Category: Basketball

The good news is, guard Jared Harper and forwards Zylan Cheatham and Malcolm Hill have been called up to the NBA from the Birmingham Squadron.

The bad news is, guard Jared Harper and forwards Zylan Cheatham and Malcolm Hill have been called up to the NBA from the Birmingham Squadron.

Of course, the main point of the NBA G league is to help players advance to basketball’s highest level, so to that end the team is certainly doing its job when it loses out on top talent. Harper (21.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game) has signed a Two-Way Contract with the Squadron’s parent club, the New Orleans Pelicans; Cheatham (14.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.15 steals per game) is headed to the Miami Heat on a 10-day contract; and Malcolm Hill (16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game) has agreed to a 10-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks. Cheatham and Hill benefited from hardship exemption rules which have been eased due to Covid-19 health and safety protocols in the NBA.

In the case of Harper, fans who come to Legacy Arena in 2022 should still get to see the former Auburn star play. Four years ago NBA rosters expanded from 15 to 17 players with the addition of two spots for players under “Two-Way Contracts.” Those players spend most of the season in the G League and not more than 45 days with their NBA team. They’re paid a corresponding daily amount based on the number of days they play in each league, and these spots are open only for players with four or fewer years of NBA service. The Two-Way Contract is for either one or two seasons.

Thing is, not a single man on the roster wants to spend any more time in Birmingham than he has to, which is not a knock on the city at all, just the nature of developmental ball. So when players get to make the jump, they jump at the chance.

But Ryan Pannone and his staff still want to win games, and a team that has reeled off seven victories in a row on the way to a 9-5 record in the Winter Showcase now has some reshuffling ahead. First, though, they get to hit the reset button.

After the in-season tourney to start the 2021-22 campaign, the teams wipe the state clean and start at 0-0 going into a 36-game regular season. Thus, the Squadron and every other club in the circuit now get a second chance to make a good first impression.

The regular season begins in El Segundo, California, when the Squadron takes on the South Bay Lakers on December 28. Birmingham will play its first six games on the road before returning to the Magic City on Saturday, January 8, to tangle with the Iowa Wolves at 7 p.m. In six home games the Squadron has averaged 2,855 fans per night.

Among returning players who have appeared in all of Birmingham’s games, guard Joe Young is the leading scorer with 14.7 points per game.

While the United States Football League helped pioneer the opposite season gridiron game, we shouldn’t forget the United States Basketball League, which did the same for roundball.

But while the USFL was three and out, the USBL hung on the rim for 22 years – all things considered, a pretty darn impressive feat.

The USBL was founded on December 20, 1984, by investor Daniel T. Meisenheimer III. He had no illusions about the USBL stealing talent from the NBA or competing against the senior circuit in any way. Instead, he simply wanted to offer more basketball to more people.

“Our goal is to bring affordable basketball to towns where the NBA doesn’t normally play,” Meisenheimer told the Associated Press. “We will be a realistically priced ($5 per seat) entertainment company and we’ll be an alternative to movies during the summer. We draw the people that maybe can’t afford to plunk down $30 for a (New York) Knicks game.”

The plan was to start with eight teams in 1985 – Atlanta, Long Island, Boca Raton, Atlantic City, Providence, New Haven, Springfield (Massachusetts) and White Plains (New York). NBA legend Walt Frazier was the owner of the Atlanta franchise.

“There’s more than enough talent around,” Frazier said. “We can get the players to make the league exciting. We can keep the players from going to Europe to play. After all, they are products of the U.S.”

The USBL was also looking for local organizers in Boston and Baltimore and hoped to eventually add franchises in Los Angeles, Utah, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and 10 other major markets.

Costs would be contained due to a $250,000 salary cap for each team, while a May draft would target local talent.

“Each team owner will be given a list of potential players who we feel will be most likely to play in our league,” Meisenheimer said. “Some players might want to play in our league and prove themselves to offer some visibility to the NBA for the future.

