WBA: Please Update Your Website

[The Magician]

WBA ... Please update the website before the 1st game! :-D

http://www.wbaball.net/

[South Atlantic]

How about releasing news on your website before USBasket.com or oursportscentral.com? The ten teams that are listed are not the ones just released on those two news sources for the 8-team league to begin this Friday.

We are asking too much though. A league that says they are playing in Wilson North Carolina, (when the newspaper has never heard of them), as a last second addition is in trouble.

On top of that, where is the schedule? Oh wait, the season starts Friday so lets all go to our home teams gym (I wonder where that is?), and wait for our team (what's our color scheme again?), or the opponents (tryouts at the local YMCA), or maybe the front office staff will arrive three hours before the game to answer questions.

Oh and by the way, I called the WBA office yesterday, all day and received no answer. A week before you begin the season and the front office has the day off?

[The Magician]

before the scheduled tipoff of the WBA 2007 season ... and the WBA website is still not ready for play ...

Other than a little info on the NEWS page ...
http://www.wbaball.net/index.php?page=news

and on the STATISTICS page ...
http://www.wbaball.net/index.php?page=stats

"Official WBA Stats will begin after first game of the season, May 4, 2007. Please check back."

and some current releases at USBASKET.COM
http://www.usbasket.com/wba/wba.asp

That's about it (?)

And even the WBA page on USBASKET is not updated with the actual Teams within the Divisions.

The "Who will win the 2007 WBA Championship?" Poll has some of the wrong teams listed?

Rumor has it, Some serious things have been happening behind the scenes at the WBA ... so the organization is not very organized at this time.

I guess we'll see as the season rolls ...

[South Atlantic]

They could have had a good thing but they seem to have written one of their last releases. It appears that this last release was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Why name a team (Wilson, NC) that no one in eastern North Carolina knows exists? Why have a release for an eight team league, a week or so after a draft? How much did that draft cost? Shame on them.

So we have two spring leagues fighting for the ABA league of the year!

[The Magician]

How much did that draft cost?

the WBA actually made some $ on the WBA Tryouts/Draft which were held on April 13-14, 2007.

I'm not sure it's enough to help this league get through the season (?)

Being that the Director of Operations for the WBA seems to be involved in a great many things ...

I'm not quite sure the WBA is getting the attention needed to manage the business and operations of the league.

How Wilson figured into the league, who knows?

[South Atlantic]

Running a league as a part-time hobby doesnt cut it. They tried to (or at least appeared) reach into the african-american community with their events and even that didn't happen this year.

I believe their efforts were valiant but losing Harold Ellis hurt, and also led people to believe other bad things were on the horizon. I just wish they would have ended this charade weeks ago (before taking $$ from players who cant hack it in a rec league) and called it a day.

But remember, you can catch the WBA action in a town near you tomorrow night! Opening night is exciting, if you can figure out where it is taking place!

[The Magician]

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3463726

Tycoons kick off WBA season with Friday night match up with the Mississippi Miracles
05/03/07

Dallas, TX - The Texas Tycoons are set to host the Mississippi Miracles on Friday night May 4th at 7pm at Tommie Allen Town Center in Dallas, Texas.

The Tycoons are the 6th rated minor league basketball team as ranked by the end of season fall rankings by www.probasketballnews.com NBA beat writer Sam Amico.

The Texas Tycoons advanced to last fall's ABA Championship Game and were White Conference and Southern Division Champions. Texas has several of their returning stars for the spring-summer league World Basketball Association (WBA).

The WBA has been successful in having 60 former players go on to compete for NBA opportunities via NBA summer leagues, NBA individual workouts, NBA training camp and pre-season games, as well as NBA regular season rosters. Hundreds of former WBA players are now competing successfully in Europe and other overseas leagues around the world.

Of the players donning Texas Tycoons uniforms this season include: Chris Davis (6'5''-G-80, agency: Court Side, college: N.Texas), Brandon Lee (6'3''-G, agency: ProSportsCareers, college: Tarleton St.), Jerome Rogers (5'10''-G-81, college: N.Texas), Hank Rivers (6'8''-F-81, agency: 7-Miracles, college: Stephen F. Austin), Benny West (6'3''-G-82, agency: ProSportsCareers, college: Howard Payne), Jarrett Howell (6'2''-G-84, college: Texas Arlington), Bryce May (6'7''-F-82, college: Mc Neese St.), Mario Kinsey (6'2''-G-82, college: Texas Coll.), Randall Williams (6'8''-C-82, college: Tarleton St.), Jai Pradia (6'6''-F-79, agency: ND Corner Sports, college: Pittsburg St.), Tyrone Rayson (6'6''-F-80, college: East Central), Brian Gilic (7'1''-C-82, college: Santa Monica CC), Jean-Paul Afif (6'9''-F-80, agency: World Sport Agency, college: Loyola Marymount) and J.R. Harrison (6'6''-F-84, college: Rice).

