Category: Basketball

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?”

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

With the NBA preseason now under way, New Orleans Pelicans fans are wondering how the “Big Three” of Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum can help the club go from a play-in team to one capable of making a deep postseason run.

Birmingham Squadron fans, however, are more concerned with the players who’ll be spending much of their court time in the Magic City.

So is the coach of the Pelicans’ G League affiliate.

T.J. Saint, who is heading into his second season at the helm of the Squadron, was a highly interested observer of Thursday night’s clash between the Pelicans and Rockets at Legacy Arena.

The final score (Houston won big, 120-87) was secondary to what Saint hoped to learn about some of the players who’ll be on the Birmingham roster in 2023-24. The Squadron open against the Austin Spurs here on Friday, November 10, as part of the Showcase Cup portion of the schedule.

“I thought it was good tonight for fans to see our team the last five minutes,” Saint said. “Although the game was decided, getting a chance to play in an NBA game for the first time on our home floor will make our opener feel more familiar.”

Starting this season, teams are allowed three two-way players, but so far only Dereon Seabron and Kaiser Gates have inked those contracts with New Orleans.

Seabron entered the game at the start of the fourth quarter and logged 7:12 minutes. He failed to score, but snagged a rebound.

With just under five minutes to go, Gates found his way to the court. He played 4:48 and nailed a 3-pointer.

UAB product Trey Jemison put in 9:52 and contributed a field goal, three rebounds and an assist. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract (one-year deal for league minimum with a two-way contract option) in September.

“It’s just a blessing to be back home,” Jemison said. “I’ve played state championships here, I’ve played college here and to play professionally here is just amazing. I prayed for nights like this.”

All three players should call Birmingham home during a good portion of the fall and winter.

As for the exhibition game itself, the Rockets took control early and rolled to a 33-point victory in front of 11,589 fans.

Jabari Smith Jr. led the winners and all scorers with 22 points despite playing just 23:50. The former Auburn star (third overall pick in the 2022 draft) is in his second year with the Rockets and averaged 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the team last season.

Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green and Amen Thompson each scored 12 points to aid the cause.

“Yeah, I think we played some different lineups and units – small-ball units that really got after it,” Houston boss Ime Udoka said. “But even when we had our bigs in, guys were extremely active. Great physicality across the board, but, when things broke down, we talked about playing through that possession, and guys were scrambling great, obviously got a lot of steals, and when that happens obviously you transfer that into fast-break points and we had 28 for the night.”

Williamson, Ingram and McCollum combined for 31 New Orleans points, with McCollum netting 17 of them.

Dyson Daniels and Jordan Hawkins scored 13 points apiece.

“It’s demoralizing when you turn the ball over as many times as we did tonight … 27 (turnovers) for 30 points,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “When we were out there, we were sloppy, and we’ve got to get better and clean it up.”

HOME COOKING

Kira Lewis Jr. (No. 13 pick in 2020 NBA Draft) and Herbert Jones (No. 35 pick in 2021) are products of the Alabama Crimson Tide, so Thursday night was something of a homecoming for the New Orleans players.

“There’s a lot of friends and family here tonight, and just to be back in Alabama playing professionally means a lot to me,” Jones said.

Jones scored four points in 23:09, while Lewis chipped in eight points over 16:27.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Center Liam Robbins figured to be a part of the Pelicans’ future (and Squadron’s immediate) plans in 2023-24, but the big center out of Vanderbilt was waived earlier on Thursday.

Robbins suffered a stress reaction to his right fibula earlier in the month.

In another move, New Orleans signed guard Jalen Crutcher, who played 57 games over the last two seasons with the Greensboro Storm, the Charlotte Hornets’ G League affiliate.

Crutcher averaged 15.8 points per game for the Swarm.

PRESEASON VISITS

There have been 12 NBA exhibition games contested in Birmingham over the years, all in October.

The first came on October 16, 1976, when the Cleveland Cavaliers  defeated the Detroit Pistons, 120-109, in front of 8,551 fans at the new Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum.

It was the first basketball game played at the facility.

The Pelicans’ stop in Birmingham on Thursday was their second overall (and second in a row), but they have some work to do to catch up with the Atlanta Hawks. The NBA team nearest to the Ham has played here six times, while the Rockets and Pistons have three appearances each at what is now known as Legacy Arena.

FLIRTING WITH THE ASSOCIATION

Birmingham attorney Ed Meyerson started a push to help Birmingham get an NBA franchise back in 1977, hoping to convince an existing club to relocate and call the Civic Center home.

By 1978 the focus has shifted to Buffalo, where the Braves were planning on moving to Dallas. However, news that the Texas city would get an expansion team when its new sports complex was completed in 1980 or 1981 put that deal on hold – and put Birmingham back in the conversation.

Alas, the Braves relocated to San Diego and the quest to lure an NBA team to Alabama was abandoned in early 1979.

The job of an NBA G League team is to develop players and do so within the system utilized by the parent club. And if the understudies win a lot of games along the way, that makes things even better.

As the 2023-24 season approaches, the Birmingham Squadron – the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate – has the tools in place to check all of those boxes.