“The league will be considered a Triple-A plus farm system to the NBA.”

The regular season, starting in June, would consist of 40-50 games with playoffs beginning in September.

Now, this is where such stories usually end … a lack of funding causes the league to delay it launch for a year, then another year, then the upstart circuit that never actually started is quickly forgotten.

But that was not the case with the USBL.

It did, in fact, hit the court in 1985, although the lineup and location of the teams had changed. The charter franchises in Year One were the Connecticut (New Haven) Colonials; New Jersey (Jersey City) Jammers; Long Island Knights; Rhode Island (Warwick) Gulls; Springfield (Massachusetts) Fame; Westchester (New York) Golden Apples; and Wildwood (New Jersey) Aces.

The season consisted of 25 games and no postseason and Springfield, with a league-best 19-6 record, was declared USBL champions.

“We hope to have 30-40 franchises in three or four years,” Meisenheimer, who also owned the Long Island team, told the New York Daily News. “You may laugh, but we don’t want to grow and bypass the National Basketball Association. We think of ourselves as the fast food franchise of sports. And why not? Before McDonald’s, there was not fast food franchising.”

Manute Bol was one of the players during the inaugural season, and several with NBA experience – including Eddie Lee Wilkins and Sam Worthen – played on 1985 USBL teams.

And this was not a semi-pro venture. Bol got $25,000 for 25 games and other salaries ranged from $5,000 to $10,000.

The Daily News caught up with St. John’s point guard Mike Moses, who followed up a Final Four appearance with a USBL stint.

“I couldn’t think of a better summer job right after graduation,” Moses said.

That fact that the USBL had a measure of success right out of the gate was even more remarkable considering it was competing with both NBA summer leagues and the Continental Basketball Association, the official minor league pipeline to the NBA.

The league lost two teams but added three in 1986 (including two based in Florida) and made bigger headlines by signing “Lady Magic” Nancy Lieberman.  Lieberman, who played for Springfield, became the first woman to play in a men’s professional basketball league. A year later she moved on to the Long Island Knights while another woman, Lynette Richardson, signed with Miami.

Ultimately the league would also draft Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo, and in 1991 Sandhi Ortiz-DelValle became the first woman to officiate a men’s game when she worked the New Haven-Philadelphia tilt.

Despite long odds and competition from more established leagues, the USBL managed to play on year after year. The 1996 season was especially interesting, with the league going public with stock offerings and featuring one of the more unique moments in sports history. On June 15, boxer Roy Jones Jr. scored five points in helping the Jacksonville Barracudas defeat Treasure Coast, 107-94, then later that night stopped Eric Lucas in the 11^th round to retain his IBF super middleweight title.

Of course, franchise turnover was common; if you want to play the name game, there were 79 different nicknames and almost as many cities during the course of the circuit’s existence. But the league was innovative and served as a good training ground for future NBA players, with 60 spending time in the little league that could – and did.

On July 1, 2007, the Kansas Cagerz defeated the Brooklyn Kings, 95-92, to win the USBL championship in a clash that would prove to be the league’s final game.

The NBA Developmental League (now G League) was formed in 2001, and teams in Europe and Asia began snatching up more and more American players, eventually leaving the USBL the odd league out.

But when you speak of it, speak well. It did what it set out to do, and lasting more than two decades is a sign of success, not failure. The United States Basketball is no more, but it was far more than a footnote in basketball history.

Birmingham and Memphis have a long-standing relationship in professional sports.

The Birmingham Barons and Memphis Egyptians started the rivalry in 1903 in the Southern Baseball Association, while the Birmingham Black Barons and Memphis Red Sox began playing each other in the Negro National League in 1924. As members of the Southern League, the towns went head-to-head for decades.