One of the more intriguing players suiting up for the Tycoons will be Clayton State big man Aristide Sawadogo (7'1''-C-81, college: Clayton St.). Sawadogo is a native of the African republic of Burkina Faso and came to the United States to enroll at Clayton State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Sawadogo was also a member of the Junior National Team in Africa and at 7'1 265lbs was All-SEBL 1st Team player and Defensive Player of the Year. Texas Head Coach Chris Terrell when asked about the addition said of Sawadogo "Aristide is an inside force offensively and defensively. He blocks or alters a dozen or more shots a game and is a real intimidating pressence. He grew up playing soccer in his country and took up basketball later in life but he is improving by leaps and bounds (literally and figuratively). I've spoken to several NBA teams about taking a look at him this summer and the hope is that he and several of the players on this year's squad will have some opportunities after the season to show what they can do at the next level."

http://www.usbasket.com/wba/wba.asp

Mississippi Miracles @ Texas Tycoons
Friday May 4th, 2007 - 7:00PM
Tommie Allen Town Center
7071 Bonnie View (just north of I-20)
Dallas, Texas
214-749-0134
www.txtycoons.com
chris@wbaball.net

[The Magician]

I wonder what other teams might be playing in the WBA this weekend?

http://www.wbaball.net/index.php?page=schedule
"WBA Schedule will be announced shortly."

USBasket has the 2005 WBA Schedule Listed ...

http://www.usbasket.com/wba/schedule.asp
"2005 World Basketball Association (3 Conferences) Master Schedule"

I am hoping the WBA can get it together between now and Friday night's tipoff in Dallas???

It would be nice to have the WBA website, USBasket and OSC all on the same page ...

Basketball leagues have to understand that it takes some time to do updating/maintenance. It's a little hard to do it all in 24 hours before the season is scheduled to start!

[South Atlantic]

I think you have one person, Chris Terrell, who is trying too hard. He is the only sending out releases?!? What ever happened to LeRoy McMath?

I would love to see all releases stopped until the league sends a letter or release to the public, starting by updating their site. This is just getting sadder for minor league basketball, minute by minute. There was supposed to be three games tomorrow night per a release on Monday.

Rome probably doesnt have a home game set since their owner is/was lodged in jail for the majority of the past week or so. I wonder if the Pistons would stop playing if Bill Davidson was jailed on fraud charges? Probably not, they have a staff in place. I think too many of these owners forget that people hate working for free.

So far the Hard Hats (Atlanta, not Wilson), Miracles (nice nickname for this league) and Tycoons (Terrell's team) have finalized their roster. Glad they have such a long time to train together before tomorrow night. Ugh.

[Dan K]

Although it's no longer available, last week I found a schedule on the Texas Tycoons' web site with eight teams listed.

West
Texas Tycoons
Mayas-USA (now in Longview, TX, originally planned for Tyler)
Mississippi Miracles (Cleveland, MS; another ABA team?)
Mississippi Hardhats (Jackson, MS; now Atlanta?)

East
Georgia Warriors (Atlanta)
Cartersville (GA) Rage (Chatooga Rage in draft? now where?)
Rome (GA) Gladiators
Marietta (GA) Storm (replaced by Team Ravia in Gwinnett?)

The regular season was from May 4 to July 1.

I also saw an article at wilsontimes.com on April 25 that mentions the Wilson Hardhats of the WBA coming to town with a tryout scheduled for April 28 with a $50 charge.

[South Atlantic]

Wilson had a tryout but a call to a personal friend of mine who is the publisher of the newspaper revealed he didn't know about the team or any information besides the blip in the paper. Now Wilson is home of Barton College, who won the NCAA Division II Championship this past March. Maybe someone thought that the college teams success would translate into a professional windfall of money..I don't know. Trying to figure out what people in minor league basketball think is really mind-numbing.

I have called the league office all week, with no answer. The same answering machine letting me know that the hours are 9a-6p and that everyone is busy so please leave a message. The Atlanta Hardhats, Texas Tycoons and Mississippi Miracles are the only teams who have a 'complete' roster. BTW, looking at a few of the players on those rosters, makes me cringe that the talent level is not very good.

I vote WBA off the minor league island.