An open letter to ABA and Nashville Rhythm fans
Published on February 1, 2005 under American Basketball Association (ABA) News Release
From Joe Newman, ABA CEO
In the last two days, I have received calls and emails from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Fox Sports, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Times and dozens of other publications, radio and television stations. In addition, I've received nearly a thousand calls and emails from fans who have expressed their opinions about "the incident," including fans who were at the game and fans who were not there but read or heard about it from friends, the press and media. I believe the reason for the increased interest was because the argument was between two women - Owner Sally Anthony and Coach Ashley McElhiney. To me, it was an argument between an owner and a coach, gender should not be an issue.
It was not right to expose the fans, the players, coaches, media and others at the game to the heated discussion on the court. It should not have happened; there is no excuse for it. It will not happen again.
One of the core values of the ABA is its diversification of ownership and management. Today, the ABA has more black, Hispanic, Asian and women owners than all professional sports leagues combined in the US. We are proud of the opportunities that we've provided to people who heretofore have not had the opportunity for ownership of a professional sports team, including our women owners, including Sally Anthony, who has helped put together one of the premiere organizations and teams in the ABA. We are equally proud to have women coaches with two in the ABA, including Ashley, both of whom have proven that they belong here, not because they are women, but because they can coach. (Ashley was chosen as an All-Star coach).
Another of our core values is to provide fan-friendly, family-friendly exciting professional basketball at affordable prices. The fans of the Nashville Rhythm have been treated to exactly that and have responded with generous and enthusiastic support. The fans who attended Saturday night's game was a terrific game and the Rhythm kept its promise to deliver high quality sports entertainment at an affordable price. While the game was fan-friendly, family-friendly, the altercation on the court between the owner and the coach was not - and the Rhythm, during those few minutes, did not keep its promise to the fans. And for that reason, the Rhythm and the ABA owe everyone an apology - and a promise that it will never happen again.
The emails and calls I've received have been overwhelmingly in favor of league sanctions, league fines and other penalties for what happened there. The league will not penalize or sanction the team. The team, the owners and the coach have suffered great personal embarrassment that could well carry over to fan support and loss of substantial revenues. I sincerely hope that is not the case. The fact is that the Nashvlle Rhythm is a great basketball team and provides extraordinary sports entertainment value. Why not support the team? It was an unfortunate incident.
We know that Ashley is very popular and a very good coach. We hope that things can work out amicably between the team and her. Hopefully, there are on-going discussions. We do know that Ashley has proven herself as a great coach and should she not return to the Rhythm, her coaching career is well on its way - all because she was given the opportunity - a risk - by another women, Sally Anthony.
What the ABA and the Nashville Rhythm will do is donate red, white and blue basketballs to Nashville youth basketball leagues. For more information about how you can get them, contact me, Joe Newman, ABA CEO, at conniejoenewman@aol.com. And again, please accept our apologies. We hope we can put this behind us.
Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.
American Basketball Association Stories from February 1, 2005
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- An open letter to ABA and Nashville Rhythm fans - ABA
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