“I think one of the things that’s the most important for us is you have to be at a point in your evolution where you can really use the G League team,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said earlier this week. “What we’ve had going on in the past, unfortunately, some of it was injury-induced. And then some of it was just a young team developing the guys that you would ordinarily like to say will be staples with the Squadron, but have been playing meaningful minutes with us.

“And I think we’ve reached the point now where we have a level of depth of quality young players that we can feel really comfortable assigning, guys like (guard) Dyson Daniels and (guard) Kira Lewis. I think we’re in a place now where we’ll be able to assign young players of that ilk to be really positive players.”

T.J. Saint is entering his second season as head coach of the Squadron, and spent Saturday morning overseeing local player tryouts at the Lakeshore Foundation.

“We’re extremely balanced as a team,” Saint said. “Technically, right now, we have two roster spots to fill. One of those will for sure be filled through the (G League) draft (on October 28). And to be quite honest, the second could come very well come from the local player tryout here. We’ve got 60-plus players signed up and I really, really appreciate guys who are going after their dream or goal, and honestly, who believe in themselves. It’s just really cool to see.”

This season G League teams will be allotted three two-way players. Guard Dereon Seabron was the Squadron’s lone active two-way player in 2022-23 since power forward E.J. Liddell was sidelined by a torn ACL and missed all of last year. Seabron averaged 18.4 points per game for Birmingham during the regular season and 14.3 points during the in-season tournament (Showcase Cup) portion of the schedule.

“What’s really neat for us is we’re finally at a point in our development where the players that we have on two-way contracts we anticipate we’re going to be able to send to Birmingham,” Griffin said. “(Center) Liam Robbins, who was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year at Vanderbilt, is a player that we anticipate will be with us at that point. He’s certainly going to be part of training camp … he’s looked tremendous here in our gym.

“(Center) Trey Jemison, who finished last season with UAB and Coach (Andy) Kennedy, will be coming back with us, and both of those guys will add some size to the Squadron team. Since Zach Hankins (now with Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Basketball Premier league) left us, that’s something we’ve sorely needed.”

Griffin adds that the relationship between the Pelicans – who finished 42-40 a year ago and lost their play-in game to Oklahoma City – and Squadron should be more reciprocal during the G League team’s third season in the Magic City.

“There’s Dereon Seabron, who was a tremendous member of the Squadron last year and is with us as a two-way player,” Griffin explained. “We don’t need him to be able to play minutes immediately with us, and so he’ll be able to continue his progression there, which excites us. Liam’s got the potential to be a meaningful NBA center on both sides of the floor. So, getting to leave a player of that caliber there is good for us and will be significant for the development of the Squadron. Whereas before we couldn’t use it like that, we’re at a critical juncture where we’ll benefit from it more.”

Saint says the roles of the two-way players in Birmingham will be well-defined this time out.

“The two-ways that we’ll have in Birmingham on any assignments will all be at different positions,” he said. “So, they’ll all get a lot of time, and that’s the whole point of this. We want to win, and for the players here to be a conduit of winning down here so they can be a conduit of winning with the Pelicans.

“But it’s really about developing the young guys so they can eventually play big games and make contributions for New Orleans down the line – this year or the year after.”

The 2023-24 Birmingham coaching staff includes newcomers Joe Barrer, Jonathan Mitchell and Jalen Cannady, and Adam Barnes takes over the role of general manager of basketball operations.

“Joe was the former head coach of the Lakeland (now Osceola) Magic, and he beat us three times last year,” Saint said.  “It’s a huge addition to get a former head coach who sees the game in a unique way and is a super high character person.

“Jodie Meeks is back in his second year and has 10-plus years as an NBA player, and we just added Jonathan Mitchell, who was on the (2007) Florida national championship team. The thing that’s really neat about those three assistants is Jonathan won a title in college as a player, Jodie won an NBA championship as a player with the Toronto Raptors, and Joe won a G league title with the Lakeland Magic as an assistant.”

The Squadron is shifting to the Eastern Conference for 2023-24 and will face six new opponents for the first time in franchise history – the Cleveland Charge, Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Motor City Cruise, Long Island Nets, Westchester Knicks and Windy City Bulls.

Birmingham opens the season at home against the Austin Spurs on November 10 as part of the G League’s Showcase Cup. The Squadron finished 11-21 in the 2022-23 regular season and 6-12 in Cup play.

Before a new G League campaign, though, local fans will get to see Pelicans stars of the future and present (such as Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram) when New Orleans plays the Houston Rockets at Legacy Arena on October 12 in an NBA exhibition game.

Last year’s preseason clash between the Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks was a sellout, and tickets for next month’s matchup are already on sale.

“We’ve got some local guys with ties there who really look forward to coming back,” Griffin said. “Obviously, Herb Jones and Kira (former Alabama Crimson Tide standouts) will be a big part of what we’re doing, and I would expect you’d see both of them in this game fairly liberally.”

Tickets can be purchased through the Squadron website birmingham.gleague.nba.com or by calling 205-719-0850.