "We’re so enthusiastic," he said. "(We want to) make sure we get the very best teams to come to Halifax, because Halifax deserves no less than the best that the ABA can offer."

Rainmen officials have told me that the league never actually provided any financial help in getting teams to Halifax, and it’s obvious from the schedule that they didn’t import top non-eastern teams like Texas or San Diego. The ones close to here had a hard enough time making it. I asked Newman about this in an email and he didn’t really give me an answer.

[Sam Hill]

Joe Newman caught in a lie.

In related stories:
1. Water is wet.
2. The sun came up in the East this morning.
3. 2+2=4

More on these stories as they develop. Keep watching NBC33 news, your local news leader.

[BelarusRikk]

Joe Newman caught in a lie.

...although George Costanza once said "It's not a lie, if you believe it" :D

[CHris902]

Obviously I don't think it's shocking that Newman lied. I'm not an idiot.

I do think that Lucas' blog post is interesting for two reasons:

1) A real sports reporter calling Newman on his ****. And doing it in a balanced way that doesn't demonize Newman but still calls him on his ****.

2) It's a reporter, albeit in his blog, pointing out a Newman lie that is documented. The reason why Newman and the ABA are still around is because he lies but it's hard to pin lies on him. Dude is slippery, and he's slippery on purpose. Considering how dishonest he is, there is relatively few concrete, documented, 100% provable examples of his lies.

[LightningMan]

The reason why Newman and the ABA are still around is because he lies but it's hard to pin lies on him.
I think Joe and the ABA are around because there are still people left who think buying a dream for $10K is pretty cheap.

[Sam Hill]

The reason why Newman and the ABA are still around is because he lies but it's hard to pin lies on him. Dude is slippery, and he's slippery on purpose. Considering how dishonest he is, there is relatively few concrete, documented, 100% provable examples of his lies.

There were a ****load of them (as well as examples of his complete inability to treat other humans with anything remotely approaching professionalism, as you'd expect the CEO of a sports league to do) on the old Yahoo group, which got deleted (unfortunately).

Here are some documented Newman lies:

"The TV negotiations are going well. The Fox sports rumors are true - we will be announcing the deal before the playoffs."
--- interview on hoopsheaven.com, March 2001.
(There was no Fox TV deal)

"We will have TV this year. Fans across the country will see the ABA style of ball."
--- on ABA Message Board October 26, 2001
"...a TV deal is in place."
--- on ABA message board, November 1, 2001
"The TV deal is being put together now, and hope to release details of the TV later this week."
--- on ABA message board, November 3, 2001
"...I'll be in LA on Tuesday putting the final touches on our TV deal that will be announced shortly thereafter."
--- on ABA message board, November 3, 2001
"Yes, the ABA will be on TV this year with at least 12 games and the playoffs. We will be announcing details and specific games shortly."
--- on ABA message board, November 26, 2001
(There was no TV deal)

You could likely (if you had the time and inclination) Google Joe to find articles written about the ABA in which he's quoted and I'm sure there will be lies aplenty there. As well as in "Ask the CEO" and any of the thousands of releases he's put out over the last few years.

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

I still have a lot of those Yahoo messages on my mail account. Some of Joe's are amazingly entertaining.

Also, somwhere here is a thread of a number of ABA releases about new teams, initiatives, etc. I think I have them on my laptop as well (humor should be preserved for posterity).

The thing is, I really believe that Joe thinks that if he doesn't acknowledge the existence of anything in his past, that it doesn't really exist. Except these interwebs save a lot more than Joe thinks they do...

Damn facts keep getting in the way of his good stories.

[Paul S]

Joes' emails to abaredwhiteblue were a riot. There is this site if you put enough into google it essentially mirrors other boards, including this one. It has some of those Joe-tirades against aba.

I wonder if you could somehow put them up on google?

There was a October article by either Alex Walling or Chad Lucas that had a quote from a Indianapolis newspaper that said the whole league was a joke and thy used it for comedy. Kind of like how we feel really.

[utahstarsticketholder]

like the email telling me the refund was on the way? Maybe I am just impatient it has only been four years. jack

[formerlyknownasfells]

I still have a lot of those Yahoo messages on my mail account. Some of Joe's are amazingly entertaining.

Also, somwhere here is a thread of a number of ABA releases about new teams, initiatives, etc. I think I have them on my laptop as well (humor should be preserved for posterity).

The thing is, I really believe that Joe thinks that if he doesn't acknowledge the existence of anything in his past, that it doesn't really exist. Except these interwebs save a lot more than Joe thinks they do...

Damn facts keep getting in the way of his good stories.

Trust me, I have some from two weeks ago that are just hysterical.

For the record, Joe and I had a very civil discussion in which we discussed very little about the ABA. Where Joe and I have had previous disagreements, I wanted to get to know the man a bit and avoid discussion about the overall state of the league. Basically, I really wanted to avoid something ugly between the two of us during what was going to be a very good event.

[Paul S]

Trust me, I have some from two weeks ago that are just hysterical.

For the record, Joe and I had a very civil discussion in which we discussed very little about the ABA. Where Joe and I have had previous disagreements, I wanted to get to know the man a bit and avoid discussion about the overall state of the league. Basically, I really wanted to avoid something ugly between the two of us during what was going to be a very good event.

He mentioned this on aba all access from 3/27. He calls you Chris Fells though.