LV’s ABA franchise taking shape

Victoria Sun

Friday, Jan. 21, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

Here are a few rules that make the ABA 2000 unique:

3-D Rule: Any turnover made by a team in the backcourt after a made basket that is converted into a basket by the defensive team will be worth three points. If a converted basket is a 3-pointer, it will be worth four points.

Red cards: A flagrant foul will draw a red card from the referee resulting in an automatic ejection and one-game suspension.

Shirted player: If a player fouls out of a game, he may return as a "shirted player" with a special jersey. If a "shirted player" commits any additional fouls, each foul will be a technical foul.

Shot clock: 30 seconds.

Referees: Only two.

Las Vegas may or may not be getting an NBA franchise in the future.

But the city is one of 10 that will be home to an American Basketball Association 2000 team.

ABA 2000 officials wrapped up two days of meetings today at the Hard Rock hotel-casino to discuss the professional basketball league that will begin play this November.

Since the league's inception last March, a goal of co-founders Dick Tinkham, Joe Newman, Salvatore Fradella and Steven Jazola has been to have an ethnically diverse group of team owners. The teams in Detroit, Jacksonville, Fla., and Chicago have black owners and the franchise in Tampa, Fla., has significant black ownership.

Art Blackwell, owner of the Detroit Dogs, thinks the ABA 2000 is setting a good example.

"In the NBA, NFL and in Major League baseball, the players are predominantly African-American, but until (now) with Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards, the owners are predominantly white," Blackwell said on Thursday.

"If we are going to get to a place in America where color does not matter, we need to show young people, not only from a playing standpoint, but from a coaching, management and front office standpoint as well, that minorities can do it all."

The ABA 2000 differs from the Continental Basketball Association and the first-year International Basketball League in several ways, including player salaries.

While a CBA player makes roughly $22,000 a year and IBL players make about $50,000, ABA 2000 players will be paid significantly more. There is no hard salary cap in the ABA 2000 and officials are confident that they will attract the most talented players.

Dr. Brad Rothermel, the former UNLV athletic director and current president/general manager of the Las Vegas franchise -- which is tentatively called the Neon -- said that Las Vegas players will make an average yearly salary of $200,000.

So although the CBA is the official developmental league for the NBA, Rothermel thinks that the ABA 2000 money will be enough to steer players toward the new league and keep others from playing overseas or in the other minor leagues.

"You'd like to think that if you pay an employee five times as much, you're going to get the better employee," Rothermel said.

In addition, ABA 2000 is negotiating a television contract with the Mizlou Network. The CBA and IBL do not have a TV deal.

In the IBL, once a player signs a contract, he is locked in for a full year. So even if an NBA team wants to pick him up he is technically not allowed to leave. In the ABA 2000, players who sign a contract will be allowed to make the leap to the NBA.

"There are no restrictions," Newman said. "I think that's the way it should be in the free-enterprise system."

The NBA and the ABA 2000 are already locked into a battle over the use of the ABA name.

Last December, the NBA filed a lawsuit against the ABA 2000 for trademark infringement.

The original ABA was formed in 1967 with 11 teams and folded in 1976 with six teams. That same year, the NBA agreed to admit ABA franchises Indiana, Denver, San Antonio and New York, upping the number of NBA teams at the time to 22.

The NBA claims that because it absorbed those four ABA teams that it also took over rights to the name.

The 60-game ABA 2000 season will be played from November through April with 30 home and 30 away games for each team.

"We are going to mandate to each of the owners that they set aside 3,000 tickets spread throughout the arena, including the front row, for senior citizens, disabled, military, parents with children and dating teenagers for $6 or $7 a piece," Newman said.

Rothermel said that the Las Vegas franchise has agreed in principal to play at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Las Vegas team is currently owned by Shawn Aiken, Kirk Kroloff and In Flight Sports Management, all based in Phoenix. But Rothermel said he will spend the next month trying to secure local ownership of the team.

Aiken and the others have agreed to sell the franchise if Rothermel finds a local owner. The asking price is an estimated $8 million.

The first ABA 2000 draft is scheduled for June or July. Before then, Rothermel will be looking for a head coach.

Although Rothermel said he has talked to former UNLV and current Fresno State head coach Jerry Tarkanian, who led the Rebels to the 1990 NCAA championship, the search is wide open.

"We would like Jerry Tarkanian to be associated with our franchise in some capacity," Rothermel said. "It would be foolish for us not to want to include him."

ABA 2000 teams will also be located in Long Island, N.Y., Anaheim, Calif., Kansas City, Buffalo, N.Y., and San Jose, Calif.