Fast Break Basketball

You Can’t Coach Basketball, You Just Play it,” Dr. James Naismith

Part 5, “Africa-America, Get a Piece of the Basketball Pie”

Years after Dr. James Naismith invented basketball he became the first basketball coach of the University of Kansas. In 1907, Dr. Forrest C. “Phog” Allen became Head Basketball coach for the University of Kansas. Allen was a former player of Naismith’s, but they disagreed on how the game of basketball should be played. Naismith believed, “You can’t coach basketball, you just play it.” Allen’s desire to prove his mentor wrong drove him and through his success and an unrivaled coaching tree, Allen is called the “The Father of Basketball Coaching.” Today, the way basketball is played, by the majority of high schools, colleges and professional teams in the United States, echoes the influence of Coach Phog Allen. Allen’s dedication shaped the evolution of basketball in a manner, which deviated from Dr. Naismith vision.

John McClendon was also mentored by Dr. Naismith. As an African American, John McClendon was not allowed to participate on the University of Kansas’ basketball team; he learned the game of basketball from conversations with Naismith. Today, McClendon is honored in both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame. His entire coaching career was one of breaking through obstacles and opening doors for other black coaches and players. McClendon applied Naismith’s philosophy that you just play basketball with the creation of the first fast-break system. McClendon encouraged his players to shoot the ball every 8 seconds, stressed that basketball was to be played baseline to baseline and encouraged the pressure full-court defense. The fast pace, up and down game of basketball is not encouraged in today’s institutional basketball and is often times associated with “streetball’ or “playground basketball.” Suggesting that little skill, discipline or control is required to play fast break basketball.

Dr. Naismith taught John McLendon that basketball was to be played baseline to baseline with fast pace action. Coach McLendons teams were taught to shoot the ball within 8 seconds. When I played for Loyola Marymount University our men’s basketball program established a NCAA record three consecutive years for team average for points scored per game. I have played in a successful fast break system.

So consider with me a better game of basketball, especially for today’s modern athlete, a game with no time outs, a continuous clock and substitutions made during play. Add these elements to the rules, remove the backboard, reduce the shot clock by a few seconds and you have a game more aligned with Dr. Naismith vision. A game that is faster and more challenging than any version of basketball currently being played.

Fast break basketball combined with soccer and hockey inspired rules, minus the backboard equals Basketball-the-Remix, “The Modern Interpretation of the Original Game” The vision of basketball-the-remix is basketball-the-remix is to become the number one competitive recreational basketball brand in the world. Support efforts to grow basketball-the-remix. Like Basketball-the-remix on Facebook or follow us on twitter @bballremix.com.

Harry Haskell “Bucky” Lew became the first African-American to play in a professional basketball game on November 2, 1902.

Harry Haskell “Bucky” Lew became the first African-American to play in a professional basketball game on November 2, 1902. Nearly eight years later in October 1910, Major A. Hart revolutionized basketball by organizing the first black owned and operated professional basketball team. This was the first time a manager stockpiled the best talent on one team. Then Cumberland Posey organized, managed and played for the most dominant basketball team in the mid-1920’s, the Loendi Big Five, which won four straight Colored Basketball World Championships. Posey, considered the best basketball player of his era, won five Colored Basketball World Championships with two separate teams, the Homestead Grays and the Loendi Big Five.

African-Americans were organizing, managing, playing and becoming wealthy from professional basketball for almost 50 years before the inception of the National Basketball Association. Three years after Bucky Lew played his first professional basketball game he owned several teams based in his hometown of Lowell Massachusetts; Lew played and coached into the early 1950s. He made significant contributions to both the integration of basketball and society as a whole. Black basketball, like the Negro Baseball League, deemed engaging in civic and social causes crucial to balancing being paid to play and many teams had reciprocal relationships with local churches and businesses. Most black basketball players and teams operated with a deep understanding of how their efforts positively impacted African-Americans’ fight for justice and equality.

