Squadron ready for Year 3

T,J. Saint enters his second year as head coach of Birmingham’s G League team. The Squadron opens at home against the Austin Spurs on November 10 at 7 p.m. (photo courtesy of the Birmingham Squadron)

The NBA Draft lottery took place on May 16; the Draft itself was held June 22; training camp opened on October 3; and the regular season commenced on October 24.

In the G League, however, things come together far more quickly.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

The draft was today, training camp starts on Monday, and the 2023-24 season tips-off on November 10. In other words, there’s much work to be done and a short time to do it.

The Birmingham Squadron – affiliates of the New Orleans Pelicans – opens against the Austin Spurs at Legacy Arena on November 10, hoping to vastly improve on last year’s 11-21 regular season record (and 6-16 mark in the in-season Showcase Cup tournament).

“We’ll have three days of two practices a day to start camp,” T.J. Saint, entering his second season as Birmingham’s head coach, said on Friday. “We will also do a controlled practice day with College Park (the Atlanta Hawks’ G League team) and then play them in an exhibition game the next day. After that first week, and being able to compare yourself with another G League team, will give us a great barometer of where we are as a team because they have the same constraints.

“It’s really just the nature of pro basketball and this is year nine for me, so I really don’t know any different.”

The NBA voted to add an additional two-way player to each team’s roster in 2023-24, giving them three. Due to injuries, Birmingham had access to only one a year ago – Dereon Seabron.

The guard was a force for the Squadron in 2022-23, averaging 34.5 minutes on the court over 27 outings and scoring 18.4-points per night. He also made five appearances with the Pelicans last season.

“I’m really looking forward to working with Dereon … he’s not a rookie anymore,” Saint said during the summer. “Having him there in his second year means knowing what to expect and knowing he’s gotten a lot better and gotten a lot stronger. I think he’s going to have a banner year.”

This year, Seabron will have some help from two more double-dippers – Kaiser Gates and Matt Ryan.

Gates spent time with three G League teams before signing with New Orleans last month. The 6-7, 225-pound small forward appeared in 24 games with the Long Island Nets last season, averaging 14 points and six rebounds per game. His overall G League average is 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over 122 games, including 66 starts.

Ryan has been with the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves organizations, and last fall and winter appeared in 22 games for Minnesota.

He pumped in 19 points per outing in seven starts with the G League Iowa Wolves in 2022-23.

“We have a lot of versatility with our two-ways this year,” Saint explained. “Each of them plays a different position and have different skill sets. Kaiser brings a tremendous G League pedigree. A top defender in the G as well as his 3-point shooting, which at 55 percent and five attempts a game is incredibly impressive from last season.

“Matt has a solid amount of NBA experience and is also a lights-out shooter. Having coached against him in the G as well, he plays very hard and stretches the floor. Both players are extremely high character.”

The Squadron also signed 2021 NBA G League Finals MVP Devin Cannady earlier this month.

Playing with the Lakeland Magic, Cannady got the MVP nod after scoring 22 points in the championship game. He played for the South Bay Lakers last year, averaging 12.6 points per game.

The newest addition to the club is Pavel Savkov, who was taken in the first round of today’s draft, No. 6 overall.

Savkov is a 6-7, 200-pound guard from Moscow. Last year, the 21-year-old played in three different Spanish leagues and recently extended his international contract with Saski Baskonia of Liga ACB and the EuroLeague.

The training camp roster was released Sunday morning, with 14 players competing for 13 roster spots: Seabron, G; Landers Nolley II, G; Liam Robbins, C; Tevian Jones, G; Savkov, G; Jalen Crutcher, G; Galen Robinson Jr., G; Izaiah Brockington, G; Nate Bradley Jr., G; Kevion Nolan, G; Cannady, G; Malcolm Hill, G; Daniel Giddens, C; and UAB product Trey Jemison, C.

The Squadron moves from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference this year and will face six new opponents for the first time in franchise history – the Cleveland Charge, Indiana Mad Ants, Motor City Cruise, Long Island Nets, Westchester Knicks and Windy City Bulls.