The cities have also competed in several football leagues. The Birmingham Americans and Birmingham Vulcans faced the Memphis Southmen in the World Football League; the Birmingham Stallions met the Memphis Showboats in the United States Football League; the Birmingham Barracudas and Memphis Mad Dogs shared a division in the Canadian Football League; the Birmingham Bolts and Memphis Maniax opened the 2001 XFL season against each other; and the Birmingham Iron and Memphis Express lifted the lid on the Alliance of American Football campaign in 2019.

And continuing the football theme, Birmingham Legion FC and Memphis 901 FC currently compete against each other in the USL Championship.

Finally, the Mississippi River Kings (located in the Memphis suburb of Southaven, Mississippi) skated against the Birmingham Bulls in the Southern Professional Hockey League up until 2018.

But professional basketball?

I was all set to declare Monday night’s NBA G League clash between the Birmingham Squadron (5-5 in the Showcase Cup) and Memphis Hustle (6-4) a moment of living history, marking the first time professional roundballers representing these great Southern cities had ever met on the hardwood.

But a bit of research reveals that isn’t the case.

In fact, Birmingham and Memphis played each other for the first time in a play-for-pay hoops contest on December 8, 1947.

With player/coach Wheeler Flemming leading the way with 19 points, the visiting Birmingham Vulcans trounced the Memphis Legionnaires, 62-43, in a Southern Professional Basketball League game.

Birmingham never trailed and Flemming – also a minor league baseball player – got help from Bobby O’Brien, who scored 15 points, and guards Manuel Dorsky and Bubba Ball, who accounted for 11 points apiece.

Bob Murphy was high-point man for the hosts and led all scorers with 21 points.

Wheeler Flemming was an all-state product from Ramsey High School and starred at Samford (then Howard) University, and his brother, Frank, was also on the Vulcans’ roster.

Murphy was a Menlo (California) Junior College standout who was one of the most dominant scorers in the SPBL.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal the game was played before a small crowd at the Shelby County Arena located at the state fairgrounds, but sportswriter Emmett Maum made it sound exciting – at least for Birmingham fans:

“Birmingham Vulcans gave a basketball exhibition reminiscent of the old New York Celtics last night by passing the Memphis Legionnaires dizzy to win, 62-43.”

That was high praise, indeed. The New York Celtics (also known as the Original Celtics) were a barnstorming team that won championships in both the Eastern Basketball League and American Basketball League.

Ironically, Wheeler Flemming was on the Howard team that stunned the Celtics, 54-43, during a 1943 exhibition played at Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham.

As for the SPBL, it was formed on August 10, 1947, in Birmingham, with the idea of bringing minor league basketball to the Deep South. News reports had player salaries ranging from $400 to $600 per month.

The nation’s major leagues at the time were the National Basketball League, which had been formed in 1937, and the Basketball Association of America, founded in 1946 (the NBL and BBA merged in 1948 and was rebranded the National Basketball Association).

The American Basketball League (founded in 1925) was also still playing, but had been overshadowed by the NBL and BAA.

Yet none of those leagues had franchises anywhere near the southeast, so the Southern League set out to fill that void. The original SPBL lineup featured the Birmingham Vulcans, Gadsden Whiz Kids, Jackson Senators, Memphis Legionnaires, Mobile Bears, Montgomery Rebels and Nashville Vols.

The void would be filled for only two seasons.

With most of the teams facing financial woes and teams playing before miniscule crowds, the SPBL disbanded after its second season.

The Vulcans folded at the end of the 1947-48 campaign and were replaced by the Birmingham Steelers the following season, while the Legionnaires relocated to Mobile on January, 1948.

Before all the drama the Vulcans and Legionnaires played four times, with Birmingham winning three of the four including the last played on January 9, 1948. The Vulcans won that one, 73-71, in front of 400 fans at the National Guard Armory. Frank Flemming scored 27 points for the hosts and Murphy led Memphis with 31.

Seventy-four years and five days after the Vulcans and Legionnaires started it, the Squadron and Hustle continue the basketball rivalry between Birmingham and Memphis Monday at Legacy Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.