Barnstorm Basketball
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The phone call bothered him. He was unable to sleep, unable to relax and unable to focus on the start of the longest road trip of the season.
As a Yakima Sun King, Rosell Ellis will barnstorm the country and play seven basketball games in 14 days, but his mind is stuck in Seattle.
As if caught in a loop, his life is being replayed. Except this time, Ellis is better able to see the missteps that have brought him here, to Sioux Falls, of all places.
If his life were a movie, his younger brother Tim would play the leading role.
They are so much alike, in appearance and ability. They are tall and thin, and both wear their hair in corn rows. They share mannerisms and share clothes whenever Rosell is in Seattle.
Like his brother, Tim is a gifted basketball player. He followed Rosell's footsteps to Rainier Beach High School, but now he's at a crossroads.
Tim has potential, but no direction.
Rosell has been where his brother is right now. He knows the way to go, but deep down he also knows Tim won't make the right decision, just as he didn't make the right decision seven years ago.
And that's killing him.
"That was him that just called," Rosell said as he slipped his cell phone into his pocket. "They have a game tonight in the state tournament and that's all he wanted to talk about, but I asked what's going on with that SAT. He didn't want to talk about that."
Rosell knows that without a passing score on the college entrance exam, Tim will soon find his way here. To the middle of nowhere. To Sioux Falls, of all places, and the Continental Basketball Association.
For many, it's a place where dreams die. For a few, the league provides salvation. But everyone who has ever played in the CBA says the same thing.
"You don't want to come here and stay for a long time," Rosell said. "If you're here, you want to get out as quickly as possible."
Get in and get out like John Starks, the NBA guard who spent a year in the CBA before finding fame with the New York Knicks. Or like Mario Elie, who started his professional career for the now-defunct Albany Patroons before winning NBA titles with Houston and San Antonio.
And then there's Eldridge Recasner.
He's been gone for nearly five years, but his memory lingers around Yakima. There are plans to induct him into the team's Hall of Fame, retire his jersey and hang it from the rafters of the Sun Dome, home of the Sun Kings.
Recasner was a four-year starter for the Washington Huskies and became a CBA star in Yakima after winning the Most Valuable Player award and leading the Sun Kings to a league championship in 1995.
He signed with the Denver Nuggets that year and played the next season with the Houston Rockets, then two years with Atlanta. He plays now for the Charlotte Hornets.
Recasner, Elie and Starks are among the success stories, but there is another side to the CBA.
There are the can't-miss NBA prospects who somehow miss and need a place to rebound. There are aging veterans like Benoit Benjamin who will end their careers away from the spotlight.
And there are the novelty acts, such as 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins, 5-7 Spud Webb, and Percy Miller, a budding basketball player who is better known as multimillionaire entertainer Master P.
But the most common story belongs to James Cotton, the second-round draft pick of the Sonics in 1997. He had NBA potential, but played in only 19 games during his two years in Seattle.
When the Sonics underwent an overhaul last season, Cotton was released and other NBA teams said, "No, thanks." Cotton landed in the CBA, with the Sun Kings.
"It's a big adjustment mentally for guys who get sent down," Yakima Coach Paul Woolpert said. "They sometimes have this big ego, this inflated opinion of themselves and believe they don't have to work as hard once they get here. And that's a mistake."
Cotton was a long-range shooter with a sweet delivery, but he needed the help of others to thrive. He needed a pass-friendly point guard to feed him the ball or a coach who would make him the focus of the offense.
But the CBA is all about one-on-one play, where league rules prohibit double-teaming and promote high-scoring games. The ballhandlers are the stars. Speed is of more value than height and few players are taller than 6-10. And many players adopt an All-Star mentality of shoot first and pass only when necessary.
In this environment, Cotton struggled.
"He didn't have the quickness and foot speed to get past his guy or get any type of separation to get his shot off," Woolpert said. "And defensively, he got ate up."
After 10 weeks, Cotton was gone. He returned home to Long Beach, Calif., and started a trucking business.
That too, is the CBA.
The league mimics its big brother, the NBA, in every way. In terms of showmanship, basketball is still the main event, but the condiments are just as entertaining.