Robert “Bob” Douglas, the owner and coach of the famous Harlem Rens, is the first African-American to have a paid, full-time basketball team and is considered the “Father of Black Professional Basketball” due largely to his innovative management style. In the 1935, Douglas scored a recruitment coop when he signed New York Public School Athletic League standout John Isaac, right out of high school. Douglas paid Isaac a $150.00 a month with an additional $3.00 a day for meal money. Today, that is the equivalent of paying an 18-year-old $2,500.00 a month to play basketball along with a $50.00 per diem. There was a great deal of money to be made by blacks in basketball then and the same is true today.

African-American basketball entrepreneurs continue to profit from the sport through the organization and operation of summer pro-leagues, recreational leagues and tournament promotions. Another handful of African-American businesspersons are keeping the legacy of the black basketball franchise alive including: Demetrius Spencer, CEO of BallUp Streetball, Ben Stevens, President of Blacktop Battle Championship and world-renowned dunker, Kenny Dobbs Founder of Ball Is Life Entertainment.

Considering that the Sports & Recreation industry generates over $410 Billion dollars a year in the United States alone combined with the tension surging between African American athletes and current collegiate and professional systems, I am convinced of the emerging opportunity that exists for entrepreneurs with the right, disruptive business model. Basketball-the-remix is just such a business model. Together we can change more than the game of basketball; we can change the way the game’s billion dollar profits are distributed.
Show your support for basketball-the-remix. Like the Facebook page, basketball-the-remix and follow on twitter @bballremix.

Check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 of African-America Get A Piece of the Basketball Pie at www.basketballtheremix.com

“Its time for us to organize and give the ownership back to their players … All royalties from all distribution deals, that has to come back home to use…” Donye Mitchell, ballerstatus.,com, 2008

In 2005, AND1 sold to American Sporting Goods, Inc. for an undisclosed amount. According to founder, Seth Berger, the shoe and apparel company grossed $285 million in 2004 inclusive of licensing revenues. AND1, founded in 1993, grossed a million dollars in their first year of operation; by the launch of the Mixed Tape Tour in 1997, annual revenues exceeded $40 million. Seven years later AND1 was the streetball brand for a generation and the company’s revenues had grown 400% to $220 million. I estimate that between AND1’s inception in 1993 and its sale to American Sporting Goods 12 years later, AND1 generated over a billion dollars in revenue.

Seth Berger walked away from a company that built a solid life-style brand among one of merchandisers most sought after audiences ~ the urban market. Berger reasoned that AND1 had maximized its potential and could not compete with billion dollar companies like Nike, Reebok and Adidas. I think Berger walked away from the increasingly negative image AND1 had developed with professional basketball and in the mainstream media. Regardless of Berger’s reasons, when he left AND1, the company was on pace to generate a billion dollars in revenue every three to four years.

Many have attempted to build on AND1’s accomplishments, but to date no business has been able duplicate ether the brand awareness or revenue of AND1. Urban basketball, at its core, is a lifestyle. The participants in this life-style are global, vibrant, dynamic and influential. Like the Harlem Globetrotters before them, AND1 took the urban basketball story and game around the world. With the decline of AND1, Nike has stepped in and like they did with action sports, positioned themselves as the dominate company in streetball. Nike generates over $19 billion dollars annually, with the Jordan Brand alone generating $1 billion in annual revenues. The urban basketball niche is clearly a billion dollar market unto itself.

It’s the disjointed, billion dollar, global urban basketball (streetball) market that Basketball-the-Remix exists to serve. Our vision is that basketball-the-remix will become the world’s number one competitive recreational basketball brand by promoting the integrity of intense competition over showmanship. The market clearly exists. With your support, basketball-the-remix will provide alternative opportunities for athletes and others who desire to work within the sports entertainment industry.

