Draft Weekend

What an incredible weekend!!!  I’m thrilled to get the guys we got.  I think they are all excellent players and guys with deep character that will be positive additions to the Island community.  It was an exciting process to go through.  We were a little mystified that when you watch a draft on TV, some guy is always on the phone.  We couldn’t think of any we should be calling so Billy was going to order a pizza J.

I’m also very pleased that Sherone Edwards from UPEI went in the second round.  He played really well at the combines and I was hoping to get him, but he’ll be great for Quebec.  This league will be ideal for someone like Sherone who can take the ball to the basket.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in the Canadian group at the combine.  Not that the session didn’t feature some great players.  It did.  But there are a ton of great Canadian players that didn’t show up.  Take the guys from X.  Will Silver and Charlie Spurr were there and both played really well and worked really hard so I don’t want to take anything away from them but they aren’t Christian Upshaw.  Christian, or more commonly T-Bear is a former conference MVP and one of the great players of the last few years in the AUS.  So where was he?  The list of guys that should have been there is long, and I know some like Joe Schow from Dal already committed overseas.  But I think that the fact that not a single Carleton guy was on the floor says something.

This is a problem we need to solve.  I think the league should have the requirement to have more than two Canadians per team.  We’re going to need some of our Canadians to step up and play well this year to make that case.  The Canadian Football League requires half of its roster to be Canadian.  The reason there are only two required on each roster this year is that teams needed as much flexibility as possible to get 12 players and be able to play at a high level.  But if we are going to be part of growing the game in Canada and provide opportunities to Canadian players, we need to figure out why the best Canada had to offer wasn’t in that gym on Sunday.

Learning the Business of Basketball

We spent the day at the owners meeting in Toronto with the folks from the three existing teams and the expansion teams in London, Oshawa and Moncton.  It’s very impressive to hear the business resumes of these folks and realize the league is focused on finding great owners with the experience to make this venture work.  Everyone is sharing ideas and looking for ways to make this a success.  While we will compete on the court (and we will compete hard!!!) there is a strong feeling of working together to build the league and deliver a great product for the fans.  The discussion keeps coming back to having a first class league and a first class experience for our fans.

Now tomorrow, enough talk about building rent and legal agreements and we are going to see some of the future stars in our league lace ‘em up and play.  The morning will be lots of drills and the afternoon will be games.  Saturday is imports and Sunday is Canadians.  Can’t wait to see what these guys can do.

Here’s a stat I heard today that I found interesting.  There are 230 Canadians playing Division 1 or 2 in the NCAA.  Where are these guys going when they are done?  Sure, some go overseas and some aren’t good enough to play pro, but we need a place at home these guys can play and develop.  I’m loving being part of that and loving the idea of bringing talent of that level to PEI.

Yep, we're doing it.

We're the guys starting a pro basketball team in Prince Edward Island.  Yes, it seems like an improbable thing to do, but it is wonderful opportunity.  We've been fortunate to be on the ground floor of the new National Basketball League of Canada.  There are few times in life when your timing is perfect, and we're hoping this is one of them.  We're going to document this unique and wonderful journey to share it with our friends and fans.