Bellevue/Tacoma event successful
August 8, 2005 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Tacoma Navigators News Release
(Tacoma, WA)-Hundreds of kids, fans, players, coaches, officials and media participated in an event-filled day of basketball jointly-hosted by the expansion Tacoma Navigators and defending 2004-05 Western Conference Champion Bellevue Blackhawks of the American Basketball Association (ABA) on Saturday.
The day kicked off with a heavily-attended skills camp for kids featuring several teams sponsored by the AAU and Boys and Girls Clubs of Tacoma. Coaches Brian Dailey, Don Sims, Chris Mosley and Jim Merritt joined Blackhawks players Jim Rainwater and ABA All-Star and Harlem Globetrotter, Lavell Brown in putting the youngsters through three hours of drills, games and contests. Fifty official ABA basketballs and 200 Navigators' t-shirts were distributed at the event.
The afternoon session featured 32 players who registered for the joint free agent tryout camp conducted by Coaches Sims, Merritt and Chris Hyppa. Players came from as far away as Fairbanks, Alaska and Sacramento, California to compete for ten roster spots each on the Bellevue and Tacoma teams. Three veteran ABA game officials (Harvey Marshall, Lamont Johnson and Greg Hay) refereed a very competitive, full-speed scrimmage under normal ABA game conditions while the coaches evaluated and graded the players individually.
The day was capped by an official ABA exhibition game officiated by another veteran ABA crew of Monte Page, Ike Durham and Morgan Whitley. The players wore the official ABA game uniforms of the Blackhawks, which were last worn in the ABA Championship Game on March 26, 2005. In an exciting, up-tempo game, Bellevue defeated Tacoma 133-122.
The events benefited the Renew Our Tacoma Dome Committee, which is running the campaign for "Yes on Proposition 1," a September 20th ballot measure that would provide $45 million in much-need upgrades and renovations to the 20-year-old Tacoma Dome without raising taxes. Based on gross receipts from the day, Navigators president and general manager, Michael Tuckman, estimated that the campaign would be receiving as much as $5,000.
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.
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