“Fans can look forward to seeing a team that has a high level of readiness, attention to detail, and a highly connected group,” Saint said.

For ticket info, go to BirminghamSquadron.com.

Birmingham Squadron highlighted in new book

In the author’s note to Life In The G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (University of Nebraska Press), Alex Squadron says that writing a book about the Birmingham Squadron – a club that shares the New Yorker’s name – “felt like destiny.”

“I had an idea to write a book about the NBA G League,” he writes. “And there happened to be a team (a brand new one too!) called the Squadron. I mean, come on! It would have been far more ridiculous to ignore something like that, right?”

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

Whether destiny or just a happy accident, the result is one of the best basketball books I’ve ever read.

Life In The G chronicles the ups and downs of players trying to parlay their time in the NBA’s developmental league into a shot (and sometimes second or third shot) at the big-time, showing both the importance of the feeder league (Birmingham is the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate) and the hard work its athletes put into it.

I met Alex during the infancy of the team, when it held workouts for the 2021-22 season at Bill Burch Gymnasium on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. While I was there to do some quick-hit interviews, he was imbedded with the club and putting in the real work.

And man, it shows in this book.

The players he highlights most are former Auburn standout Jared Harper, Zylan Cheatham, Joe Young and Malcolm Hill, all who were integral to the G League Squadron’s first year in the Magic City.

Their paths to the feeder circuit were wildly different, but their stories all compelling. Alex makes you feel like you were tagging along for the entire journey – from training camp and games to ultimately saying goodbye to Birmingham at season’s end.

There is also plenty of ink devoted to Ryan Pannone, Birmingham’s coach for the 2021-22 campaign and now an assistant for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Pannone is not only a nice guy (he’s favorably compared to Ted Lasso in Life In The G) but he is also one of the most knowledgeable basketball people to ever pick up a whistle. I was fascinated with how Alex explained how he put together the team, coached it, and did everything in his power to give them the best opportunity to succeed.

Early in the book, Pannone describes the G League this way:

“Be prepared for the unpreparable. The reality is that for most of these guys, everything is worse. If you’re coming from a Division 1 school, how we travel is worse; what we eat is worse; our facilities are worse; our gear is worse. But being in the G League is about guys who love to hoop. You have to be easygoing. You have to be able to go with the flow.”

Certainly, for someone like me who is interested in Birmingham’s professional sports past, present and future, this is a must-read – a book I wish I’d written. But you don’t have to be from Birmingham to appreciate it.

Shoot, even if you just have a casual interest in basketball, you’ll find plenty to like, because it’s as much about pride and perseverance as it is the sport.

But if you love the G League – and I do – this quick and fun read gives you an even greater appreciation of it.

And once Birmingham reaches the end of its first season – a playoff loss to the Texas Legends – you realize how important that inaugural season was to all the men who made it happen.

Cheatham summed it up this way:

“Just that quick, it’s over,” Cheatham  described. “It’s very abrupt. There are guys you get close with, you connect with, you bond with. To know that – damn, you’re about to go on with your life, I’m about to go on with mine, and we probably will never play on the same team again. It’s just over that quickly.”

With a forward by longtime G League player Andre Ingram, Life In the G is a heartfelt tribute to a circuit that continues to get better and better.

It’s a great book by a great young author, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here’s a link to purchase the book: https://www.amazon.com/Life-League-Basketball-Relentless-Pursuit/dp/1496235851

Waiting for the cats to die

Ezra Reuben rubbed his hands together while sitting on the park bench, avoiding making eye contact with anyone in the Living With Loss group.

After his wife of 43 years had died, it had taken him two months to leave the house and a month more to resume any semblance of a routine. Opening up about his loss was an even bigger step, especially in the setting of grief counseling.

Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.

“Everyone, please welcome Ezra,” said Debbie, the group coordinator, gently patting the man on his shoulder.

Ezra raised his head slightly.

“Uh, my name’s Ezra, and I lost my wife, Arlene, a couple of months ago,” he said to the other bereaved gathered in the park. “We were married more than 40 years, and I’m 68 so we were together a lot longer than we weren’t. I honestly don’t know what to do with myself now that she’s gone.”