Support Basketball-the-Remix by liking our Facebook Fan pager: Basketball-the-Remix or following on twitter @bballremix

“Why do African-American’s continue to support athletic-economic models that do not benefit our communities?” Change the Game Change Communities

In a 2009 article entitled, The NCAA Slaves, written by Andrew Cline for The American Spectator, Cline ask the question, “How much of the $700 million dollars the NCAA will earn from March Madness will be paid out to the participating athletes?”  We know the answer is $0!   The exploitation of college athlete’s is mind blowing.  Did you know in exchange for an athletic scholarship a player signs over his rights to the NCAA for perpetuity.  So while the NCAA continues to make money from the video games featuring great college basketball teams and players from the 80’s and 90’s, not a penny in royalties is paid out to the athlete.  A college athlete cannot even start a website to cash in on his own image or notoriety.

In an interview a 2011PBS interview with Sonny Vaccaro, Vaccaro shared how he help start the commercialization of college basketball, his regrets and what he is doing now to help athletes get a fair shake today.

The vision I have for basketball-the-remix is to leverage the game of basketball to positively impact the communities we serve. Positively impacting the person, the people and the pocketbook! Our kids are the cornerstone of a multi-billion dollar industry, but how much of these billions makes it back to our communities?

Support my effort to “Change the Game, Change Communities” by like the Basketball-the-Remix Facebook fan page or follow us on twitter @bballremix.

Part 2 of African-America Get A Piece of the Basketball Pie, Part 2 of 12

Five corporations, the NBA, NCAA, FIBA, Euroleague and Nike, are the primary beneficiaries of the enormous wealth generated by College and professional basketball. Forbes magazine reported that the total value of just the NBA’s franchises exceeded $10 billion in The Business of Basketball, a December 2008 article by Kurt Badenhausen, Michael K. Ozanian and Christina Settimi. According to Badenhausen et al, league wide revenues soared to a record $3.8 billion in the 2007/08 season. To put that kind of cash in perspective, it equates to a stack of dollar bills more than 215 miles high. The NBA’s annual revenues exceed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Barbados and 43 other nations; American sport is number 11 of the top 25 industries contributing to the U.S. GDP. Like the profits, the sport’s opportunities are mind-boggling.

International asset management group WR Hambrecht + Co., reported in 2011 that the Sports and Recreation industry earns approximately $410 Billion dollars per year or 3 percent of the GDP. Fans shell out more than $22 billion to enjoy their favorite spectator sports; a market share that will likely increase as baby-boomers continue to age. The vision of Basketball-the-Remix is to provide African American entrepreneurs and communities a greater opportunity to reap a fair share of those profits.

Sports profits are not only soaring, but the industry is also exerting significant social influence. The average cost of a college education in the U.S. as of 2011 was $25,000 per year (taking the aggregate of instate, out of state and private colleges and universities). There are approximately 7,200 men’s scholarships and 9,300 women’s scholarships awarded to U.S. college and university basketball players annually; making the value of the collegiate basket scholarships awarded in the United States nearly a half billion dollars.

Dr. James Naismith invented Basketball with the intent of changing lives; more than any other, the game continues to fulfill and in amazing ways exceed Dr. Naismith’s vision. Basketball positively impacts millions of young, and young at heart, lives every day in gyms, backyards and on playgrounds across the country. Basketball, which is uniquely and fairly associated with the African American community, African American culture and African American athletes, is as American as peanuts and Cracker Jacks. It was a pivotal platform of the civil rights movement; Texas Western changed the game forever with its defeat of Kentucky in the 1966 NCAA finals. Basketball provides thousands with access to higher education, offers many the chance to travel and compete around the globe and is a largely untapped source of opportunity for employment and entrepreneurial involvement. Basketball-the-Remix is the leverage to participation in the very lucrative recreational driven segment of the Sports industry.

