The Goat Pen

Posted: **Mon May 11, 2015 9:44 pm**

eCat wrote:LAS VEGAS, NV, May 5, 2015 — Las Vegas will finally be home to a professional basketball team- the Las Vegas Dealers. The Dealers are a professional developmental team, owned by LV Basketball Enterprises, Inc., that will compete against European teams affiliated with the EuroLeague.

“College is not for every young man that is trying to use basketball to provide a better situation for their families,” says owner Cerruti Brown. “Our innovative model targets the McDonald’s All-Americans who are projected first round prospects by NBA scouts and general managers. This concept allows for the highly touted player to bypass college and immediately become a paid professional. We are able to offer competitive salaries averaging around $700k to the highly touted McDonald’s All-Americans who are typically “one and done” players and $400k for college underclassmen. The Dealers niche will be based on giving basketball players a different option than what is presently offered in America. Before this, underclassmen had to either play college ball or go overseas. Venturing to Europe will not be a necessity when a U.S. based organization will play top European teams.”

At press time, offers are in the works for the 2015 McDonald’s All-Americans.

Fans are invited to join the team’s online family by following the club Twitter @LV_DEALERS. Presently fans also have an opportunity to vote on the team’s logo at http://www.lvdbasket.com (the official site of the Las Vegas Dealers). Voting will commence on the 6th of May 2015 and run through the end of the month. Management is in negotiations with multiple Las Vegas venues to call home for its 40 game home schedule. The inaugural 2015-16 season begins October with the season ending in March.

“We are ecstatic to bring high-level, professional basketball to the Las Vegas community,” Brown said. “The media spotlight and American viewership will help build our unique brand. We are excited that several companies have reached out to us in regards to becoming our official apparel sponsor. The response has been overwhelming.”

Are they getting Cal to coach the team?

Posted: **Mon May 11, 2015 10:38 pm**

heh

certainly you can see the appeal to a kid, but I don't see how they can have a league or a team of $700K one and dones who just play 40 games at home and travel abroad to Europe.

Thats a $10m payroll on just players , not the coach ...and I don't see much media spotlight after the first few games.

Posted: **Mon May 11, 2015 10:48 pm**

That's $700K for the big splash recruit (one or two guys, max, I would suspect). The other guys may barely make, per week, what their SAT scores are (I bet). Most of the guys will also not make the NBA, let alone the D League.

Posted: **Mon May 11, 2015 10:54 pm**

Bklyn wrote:That's $700K for the big splash recruit (one or two guys, max, I would suspect). The other guys may barely make, per week, what their SAT scores are (I bet). Most of the guys will also not make the NBA, let alone the D League.

I don't know - I'm just going to be really surprised if this works. I think it will make a splash early on like the USFL, and it may ultimately influence the NCAA to move on paying players for revenue generating sports.

But to have a team with 1 or 2 guys and fill out the rest with guys who don't realize they're there to be journeyman for the 1 or 2 big money guys seems like an unappealing product, especially if they can't beat their European competition.

Seems like he's banking on a few kids that hate the idea of attending class and just want to ball for money, but on the back end he has to deliver them to the NBA. And for the ones that wash out, they'll never get a shot at college

Posted: **Mon May 11, 2015 11:03 pm**

Oh, don't get me wrong, I think the USFL analogy is apt. I think the guys who are running this are trying to see if there are a bunch of "Brandon Jenningses" out there who aren't surfacing because they don't want to leave the country. Maybe this is something that would work out for a handful of guys over a 10 - 15 year span, but putting out a quality product year after year may be tough.

I don't think the "journeymen" who are there with the big money guys will care too much. The And1 guys relished the opportunity. This is just another mutation of that. There will always be guys who would love to play organized ball at the off chance they can become another "Skip To My Lou."

FWIW, I think they will get a lot of guys who have already washed out of college...so I think that last sentence of yours is not a factor.

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 6:19 am**

I know And1 was very popular about 10 years ago. Is it still as popular today?

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 12:53 pm**

Not a bit. That's why I think the USFL analogy is applicable here.

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 2:49 pm**

Pelicans fire their coach

I'm sure Calipari is on the short list

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 5:16 pm**

He's a solid young talent. There must have been some other shit going on to send him packing. Orlando should scoop him up.

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 9:31 pm**

[tweet]598296431867236352[/tweet]

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 10:53 pm**

I think Memphis fans would agree that doesn't mean much

Posted: **Tue May 12, 2015 11:34 pm**

Karl Town hits 71 out of 100 NBA 3 pointers at an NBA workout.

and in separate news

In an interview with a Lansing radio show, MSU beat writer Kyle Austin addressed the rumor that Swanigan had crazy demands from Tom Izzo. Among those rumored demands were… wait for it … separate living quarters and a personal chef.

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 11:04 am**

Rest in Peace, Coach Gut.

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 12:02 pm**

hate to hear that

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 1:02 pm**

Me too. Hard to feel anything but gratitude for having Gut so many years. I hate that his memory is tainted (by no doing of his own) by the way Dean-o went out and gave the program to Gut rather than Roy in '98. Seems hard to feel bad about 2 FF's in 3 years (one of which was totally unexpected), but the '98 team was our best squad ever IMO. Can't blame them choking in the FF on Gut, but I can't help but feel that they would have won it all that year if Dean had just stayed one more year and then rode out in the sunset. Whatever...

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 5:42 pm**

I thought he was already dead. Heh. Ya gotta love suprises.

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 6:38 pm**

Weird how Gut departs right after Dean and had sort of the same malady.

Love that photo of the recruiting letter Gut sent to Jordan in 1980 that Darren Rovell posted on Twitter today. Those days of recruiting are long gone, sadly.

Posted: **Wed May 13, 2015 6:43 pm**

I liked the last sentence: "It will be interesting to see how your game at Southern Wayne comes out tomorrow night."

Southern Wayne! That's DS's territory!

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2015 1:04 am**

Well, he was interested in that outcome because the Saints had Lynwood Robinson, who was a more highly touted player at the time. Crafty ol' Gut was letting Jordan know that he needed to send a clear message in that game.

In the first meeting, Robinson and the Saints turned back the upstart Bucs. Jordan had 7 points and Robinson had 8. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 4436&hl=en

I can't find the Google news story from the 2nd game that Gut alluded to.

Posted: **Thu May 14, 2015 1:05 am**

Not to mention that Cecil Exum was the star for Southern Wayne that year, which was the jr. season for Jordan and Robinson.

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