$250/month

[mateinsixtynine]

Guy who got the "market reservation" for Brooklyn Sky Rockets is paying $250/month for the team until he gets to the magical $10,000.

Rest of the article is a chuckle too. Looks like this guy will be gone by Christmas.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/basement-article-1.1889641

[preeths]

Others have said it before, but you just can't make this stuff up. A 22-year-old, living in his mother's basement...

[Captain_Couth]

I read the article and its a real hoot. How does this kid have enough money to run the team for a whole season?

[Sam Hill]

Following a 30-minute conversation with former ABA CEO and co-founder Joe Newman, Gioia was given the green light to run his own club — provided he pony up a $2,500 deposit.

Due Diligence, ladies and jellyspoons!

Talking about it later, Gioia seemed a bit surprised that more people, such as his parents, weren’t making more of a deal of his plunge into professional sports, treating it as just another hobby. “You’d think they’d be very invested,” Gioia said of his parents. “I go out of my way to tell them what’s going on, but they’re kind of like, ‘He’s just doing his thing.’ ”

That's because IT'S A BIG OL' JOKE, SON.

Newman, now 77, admitted the vetting process for approving potential owners could be better.

“I’m not what you would call a great HR vetter,” he said. “But I can get a sense on the phone that they have an idea of what I’m talking about.”

Read that as, "I can get a sense on the phone that they're willing to send me money."

Tilley said a new deal with ESPN will go a long way in changing the way the league is perceived.

“For the first time in the league’s 47-year history, the ABA has a television deal,” Tilley said, though even that was a bit of an exaggeration.

The two-year agreement, hatched in May, calls for ESPN to carry 40 games this coming season on the online streaming service, ESPN3, and another 40 games the following season, according to Tilley, who declined to say how much the deal was worth.

“Because of the ESPN deal, a lot more has been put into operations (of the league),” Gioia said. “So everything is at a higher level and they expect more from those teams. And if (teams) can’t get to that level, they’re probably not going to exist for much longer.”

Yep. And yours is going to be one of them, kid.

Poor guy. He's going to get a great education, and a painful one. Wish he'd just ask around.

[dmbishop]

Today, there are more than 90 spread across the U.S. and parts of Canada, though it’s hard to come up with a reliable number since teams are routinely rising and crashing because of poor financing.

The league has a well-earned history of making splashy announcements, followed by just as splashy letdowns.

At least the Daily News did SOME research.

And Ron Tilley, a former co-owner of the Arizona Scorpions and new ABA CEO, boasted of the “over 50” players the league has sent to the NBA since it began the league started 15 years ago. The ABA is especially adept at exporting players overseas and to the NBA’s developmental league, he said.

Anyone happen to have that list of players?

Dave

[turbocamyes]

I think he’s mostly right, but you’d have to consider the whole spectrum of the NBA rosters: summer league, training camp and regular season. Right now you have Matt Barnes (Long Beach Jam 03-04) & Jamario Moon (KEN Colonels 04-05.) Here’s a quick list of players that moved up to NBA regular season rosters:

Seung-Jin Ha (POR Reign 04-05)
Malik Allen (SD Wildfire 00-01)
Ernest Brown (KC Knights 00-01)
Geno Carlisle (SD Wildfire 00-01, CHI Skyliners 01-02, LB Jam 03-04, 04-05)
Chris Garner (MEM Houn'Dawgs 00-01)
Paul Grant (IND Legends 00-01)
Paul Shirley (KC Knights 03-04, BEI Aoshen Olympians 05-06)
Sun Yue (BEI Aoshen Olympians 05-06)

As for summer league & training camps, you’re probably talking about another 30 or 40, although not recently. Now it’s most likely closer to 1 or 2 a year.

[Paul S]

I think my favorite quote is this one.

Last November, just six months after he graduated from SUNY-Cortland with a degree in sports management and business economics, Gioia did something very unusual for a 22-year-old.

This kid really didn't get much value for either discipline. On paper the guy has a degree in sports management, yet has probably never heard of this version of the ABA, the business economics side should really spell out some due diligence but that also is poorly lacking.


..........and why is Joe Magpie Newman being quoted. I mean good on the Daily News for finding him and we all know Joe loves to talk up a storm, but I thought he retired, I thought he left the ABA in capable hands.

[jpsesq]

[quote=""preeths""]Others have said it before, but you just can't make this stuff up. A 22-year-old, living in his mother's basement...[/quote]

But he is in the process of moving out. And he did hire a pretty good handyman to coach the team.

[panchess]

Didn't Cedric Ceballos and Armond Gilliam play in the ABA in their 40s? Certainly not "sending them there," but they can take credit as NBA players.

[panchess]

My friend's daughter goes to Cortland. I hope she ends up smarter than this.

I couldn't see at the Aviator Center where there are bleachers in the gyms. Maybe they exist, but I don't see where any revenue comes from. Sponsors?

Joe probably thought Onez Onassis was the Greek shipping tycoon.

I am sure the dance team is coming along though.

My guess is that the team from Pittsburgh never makes it to Brooklyn for the home opener.