At a recent Sun King game in Sioux Falls, the cheerleaders dressed in glitzy, skimpy outfits. A costumed mascot threw basketballs into the stands during timeouts. The theme song from the game show Jeopardy! mixed with the latest rap tunes.
The game had ample excitement as the teams combined to score more than 200 points' worth of slam dunks, three-pointers and reverse layups, to the delight of the near-sellout crowd at Sioux Falls Arena.
Yakima won, 105-104.
The next morning, Sun King forward Carlos Daniel is pictured on the cover of the local newspaper getting his shot blocked, and a few teammates playfully tease him about the unflattering exposure.
The jokes fly from everywhere as they sit for two hours during a layover at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.
One popular myth about the CBA is the long bus rides, which used to be common a decade or so ago. Because of their Northwest location, the Sun Kings hardly ever ride the bus. They fly commercial airlines everywhere.
A trip from Sioux Falls, S.D., to Moline, Ill., saves three hours, but the Sun Kings arrive in town in the afternoon and are given the rest of the day off.
"You can't practice in this league because there's just no time for it," Woolpert said. "Our instruction, our teaching, that comes during shoot-around. But for the players to get better and to learn something, sometimes I don't know how that happens, because we don't practice.
""I expect them to know how to play the game when they get here. The only teaching we do is to get them to learn our philosophy. It's up to them to get better as a player."
The time off during road trips can be maddening.
Even on a team of 10, players break off into cliques and separate themselves by shared interests. A few Sun Kings are video junkies and they sit in hotel rooms for hours, playing Sony PlayStation or Nintendo 64. These are the married guys with children at home and a strong sense of family.
Others are entertained by a string of in-room movies, but most are attracted to the surprisingly vibrant nightlife of small towns that offers a host of crowded bars, coeds and alcohol.
During these times, the Yakima coaches stick to themselves. Rarely do they socialize with the players off the court. They dine at the area's best restaurants and talk basketball. The subject is always basketball.
This time the conversation gets heated when an outsider asks if a top college team could beat a CBA team.
Woolpert swallows hard as assistant Coach Bob Thornton blurts: "What? No way. No way, not at all. Even on your best college team, say Duke, you have one, maybe two guys starting who can play professionally.
"But in the CBA, you have professionals at every position. Almost everyone here was an All-American or all-conference or at least the star of their teams. . . . They wouldn't stand a chance. Not one. No way."
Woolpert nods. He smiles as if he knows a secret the rest of America has yet to discover. After 22 years since its inception, the CBA is still a mystery. Even the most devoted basketball aficionado would struggle to name a handful of players in this league.
Nearly every CBA player was a star in the past, but they are flawed by NBA standards. Something prevents them from making the next step. Maybe it's a limited jump shot. Or a perhaps they're a few inches too short.
Whatever the reason, they are stuck in basketball limbo and every one of them is looking for an exit. The maddening part is this: There's no blueprint to make the jump from the CBA to the NBA.
Starks, Elie and Recasner each took different routes.
Among the Sun Kings, forward Silas Mills has the best chance of making the leap. He's wiry and deceptively quick. He's a scorer with an array of shots, but no defense. Like many, he tends to get caught up in the statistics, and wonders how players who score less than his 17.6 average are chosen.
"The guys in this league go to the NBA and come off the bench," said Mark Warkentien, assistant general manager with the Portland Trail Blazers."They're going to be a 10-15 minute type of a guy. They won't have to score, but be a role player."
A large part of the process involves the networking that takes place during the summer at NBA camps. In essence, they're tryouts for players and chances for teams to make up-close evaluations.
But to play in America in the summer means sacrificing a season in Europe or South America, where non-NBA players can make the most money. That's why Mills played in the Philippines last summer and grossed nearly $200,000.
He has a wife and twin 3-year-old daughters at home in Salt Lake City. For him, the choice is simple. It's a family decision.
"I figure if I was offered $400,000 or almost half a million, I'm gone," he said. "I'm gone in a heartbeat. I have to. With two baby girls, I've got to take care of them."
The CBA offers dreams, but not riches. Most make between $20,000-$40,000 during their five months in the league, which begins play in November and concludes in April.
