Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

Pannone leads the charge

I don’t pretend to know Birmingham Squadron head coach Ryan Pannone. Our interactions consist of a handshake and a couple of questions asked during a group interview session.

But this I do know; he makes a good first impression.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

The man who’ll lead the New Orleans Pelicans’ G League affiliate into the 2021-22 regular season tonight against the Greensboro Swarm (WABM My68 TV; 94.9 FM/900 AM radio) was affable during his Media Day news conference on Monday, but also honest about his mission. He’s glad to be here and expects his players to be glad as well – even though ultimately they all want to go somewhere else.

“Our first meeting we talked about no complaining, no excuses,” Pannone said. “It’s not, ‘Oh, I have to practice in this gym,’ it’s ‘No, you get to practice in this gym because there’s a lot of players that, if we cut you today, would take the job. It’s the same thing with me as a coach. I could complain about a lot of things, but when I got this job, I wasn’t the most qualified person for the job. There were coaches with better resumes, better experience that coached in the NBA, played in the NBA, scouted in the NBA, that won a G League title that wanted my job, and for our players and our staff, they have to understand we can all be replaced.”

Pannone might not be a household name, but he’s packed plenty of experience into his 36 years.

As a high school coach at Oldsmar Christian School in Florida, he led the boys’ team to a 131-42 record. After that, he experienced Alabama-style basketball for the first time in 2012 as an assistant coach at Wallace State Community College.

Since then he’s been head coach of BC Prievidza of Slovakia and had assistant coaching stints in Israel, Angola Germany, China and South Korea.

This season is his third as a G-League head coach. The Squadron was the Erie BayHawks before moving to Birmingham, and in two seasons there, Pannone compiled a 24-34 record. (He was a BayHawks assistant coach in 2014-15 and Pelicans Summer League assistant in 2019-20)

Coaching up his players is Job One, of course, but he also understands this team and this league can be culture shock for big-time players who dreamed of going directly to the NBA – or have already been there.

“For most of these guys, everything’s worse,” Pannone explained. “If you’re coming from a Division I school, how we travel is worse, what we eat is worse, facilities are worse, our gear is worse. For John Petty Jr. (former All-SEC performer at Alabama) this is a big step back. But being in the G League is about guys that love to hoop. If you’re focused on that, these other things don’t matter. What you have to be prepared for is flights will be canceled, and you might be stuck on a bus in a snowstorm, food isn’t gonna be delivered. If it rains and there’s water on the court, you’ve got to switch gyms.

“That’s the G league … you have to be easygoing and be able to go with the flow.”

You also have to be able to appreciate the opportunity in front of you.

“I’m super fortunate,” he said. “I get to coach a game and the players get to play a game for a living where there’s people out there, nurses, police officers and firemen, that are dealing with everything that’s going on with the pandemic, the people who currently have Covid and have lost people to Covid … any time you get to coach basketball, especially in the current state of the world, it’s super exciting.”

Although the team has been together for just a short time, the players have already warmed to Pannone’s style. And to a man, they praise his ability to see them as a person before seeing the athlete.

“He’s a players’ coach,” said guard Joe Young, who has NBA experience with the Indiana Pacers. “He’s more focused on how we’re doing. That’s his first question every morning is, ‘How are ya’ll doing … how can I help you?’ Players dream of having a coach that really cares about them and wants his players to be great. He’s a high character guy who loves the game, and that’s who you want as a coach. I’ve learned a lot from him already.”

As a fan of a minor league team you understand that the top players are on a short-term loan, and the team you see at the start of the season might look very different from the one playing at the end. The guys who make the most of their chance with the Squadron can earn a roster spot with New Orleans and when they do, you wish them well.

Obviously this league is a proving ground for Pannone, too, and success in the Magic City could lead to bigger and better things.

And I hope that’s the case. Until then, he seems like the right person to have at the helm of Birmingham’s new professional basketball team. Perhaps his good first impression will be a lasting one.

Squadron ready for duty

**Birmingham coach Ryan Pannone talks to media members Monday morning at Protective Stadium.**

The last official professional basketball game played by a Birmingham-based NBA affiliate came on March 25, 1992, when the Birmingham Bandits lost to the Quad City Thunder in the Continental Basketball Association playoffs. That team, linked with the Atlanta Hawks and San Antonio Spurs, was one-and-done – finishing dead last in the CBA in attendance.

Nearly 30 years later, a bolder and better Birmingham is back in the pro basketball business, and the NBA G League team looks to hold court much longer than a single season.

The Birmingham Squadron has joined the ranks of the 29-team league (plus the NBA G League Ignite, the club reserved for elite Draft prospects) and will play its home opener at the renovated Legacy Arena on December 5 against the Capitanes de Ciudad de México, aka the Mexico City Capitanes. The regular season lid-lifter is Friday at Greensboro (Birmingham’s first six games are on the road).

