cue PT Barnum...

[Sam Hill]

“If I wasn’t the team owner, I’d be on the roster,” said Polley, a Texas native who majored in business at Liberty University and, apparently, did not actually play basketball at Liberty, which he nonetheless believes should not preclude him from playing professional basketball.

[Paul S]

The delusions of grandeur amongst ABA owners is probably Joe Newmans greatest asset

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

[quote=""beach79""]

Giant flashing warning sign alert:

http://www.lakewood-rise.com/
http://birminghamblitz.com/

Sorry, English is my first language....

What????

[ABARedWhiteBlue]

http://abalive.com/aba-featured-news/ab ... xt-season/

ABA ADDS SECOND ALASKA TEAM FOR NEXT SEASON
Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) http://www.abalive.com today announced that it will add a second team in Alaska for the upcoming season that begins in November. “The Alaska Quake have done a tremendous job this season under very difficult circumstances,” stated Joe Newman. Getting teams from the other divisions to make the trip has not been easy, but with the help of the Alaska Quake, teams from several divisions made the trip and there was some tremendous games played before very large and supportive crowds. Having a second team there will make each road trip next season even better.”
The team will be named the Alaska 49ers and will be located in Anchorage. Alaska Quake CEO Carol Taylor and GM Gabriel Taylor plan to lead the new expansion team. The Head Coach will be Harvey Watson who served as an assistant coach last season with the Alaska Quake and help lead them to a 7-6 season including a tremendous game against the #1 ranked Colorado Kings in which they lost by one point in the final seconds. “I hope to lead this team out of the shadow of the Alaska Quake by making our own mark in the ABA and am looking forward to the challenge,” added Coach Watson.
For more information, for now, visit http://www.alaskaquake.com (new website will be announced shortly) or emailr.harris@alaskaquake.com.

So, I suppose the Quake CEO must have money to burn to pay for trips for TWO teams in Alaska; and interesting that he same people are in charge of both.

How fast until the teams are "merged'' but the team plays in both locations 'for the fans'?

[The Sweeper]

http://abalive.com/aba-featured-news/wi ... ion-teams/

WINDY CITY MONSTERS ADDED TO ABA EXPANSION TEAMS
Indianapolis, IN. The American Basketball Association (ABA) http://www.abalive.com today announced that it has added a second team in Chicago for the upcoming season, the Windy City Monsters. “The Chicago Steam has been one of our best organizations and has done a terrific job for many years there covering the Chicago south side,” stated ABA CEO Joe Newman. “We’ve wanted to add a team on the Chicago north side and we’ve found two great young men to do it, Phil Berryhill and Joseph Phillips. “We think this adds a lot to the ABA and to the North Central Division and are looking forward to having them in the league next season.”
After being introduced to basketball by his mother, Denise Williams, Berryhill developed his skills and was named one of the top point guards in the state at Dunbar High School in Chicago. While attending Kankakee College, he was second on the team in scoring and 3rd in the nation in steals. Faced with the option of playing professional ball abroad or following his dream of owning a professional basketball team and raising his son, Berryhill said, “I wanted to be there for my son. Unlike my father who wasn’t around me, I couldn’t leave my “lil” man, so Joe and I decided to do an ABA team and we will put our heart and soul into it.”

Joseph Phillips was a scholarship player for NAIA Division I Robert Morris University but decided to follow his true love, journalism, rather than pursuing a pro career. He is a former sports reporter for the Chicago Defender, and works as a sports editor for the Chicago Tribune and WGN where he serves as a TV sports reporter/talk show host covering all of the sports in the Chicago area. “The Lord gave me the gift to play basketball, he inspired me to give a 100% effort in everything I do in life. It also fueled a desire for sports journalism to be my passion,” added Phillips. “I’m going to put that effort into the Windy City Monsters and help Phil make them one of the best organizations in the ABA.”

For more information, call Phil Berryhill at 773 408 4540 or email hardatwork2@live.com or email Joseph Phillips at mr.jphillps@gmail.com or visit http://www.abalive.com. Tryouts will be announced shortly.

[jpsesq]

The Monsters have a website which indicates that the team was going to play in 2011-12, which it didn't do. The website has a poorly written bio of one of the owners, Joseph Phillips. He also has a Twitter site and a YouTube video for the Monsters, both of which indicate that the team was planning to hold tryouts last year. I don't know if they actually did hold the tryouts.

It would be nice if there was another team in the area for the Chicago Steam to play. The Steam is in its fourth ABA season and appears to have good ownership. It appears that the Steam's problem this season is that it was assigned to the ABA's Great Lakes Division, and most of the other division teams have disappeared, including the Milwaukee Blast, which stopped playing after just a few games. The Steam's website shows that it has won five games by 2-0 scores, apparently meaning that they were forfeited.

Here are links to the Phillips bio from the Monster's website, the Twitter account and the YouTube video. Looking at them doesn't give me too much confidence in the future of the Monsters, but we'll see.

http://www.windycitymonsters.com/joseph-phillips.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bkzl52efTg

https://twitter.com/#!/abajoe

[Minor League Man]

[quote=""jpsesq""]The Monsters have a website which indicates that the team was going to play in 2011-12, which it didn't do. The website has a poorly written bio of one of the owners, Joseph Phillips. He also has a Twitter site and a YouTube video for the Monsters, both of which indicate that the team was planning to hold tryouts last year. I don't know if they actually did hold the tryouts.

It would be nice if there was another team in the area for the Chicago Steam to play. The Steam is in its fourth ABA season and appears to have good ownership. It appearss that the Steam's problem this season is that it was assigned to the ABA's Great Lakes Division, and most of the other division teams have disappeared, including the Milwaukee Blast, which stopped playing after just a few games. The Steam's website shows that it has won five games by 2-0 scores, apparently meaning that they were forfeited.

Here are links to the Phillips bio from the Monster's website, the Twitter account and the YouTube video. Looking at them doesn't give me too much confidence in the future of the Monsters, but we'll see.

http://www.windycitymonsters.com/joseph-phillips.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bkzl52efTg

https://twitter.com/#!/abajoe[/quote]
So, the Steam have been stable in the ABA for four years now but with nobody to play...and the PBL has gone through three Chicago teams (I don't see the Muscle surviving this year).

Solution = Steam join the PBL next year.

[panchess]

Localizing a story is one thing, but Jeremy Lin graduated from Harvard two years ago, and played for two NBA teams along with a short stint in the D-League. The idea that ABA players in Lynchburg, VA can be compared to Lin is ridiculous. Lin probably made more this season that all of the players in the ABA put together.

[jpsesq]

[quote=""panchess""]Localizing a story is one thing, but Jeremy Lin graduated from Harvard two years ago, and played for two NBA teams along with a short stint in the D-League. The idea that ABA players in Lynchburg, VA can be compared to Lin is ridiculous. Lin probably made more this season that all of the players in the ABA put together.[/quote]

That's kind of like Joe Newman allegedly claiming that if you took away Derrick Rose and a couple of other players, the Chicago Steam could beat the Bulls. Sorry Joe, but you can pick any five guys on the Chicago Bulls roster and they would slaughter the Steam.

http://timeoutchicago.com/things-to-do/ ... cago-steam

[Dan K]

If I remember correctly, the ABA's phantom Chi-Town Bulldogs were also billed as local competition for the Steam going into this season.