“Basketball-the-Remix is the number one competitive recreational basketball brand in the world.” Together we can make that statement reality; our support of Basketball-the-Remix will create additional economic opportunities for urban athletes. Get in the game; Like Basketball-the-Remix on Facebook, follow on twitter at @bballremix and follow our blog at http://basketballtheremix.com.

World Peace doesn’t like the corporate takeover of street basketball

“It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.” – Soren Kieregaard

Today I celebrate my forty-sixth birthday and today another young African American male is killed senselessly.  What is crazy is that this statement stands true no matter the name attached.  As an African man born in America, I am blessed to be alive.

Kieregaard’s quote resonates in my soul because I dream. People who know me say I am a creative thinker, quick with an idea. Give me the pertinent factors and I will give you a viable solution. I’m a holistic thinker and take time to consider thoughts that many people would dismiss as unreasonable.

Possible is defined: “Capable of happening, existing, or being true without contradicting proven facts, laws, or circumstances.” I am obsessed with the possibility of African-Americans supporting and sustaining their own niche basketball market. Consider:
• African-Americans supported and sustained “Negro” baseball and basketball leagues
for decades until the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson and the birth of the National
Basketball Association.
• African-Americans have also created, supported and sustained diverse non-sport niche
markets in media (Black Enterprise, Johnson Publications), Music (Jazz, R&B, Hip-
Hop), cosmetics, clothing and public relations.

Fact: The current economic climate has resulted in laws that encourage and undergird small
business development. Timing is perfect for establishing a new niche basketball market and
the potential rewards are phenomenal. The challenge is inspiring the committed support from
African-Americans required to create, grow and sustain niche basketball leagues and players.

Over the next several months, I am going to share the ideas and possibilities discussed in
my book, Change the Game Change Communities. African-America is ripe for a return of
professional basketball that speaks to the unique style, needs and experience of our communities.

So why should African-America want to support a new basketball market? In a word: Survival.

Simply, we must create new activities and opportunities that protect, occupy and teach our young black men with the goal of ensuring they are fully prepared for launch into successful lives.
• Sport has demonstrated ability to pull nations together.
• Basketball has demonstrated ability to bring communities together and set African-
American men on a positive path.  Currently the African-American contribution to basketball significantly dwarfs the return African-American individuals and communities reap or have historically reaped in the form of
wealth.

Esau sold his birthright for paltry gratification. Have African-Americans sold their birthright to wealth through athletics? Did the pursuit of integration into white leagues severely undercut the profit potential that exists for individuals and communities in competing against instead of playing for existing league system? Modern sports’ fans want exciting players and intense competition; a high-energy niche basketball league can build and hold a following. Bring the thrills, bring the talent, bring passionate competition and you can be a league of purple and pink
players. If you can ball, people will watch. Period.

It’s said that if you can conceive and then believe in an idea, you can achieve the idea. These next few months I hope to engage you in intensive dialogue about the future of an African American supported  niche basketball. Together, I know, we can move the idea of African-Americans supporting a new basketball sport from possibility to reality.

Traditional basketball is a managed game, like football and baseball, taking much of the flow out of the game and all of the control out of the players hands.   In a game that inspires players to “just play,”  the influence of “in game coaching” has hindered the evolution of the game and the players.  One of the reason streetball is so popular is the simple fact that there are no coaches controlling the game.  The players control the game, the players have the responsibility to make the right decision within split seconds as the clock winds down, not the coach.   Honestly, if this approach can work in soccer, hockey, ruby and lacrosse, the same approach can work with basketball.  It will make for a more exciting game!

I make it a habit to surf the Internet to uncover any information that provides insight into street basketball (streetball).  I came across an article by Thomas Beller in which he describe his personal passion and history with streetball.  It is a great read.  For those of us who have battled on the playground, we will relate and be drawn to our own memories of playground battles.  For others whose only perspective of streetball has been crafted by self proclaimed corporate stewards, this article will provide insight into how one develops a relationship with the game of basketball.  Enjoy the read!