The Squadron’s on-court debut actually came on Saturday in College Park, Georgia, in a 95-90 exhibition victory over the College Park Skyhawks.

Squadron head coach Ryan Pannone and various players met with the media earlier today at Protective Stadium to officially talk up the newest member of Birmingham’s sports scene.

“We met with some of the community leaders in August and I thought there would be about 50 people there, and there were 150 people,” Pannone said. “I was blown away at how excited people were about having a team here. That’s the nature of the G League. At the end of the day it’s a minor league sport, and when you’re in a bigger city it’s just not that important to a lot of people. What you want as a player is to feel like it’s important, and I was blown away by the support.”

The team formerly known as the Erie BayHawks relocated from Pennsylvania, where they were well supported. Pannone hopes the team can win over new fans in the Magic City.

“I spent two years in Erie and the people in the town and the fans loved the team,” he said. “They love their minor league sports. In one way it’s sad to move away from there but obviously it’s exciting to move to Birmingham. Legacy Arena is amazing. It’s the top arena in the G League.”

The circuit is the NBA’s developmental league so it’s obviously quality stuff; 41 percent of players on this season’s opening night NBA rosters (205 total) had G league experience, and every NBA team started the 2021-22 campaign with at least three former G leaguers. But there’s also just something that seems fun about it from a fan standpoint, everything from rule experimentation to a nice, tight 36-game regular season schedule plus a 14-game tournament called the Showcase Cup.

“The fans are truly dialed in and making a lot of noise about the Birmingham Squadron coming into the city,” said guard Joe Young, who played three years with the Indiana Pacers and was one of the top players in China last season with the Beijing Royal Fighters. “I feel like we have a great new beginning. I’ve been through a lot of training camp and this is one of the best I’ve been through, from the high intensity and how we’ve become a team. There’s a lot of unity and as early as the season is, it’s like we’ve been knowing each other for years.”

The arrival of the New Orleans Pelicans affiliate is the city’s next and best chance to prove it can support pro hoops. The 1991-92 CBA team that called State Fair Arena home made the playoffs despite a losing record, but fans had lost interest in them long before the postseason. Birmingham averaged 1,058 fans per game during the regular season, last in the 17-team league. Its three home postseason games in March drew crowds of 405, 825, and 2,274.

By May the team was gone, moved to Rochester, Minnesota, and rebranded the Renegades.

The modern era has seen Birmingham host several semi-pro teams, but like most semi-pro teams they’re here today, gone tomorrow and quickly forgotten.

But the Pelicans’ farm club has a chance to be memorable right out of the gate, which could go a long way toward a much different fate than that of the Bandits.

The roster features former Auburn star Jared Harper and Alabama standout John Petty Jr. – both guards – and there are currently 15 players in training camp hoping to survive Thursday’s cut day.

“I think anything you do, it’s easier with higher character people and one thing I’ve learned about the G league is it’s essentially the junior college of professional basketball,” Pannone explained. “It’s not a place where a player wants to be for the rest of their career. It’s hopefully a stopping ground in terms of improving their career. When you get high character guys, it’s not hard. When you get guys like Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham (who has a career G League average of 14.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game from the forward spot), Jared Harper … those are really high character guys that want to be here and understand this a necessity to get where they want to go. Joe Young has turned down millions playing overseas to be here. His engagement and humbleness and excitedness to be here has been amazing. He’s got the most NBA experience on our team and he’s been a great leader. He’s imparting knowledge to the other players.”

Pannone said regardless of who’s on the court when the Squadron meets the Greensboro Swarm on Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum, they’ll be defined by “unselfishness and effort.”

“It’s what we talk to the players about,” Pannone said. “The game is full of mistakes. The coaches and players don’t want mistakes, but it’s an imperfect game. You’re gonna make mistakes but when you do, make them with unselfishness and effort. I want execution to be great and to execute our game plan, but if we play hard and play the right way, that’s what we want the identity of our team to be.”

Harper is confident fans will like what they see.

“We play great as a collective,” he said. “Nobody’s worried about stats or whatever – we just want to win.”

And with the Squadron coming in right as the Uptown entertainment district starts to take shape, the time seems right for Birmingham and pro basketball to be a winning combination.

My Halloween costumes

Tomorrow night, all the little Trick-or-Treaters will be dressed as witches, ghosts, goblins and telemarketers, and I’ll be reminded of the wonderful times I had as a child begging for teeth-destroying edibles. As you might know, I would often dress up as either a werewolf, Batman or Joe Namath, and had no desire to be anything other than those three iconic figures. Why?

I’ll tell you.

Werewolves are far and away my favorite mythological creature. They shapeshift into a wolf due to a curse or bite from another mythological creature that has shapeshifted into a wolf due to a curse or bite from yet another mythological creature that has shapeshifted into a wolf due to a curse or bite … you get the idea. There’s cursing and biting involved, then you sprout fur and foam at the mouth.