Still, the lifestyle can be addictive and satisfying for those with NBA aspirations. They live like today's NBA players, except without the amenities. They don't wear designer suits, instead covering their tattooed bodies with clothes bought off the rack at local malls.
Despite a limited budget, they spend money on expensive cars, cell phones and the latest electronic gadgets. And much like the NBA, players will admit that marijuana is the most popular vice. The CBA drug policy isn't as prohibitive as the NBA's, however.
The CBA, unlike the NBA, does not offer counseling on how to handle agents and female fans who are attracted to professional basketball players. Even in Smalltown, USA, groupies exist.
News of the Sun Kings' arrival in Davenport, Iowa, spread quickly and a few Yakima fans lingered in the lobby of the President's Casino Blackhawk Hotel. One woman drove 160 miles from La Crosse, Wis., to visit her favorite Sun King.
"The smaller the town, the more groupies there are," said the woman. "When you're in a small town, there's not much to do and here's a chance to spend time with somebody who might be famous one day."
This too is the CBA.
But it's just part of the story. It's the part that confounds Daniel, who is at times saddened and embarrassed by the actions of his teammates. Daniel calls the Sun Kings his second family and yet many times he feels like an outsider.
Occasionally, they fight like brothers. Rarely is Daniel included in the late-night activities.
Perhaps that's why he's the center of so many jokes. That's why he scribbles his favorite passage from the Bible on his basketball shoes. And that's why he telephones his parents every other day to provide an update of his time in basketball limbo.
"My mom gives me strength and she tells me, `You're not always going to fit in,' " said Daniel, a former Washington State player. "Sometimes you don't roll with everything that everybody does. So you're going to be a little bit different. And sometimes you're going to be ridiculed for whatever reason, and people are going to come down on you.
"But instead of lashing out or corrupting your character, you have to be your own person. You have to be strong and stay committed to your beliefs."
Daniel, like Ellis, is an oxymoron by NBA standards. They're 6-7 power forwards. They can work effectively inside in college and in the CBA, but their games wouldn't be effective in the NBA.
Ellis leads the league in shooting percentage and he's got better-than-average skills around the basket. But every time he grabs an offensive rebound, scores on a dunk or lay-in, he takes another step away from the NBA.
"How do you tell him that?" Woolpert asked. "How? You try. You say, `This summer, I want you to work on your perimeter game. Develop a mid-range shot that's consistent, because at 6-7 you're not going to make a living inside the paint in the NBA.'
"And when they come back from the summer, you can see what they did. . . . It's hard for them to change. When you've had success with one style for so long, it's hard to change. But if they don't, they'll never make it."
Woolpert's dreams of playing in the NBA died a long time ago. He didn't need the CBA to gauge his basketball potential. He had his father, Phil, who carved out a Hall of Fame coaching career at the University of San Francisco.
During the summer of 1983, after Paul had played at the University of Portland, they met for five weeks in the gymnasium every afternoon at the YMCA in their hometown of Port Angeles.
Paul had ideas of trying out for the Sonics, but after spending time with his dad on the court, he changed those plans and went to work for Boeing for 18 months.
Phil Woolpert never pushed his children into basketball, but Paul wanted to be a part of the game. His name was good enough to land him a job as a scout and video coordinator with the Sonics.
After eight years, Woolpert became a CBA assistant coach five years ago and took the Yakima job in January 1998.
Woolpert makes no pretense about his ability to coach. He's not as talented, and may never win 60 consecutive games like his father did. But then, his old man had Bill Russell at USF, and he's got a team filled with castoffs and rejects.
Woolpert spends more time soothing egos and building relationships than he does coaching. Sometimes it gets to be too much. Sometimes the reclamation project is too difficult and Woolpert has to let go.
It happened last month when Yakima released its best player, Art Long, who had been the only Sun King ranked among the CBA leaders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. But he wasn't a good enough player for the team to overlook his disruptive behavior.
"That's the hardest part about his job," Woolpert said. "Letting somebody go. You spend time with somebody and get involved in their lives, but sometimes you have to tell them it's over. That's the hardest thing. That and losing."
