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| Friday, February 9 |
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| Skyforce to play in IBL Associated Press | |||
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Two former owners of the CBA's Sioux
Falls Skyforce have bought the franchise back and entered the
professional basketball team in a new league.
In a copyright story published Friday, the Sioux Falls Argus
Leader reported the team has been sold to Sioux Falls insurance
partners Roger Larsen and Greg Heineman. They previously owned the
team from 1993-1999.
The Skyforce now will play in the International Basketball
League, and the IBL has agreed to let the Skyforce play Saturday's
scheduled home game against an undetermined opponent.
The Skyforce had been part of the Phoenix-based Continental
Basketball Association, which is folding.
"We felt playing Saturday night was critical, because once you
stop the party, you're in trouble," said Heineman, adding that at
least three other CBA teams might decide to join the IBL.
"Our main motivation is that this community has been very good
to us, and we love the game of basketball. Plus, a lot of people
would have lost money if the Skyforce (folded), and all those
people were responsible for helping to build it in the first place.
We kind of felt a moral obligation to get something done."
The IBL started in 1999 and has teams in St. Louis; Las Vegas;
Albuquerque, N.M.; Cincinnati; Trenton, N.J.; and Richmond, Va.
Isiah Thomas, the former NBA star who is now the head coach of
the Indiana Pacers, bought the CBA in October 1999. He has been
ordered by the NBA to sell the CBA before next season's training
camp.
Larsen and Heineman said they acquired the Skyforce in return
for assuming its debts and expenses for the rest of the season. The
team's final 18 home games will be played, they said.
The CBA, which began in 1946 and arrived in Sioux Falls in 1989,
started to nose-dive last week when it failed to provide paychecks
for players, coaches and office staff.
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ALSO SEE Demise of CBA has been a long time coming CBA general manager: 'League is running on fumes' CBA suspends play as Thomas tries to sell teams | |
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