My favorite werewolf mask was based on the 1941 “The Wolf Man” movie character, and it even had fake hair that made it look authentic. It was also shaped in such a way that I could wear my eyeglasses underneath it. Man, I loved that mask … didn’t even need Halloween as an excuse to put it on. Sometimes I’d be sitting at the dinner table in mid-July wearing it … just thinking about how cool it would be if I were a lycanthrope. Then I’d lift it up so I could take a bite out of a yeast roll, and then put it back in position and think more about lycanthropy. And really, the mask was the only expense to the ensemble; the rest of the costume was just regular clothes.

I can’t tell you how many times I’d knock on a door and the person who opened it would say, “Oh my, you’re scary!”

And I’d want to answer, “No shit. I’m a werewolf … you should be scared,” but I wouldn’t because nippers shouldn’t cuss.

Batman is my favorite masked vigilante – a man who presents himself as a nocturnal flying mammal in order to strike fear into the hearts of malefactors, ne’er-do-wells and tosspots. Personally, I’ve always liked bats – I find them quite pleasant. But then again I’m a delightful person, so Batman would have no reason to strike fear into me. Now feral hogs are another story … I find them quite off-putting. So if I may digress for a moment, let me say that if someone dressed as a feral hog – we’ll call him Feral Hog Man for the purposes of this column – then yes, I would be scared of them. (Note to self: as soon as I’m done here call DC and Marvel and pitch a character that has shapeshifted into a feral hog due to a curse or bite administered by late country singer/sausage maven Jimmy Dean).

Anyway, Batman costumes were more difficult for bespectacled kids like me, at least when it came to the cowl. I couldn’t wear them over or under the hard, plastic, traditional Halloween masks, and wearing them under cloth Batman masks made me resemble a large bug.

One year my mom convinced me to just place my glasses over the homemade cowl she had fashioned from an old dress.

“Oh, Scotty,” she said, “No one will even notice.”

First house I went to an old man answered the door and said, “You supposed to be Batman? I didn’t know Batman wore glasses.”

What an ass. I mean, Batman watched his parents killed right in front of him in an alley behind a theater, and all that’s going through this codger’s mind is, “Hey Myrtle – get a load of the Caped Crusader wearing horn rims!” Maybe – just maybe – the Dark Knight’s retinas were damaged during a fight with Mr. Freeze, forcing him to follow optometrist’s orders. I really wanted to tell that geezer off, but he gave me two Snickers bars so I let it go.

Finally, when I became obsessed with tackle football, I decided to Trick-or-Treat while rocking the uniform of my favorite player, Joe Namath. In retrospect, this was probably my most authentic recreation.

Christmas of 1970 I got a New York Jets/Joe Namath Rawlings uniform, complete with helmet, jersey, pants and shoulder pads. It was absolutely glorious. The packaging said the helmet was “not suitable for competition,” but when it came to competing for the best Halloween costume, it suited me just fine.

If Joe Namath and I had been standing side-by-side, it would’ve been hard to tell us apart – except for the age, height and muscle differences. And the great thing is, no one would even see that I was wearing glasses because I’d have my helmet on.

So while my friends were dressed like cowboys, lumberjacks and dental hygienists, I was repping No. 12 and snagging copious amounts of candy.

After being told by several snack-givers I looked just like Namath, I finally reached a house occupied by a teenager who I believe was babysitting. She looked me up and down and said, “Hey little boy, I don’t think Joe Namath wears glasses.”

And I thought, “How do you know? Maybe Joe Willie’s been hit so many times by Ben Davidson he suffers from blurred vision. Or maybe since by the end of his injury-plagued 1970 season the coaching staff was concerned that his career interception total was 116 against just 102 touchdown passes, and Weeb Ewbank decided to buy him a pair to better spot Don Maynard and George Sauer. Or maybe he just likes how cerebral they make him look. You’re not omniscient.”

This Tiger Beat-reading, Bobby Sherman-lusting teen had absolutely no clue about Joe Namath’s optical history, and I was this close to giving her a piece of my mind when she stuck a big bowl full of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in my face and told me to grab a handful. At that point I realized she was both kind and beautiful, and I was in love.

Ah, what great memories those were. Even years later when late October rolls around, I’ll occasionally think about dressing up as a werewolf, Batman or Joe Namath. Sometimes I daydream about combining the three, where Joe Namath is secretly Batman but also shapeshifts into a wolf due to a curse or bite. Of course I’d still have to deal with the glasses situation, and being ridiculed by the person handing out candy. Then again, if a 60-year-old man dressed as Joe WereBat came to the door holding a pumpkin bucket, eyewear would probably be the least of their concerns.