Columnist Dean Juipe: Matchmaker seeks players for pro teams

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 | 10:29 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

At a glance, it looked suspicious.

Pay $100 to attend a basketball tryout camp with no promises, no assurances, no guarantees that the evaluators could ever place you with a professional team even if you had NBA talent? Rackets have been built on less.

With what little information was available in a brief that appeared in the paper back in December, prospective players from Las Vegas were first exposed to a company called Hoops Global. Only now, three months later and with a second tryout session scheduled here tonight, can the naturally skeptical be at least marginally pacified.

"We're looking for players beneath the radar screen," said Hoops Global's chief scout, former college and pro coach Kevin Mackey. "I call them BTAs -- players that are Better Than Advertised."

If Mackey's name rings a bell it's likely the result of his coaching stint at Cleveland State and its claim to fame for having been the team in 1986 that knocked Indiana out of the NCAA East Regional. That significant upset -- the No. 14 seed beat the No. 3 seed 83-79 -- was also the final game in the book "Season On The Brink," which was recently made into a movie.

"People still enjoy talking about it and get a kick out of the story," Mackey said, when asked if he tires of the inquiries he routinely faces on the subject.

But Mackey, 54, has greater concerns these days, and they're related to building Hoops Global's reputation as a matchmaker between unemployed players and teams from around the world who are in need of American talent.

"I've seen throwaway guys, guys off the garbage heap make it to the NBA," Mackey said, mentioning Darrell Armstrong, Michael Curry and Adrian Griffin as players he helped rescue who eventually landed in world's premier league. But let's not kid ourselves, Hoops Global is really looking for hidden gems who have the ability to make a living playing basketball in Europe and Asia.

"We go through the country looking for guys who can play," Mackey said. "Maybe we can find 10. Most, obviously, aren't good enough."

That means the majority pay their $100 only to be rejected.

"There are more players than jobs," Mackey said. "So I make it a point to stress to everyone that what they did in college means nothing and that it's a long, tough journey to find a job in pro basketball.

"But the dream dies hard for a lot of guys, and for those who do have professional ability we provide a tremendous opportunity."

At the local level, Hoops Global played no role in stocking Las Vegas' soon-to-succumb team in the ABA and Mackey said he has not had any contact with the doomed league. But the firm likes the idea of opening an office here and using Las Vegas as a base, although it presently operates out of San Diego.

Tonight, at a location Mackey preferred to guard, he'll run a few players through their paces while admitting "I don't see any names that jump off the page at me."

In fact, it might be like that every night. But the bottom line, as Mackey says, is not if he can uncover a future NBA player but if "I can find someone who can help a team in Italy, or wherever."

Yes, indeed, the dream does dies hard.