The players don't take losing as hard as Woolpert.
"There will be more games," Ellis said after a recent loss.
The road trip continued to Connecticut and Rockford, Ill., and concluded in Fort Wayne, Ind., last week. During the journey, the Sun Kings traveled nearly 10,000 miles and played seven games in 14 days.
Another week remains in the regular season. The playoffs begin soon and there's talk that the league's chairman and CEO, former NBA star Isiah Thomas, is finalizing a deal with ESPN to have the championship game televised.
A phone call to CBA headquarters debunks the rumor, but a league spokesman said there's talk about having the games shown live on Web TV.
But for now, it's just talk. ------------------------- Ghosts of CBAs past
Hundreds of players have moved from the CBA to the NBA, or the other way around. Here are some of the best, and most memorable:
Player Claim to fame
-------------------------------------
Billy Ray Bates Dunking machine signed with Blazers during '79-80 season
Rickey Green First former CBA player in an NBA All-Star game, 1984
Michael Adams Eight years later, little Nuggets guard followed Green
Spud Webb Former NBA dunk champ is finishing career in CBA
John Starks Another all-star; NBA career leader in playoff 3-pointers
Anthony Mason One year in CBA before finding a place with Knicks
Mario Elie Played overseas, USBL, WBL, CBA before making it in NBA
Matt Maloney Teamed up with Elie in Houston Rockets' backcourt
Eldridge Recasner Former Husky was a star in Yakima, now plays for Hornets
Jaren Jackson Has played parts of 5 CBA seasons; NBA title with Spurs
Tim Legler CBA veteran was NBA Long Distance Shootout winner in '96
Remember them? - Marvin "Bad News" Barnes. Former NBA stars Ralph Sampson, Darryl Dawkins, Cazzie Russell and Jo Jo White. North Carolina State hero Lo Charles. Former Seattle U. star Jawann Oldham, Portland State gunner Freeman Williams. Former Huskies Lorenzo Romar, Petur Gudmundsson and Richard Manning. Former Cougars Isaac Fontaine, Don Collins and Stu House. Manute Bol. Eighth-grade star Damon Bailey. UCLA national champs Ed O'Bannon and Trevor Wilson. Henry Bibby. Bo Kimble. That's right, they all played in the CBA.
CBA's coaching fraternity - Several former CBA coaches and players have become NBA coaches, most notably Phil Jackson and George Karl.
-------------------------
Sonics' CBA connection
Many spent their pro careers bouncing among the CBA, other U.S. pro leagues, Europe and 10-day NBA contracts. Some, as Craig Ehlo did and current Sonic Emanual Davis is hoping to do, have left the CBA behind for a permanent home in the NBA. Others, like Slick Watts and Marvin Webster, played in the CBA well after their NBA glory years. Some of the Sonics who played in the CBA, with their Sonics career years and final CBA season listed:
Player Sonics CBA
-----------------------------
Vincent Askew '92-96 '99
Benoit Benjamin '90-93 '99
James Cotton '97-99 '00
Quintin Dailey '89-92 '92
# Emanual Davis '99-00 '96
Craig Ehlo '96-97 '87
Sherell Ford '95-96 '99
Greg Graham '96-97 '99
John Lucas '88-89 '92
Scooter McCray '83-85 '88
Moochie Norris '98-99 '99
Gerald Paddio '92-93 '96
Steve Scheffler '92-97 '99
Slick Watts '73-78 '81
Marvin Webster '77-78 '87
Aaron Williams '97-99 '97
Al Wood '83-86 '90
# -current Sonic.
# # -current CBA player.
-------------------------
Yakima Sun Kings roster
.
Name Pos Ht College
Rosell Ellis F 6-7 McNeese State
Silas Mills F 6-7 Utah State
Raja Bell G 6-5 Florida International
Duane Cooper G 6-1 USC
David Harrison G 6-4 Campbellsille University
David Vanterpool G 6-5 St. Bonaventure
Ivano Newbill F/C 6-9 Georgia Tech
Carlos Daniel F 6-8 Washington Stat
e Rahsaan Smith C 6-11 Fresno State
Kevin Holland F 6-8 DePaul