Minor-league basketball could return to Wisconsin, perhaps by the end of this week.
The Arkansas RimRockers are eyeing a move to La Crosse, which once hosted the successful Catbirds, who were coached by current Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders in the CBA.
The RimRockers, owned by Arkansas businessman Larry Crain Jr., are in the NBA Development League, considered a topnotch minor league with support of the NBA.
Crain was in La Crosse last week to meet with city officials and board members of the La Crosse Center, where the team would play. Phil Evans, commissioner of the NBA D-League, is scheduled to visit La Crosse this week.
If league officials give approval, Crain said he would move the franchise immediately from Little Rock to La Crosse. The La Crosse Center board meets Wednesday and is expected to consider a lease for the franchise.
Arkansas finished last in D-League Eastern Division with a 16-34 record this past season. Former UW-Milwaukee star Clay Tucker (pictured above) averaged 19.7 points per game for the RimRockers.
The Catbirds won CBA championships in 1990 and ‘92 under Saunders. The team eventually dissolved. A followup team, the Bobcats, was not as successful on the court or financially.
In 2001, the CBA, owned then by a group headed by former NBA great Isiah Thomas, went bankrupt. The Bobcats went down with the rest of the league.
Wisconsin once hosted the Sheboygan Redskins and Oshkosh All Stars, who played first in the American Basketball League and then the original NBA. Those two teams allegedly were dropped from the NBA when Abe Saperstein, known primarily as the founder of the Harlem Globetrotters and then the head of the New York franchise, said, "It's Sheboygan or us."
The NBA D-League plays from November until May. NBA teams often draw players from it. The Bucks' Jared Reiner was called up from the league this year. Former Bucks players Sidney Moncrief (Ft. Worth) and Joe Wolf (Colorado) coached in the league this year. Moncrief was assisted by former Bucks forward Paul Mokeski. Former Marquette assistant Dan Panaggio coached for Los Angeles.