He finally looked around, seeing friendly if unfamiliar faces among those taking part in the outdoor session. He doubted going out in public and sharing his pain would help, but gentle nudges from friends finally convinced him to at least try – and get some fresh air in the process.

“We knew this was coming for a while,  so when she finally passed, I had braced myself as best I could. But you can never prepare for something like that … not really.”

Ezra then forced a smile.

“Right there at the end, we told each other we loved each other, of course,” he said. “But you know what the last thing she said to me was? She said, ‘Ezra, you’ve got to go on because you have to take care of the cats.’ So, I guess now I’m just waiting for the cats to die.”

The couple had no human children, but animals had been part of their world throughout their marriage. Over the years there had been dogs as well as cats – even a ferret at one point. But at the time of Arlene’s death, the couple was down to 15-year-old Barfolomew and 17-year-old Ferris Mewler – both ginger tabbies.

“Those boys miss their mama,” he said. “But they’re good company – and they make sure to let me know I still have to feed ‘em.”

Ezra didn’t expect to spend his sessions on the bench talking about cats, but it made him feel better when he did – and that feeling seemed to be contagious.

One visit to the park led to two meetings of the Living With Loss Group and two evolved into six. It wasn’t long before Ezra was quite comfortable chatting with everyone in his group. And oh, how he loved talking about his kitties.

Three months into his meetings, however, Ezra showed up for a session with tears in his eyes. Ferris had finally succumbed to kidney disease.

“I was taking him to the vet every week to give him fluids,” he told the group. “But by the end there wasn’t any quality of life left for him, so I had to let him go.

“It’s just Barf and me now.”

Ezra knew all too well the trauma of losing a four-legged family member. He had often said the price you pay for spending some of the best years of your life with an animal is having to endure that one horrible day when you lose them. Coming so soon on the heels of Arlene’s death caused the loss to hit even harder.

It was several sessions before he became “chatty” again, but once he did, he expressed concern about Barfolomew.

“He won’t eat,” Ezra told Debbie after a meeting. “I think he misses Ferris … and Arlene.”

The Living With Loss group met each Thursday, and late on a Wednesday night, Debbie got an email from Ezra.

“Barf is gone,” it read. “I went to check on him before I went to bed and found him dead on the bathroom floor.”

Debbie felt horrible for Ezra, but she was also worried; of all the things he had said during the support group meetings it was the line “I guess I’m just waiting for the cats to die” that concerned her most.

She didn’t want to overstep, but she also feared what the widower might do.

“I’m so sorry about Barf, Ezra,” she emailed back. “You’ve had to deal with a lot in a short period of time but please, please come to Thursday’s meeting. Get there early and you and I can talk.”

Ezra emailed back with an ominous answer: “I’ll try, but I have a decision to make tomorrow.”

Debra spent most of the night pacing, wondering if she would ever see Ezra again. He had made so much progress, but the deaths of his cats had surely been a setback.

When morning came, she decided to drive over to Ezra’s house and do a wellness check.

She rang the doorbell, but there was no response.

She then knocked frantically, but again, nothing.

The garage was closed, so she couldn’t tell if his car was there or not.

But just as she decided to call 911, Ezra pulled up in his driveway.

He got out of the car and waved, then walked to the passenger side and opened the door.

He retrieved a cardboard pet carrier and began walking toward Debbie.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I was worried about you,” she said. “What have you got there?”

Ezra opened the box and pulled out a black cat – an old boy graying around the mouth and missing a left eye.

“This is Snake Plissken,” Ezra said. “That decision I told you I had to make? It was either getting a kitten or a senior cat, and the minute I saw this guy I knew he needed me – that we needed each other.”

Debbie reached over and scratched Snake’s chin, and he responded with a vibrant purr.

“Arlene told me to go on because I have to take care of the cats,” Ezra said. “From the looks of the shelter, there are a lot that need taking care of.

“I guess I’ll be here for a while.”