Comments on the Leagues

[303TripleDouble]

I've been reading a lot of the threads on this message board. A lot of the posts are mostly about the ABA. What does everyone else think about the other leagues? Heres my views:

NBADL & CBA- No doubt these guys are the big boys and have the best talent outside of the NBA. These are the high end franchises in the world of minor league basektball. With the new collective bargaining agreement in the NBA, the NBADL will get a lot of attention. They are already expanding. Haven't heard about much expansion in the CBA

ABA- Well they have their history. Newman isn't running the league very smartly. According to their ABALive talk, there is going to be some changes to the league to make it more professional. We'll see.

USBL- Was a decent league. Especially with the glory days of the LB Jam. Looks like the USBL is going downhill.

IBL- This league has been getting a lot of attention lately with its aggressive expansion. We'll have to wait and see. I think with the cluster scheduling and running the league in the summer months, they might be one to watch for. Looking at their webpage, a lot of DivI talent in the league.

WBA- Looks like it is decently run but a log of Div 2 or lower level players on team rosters. Might be the lowest league, talent wise.

Why don't any of these leagues, besides the NBADL, affiliate themselves with the NBA? There should be some organization to it, similar to baseball.

[Pounder]

The NBA cannot impose an organization without (1) paying each league up the wazoo to stay in line, and (2) have other leagues subvert whatever line the NBA creates. After all, the NBA doesn't have an anti-trust exemption.

Practically every minor pro hockey league other than the AHL (and perhaps the SPHL) label themselves as "AA hockey." Only one league really has any affiliations, but it doesn't stop the UHL and CHL from subverting the process. Furthermore, if the NHL were to enforce such labels in order to try to lash back at those leagues, those leagues could take the NHL to court and possibly win the case.

Baseball can do this because of the government protection.

[oldfatguy]

A league does not 'affiliate itself' with the NBA, or MLB, or whatever. The big league comes to you, the independent team or league, and tells YOU what the agreement will be.

Not that that's ever happened, except the loose CBA agreement of years ago. Oh, and the AAPBL's draft of NBA players. Or whatever that was.

[minorleagueball]

Wasn't there a rumor out there that the USBL is about to collapse?

[cdawg]

The D-Leauge is the hands down the top minor leauge because its part of the N.B.A. familey................the second most respected minor leauge is the C.B.A. because its been around the longest..........the A.B.A. is kind of unstable...........teams coming and going in midseason..............the NEW I.B.L is rookie leauge basketball at best.............the U.S.B.L. is gonna be ok they have never had a team fold in midseason it is a leauge so players have a place to play betweenthe winter season and summer leauges...........minor leauge hoops has never caught on the way minor leauge hockey has I believe that is about to change this winter with the D-LEAUGE being promoted bigtimeit may trickle down to the C.B.A. and the well ran A.B.A. teams

[303TripleDouble]

I don't think the IBL is rookie league ball at all. I would say in the AA level. If you do a search on the USBasket.com site and check out their rosters, over half of their players have played professionally overseas, in the CBA, or have been invited to NBA Summer Leagues. Also, a lot of DI talent on the teams.

Not sure where you get your facts from.

[cdawg]

being a hoops junkie i have scanned the rosters for the teams and to behonest with you on each team i maybe knew 5 players in the entire leauge...........don't take this so seriously its a messege board where people have differant views it's minor leauge basketball for goodness sakes.............thats where i get my facts you follow hoops for 30 years and you knowwhat quality is..............Thank you

[nksports]

Wasn't there a rumor out there that the USBL is about to collapse?
That rumor goes around about every year. The rumors have been pretty close a few times. It might be close this year. (Go to Yahoo.com, go to financials and call up usbl.ob, they reported a profit of $6,000 for the first quarter after losses the last three.)
The problem with the USBL (and I'm not a hater, I've been to several games in Salina and it's a high level of basketball) is they've never really developed an identity and some of the costs are high. The East Coast teams have always drawn marginally. The Midwest teams have done a little better, but never enough to pay all the bills. I think the fans in Dodge City, Enid and Salina have taken to their teams (although the Enid move to OKC the year Kareem ran the team turned them off). Kearney didn't do all that great, but it seems as good a market as any.

To the guy who was trying to classify the league (AAA, AA, A, etc.) the league, the USBL is to basketball what NFL-Europe is to football. They've had a few guys get picked up by NBA teams each year. It's for the guy who's just on the cusp and needs the everyday play.

[barkley34]

The USBL has collapsed, all the teams are pretty much league owned and the league owners, Meisenheimer Capital, have been trying to find a way out for years. Look at the teams? The pathetic logo's (New Jersey Flyers? What the hell is that???) The talent level. There are pretty much NO viable minor leagues except the CBA and the development leagues. $300K for a USBL franchise? For what?

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

The league moved the Flyers to NJ and asked Ron Eford to oversee it. There was no budget for anything (logo, advertising, etc.) other than paying players and gameday staff - which, to the league's credit, it took care of, paying for the building, statisticians, scoreboard operators (unlike, oh, an ABA team might do).

The league kept the Flyers name, and asked Ron to try to assemble a team, staff and do all the preparation for a season almost at the last minute.

The USBL - in its better days - was a nice league, offering a first glimpse at some players who went on to succeed at higher levels. Unfortunately, the league needs to really reorganize itself, or it will be a footnote very soon.

[SK Fan]

Out of the eight teams that played in 2005, four were financed by the league itself. And now one of the four teams that had owners, the Kansas Cagers are folding.



http://www.saljournal.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/6248/format/html/displaystory.html

[wncsport.com]

I think the WBA has a chance to be a player. They basically get players who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks, play NBA style games, get them in shape and learn the NBA-style in time for NBA summer camps and the D-League. A number of these players do go to Europe.

As long as that's their motive, why wouldn't the NBA one day work some affiliation deal? Like guarantee x number of WBA players per team get a callup to at least the summer camps? It's a win-win for the NBA and WBA as it guarantees a lot of top players trying out for the WBA and keeps NBA in the papers year-round.

Yes, the D-League is going to finally make a serious impact now that they figured out AAA level leagues belong in AAA level markets.

Hopefully this will clean the clown leagues out.