For more than 17 years, the United States Basketball League has been a secluded weigh station, of both first and last resort, for basketball players who hope to one day play in the NBA.

Most never realize that dream in this "league of opportunity," as USBL commissioner Daniel Meisenheimer calls it. Still, 130 players who have worn USBL jerseys have gone on to reach basketball's highest level.

	Playing in the USBL lacks the glamour -- and crowds -- of the NBA.

Players like Muggsy Bogues, Chris Childs, Mario Elie, Anthony Mason, Darrell Armstrong and Moochie Norris have passed through the league on their way to the NBA. In 1985, the Rhode Island Gulls had John "Hot Rod" Williams, who was shunned by NBA teams after his involvement in a point-shaving scandal at Tulane, and two of the shortest and tallest players ever to play the game, 5-foot-7 Spud Webb and 7-foot-7 Manute Bol.

Even with them, it took an article in Sports Illustrated on the circus-like oddities of Bol and Webb playing on the same team for the Gulls to begin filling their 2,200-seat arena in Newport.

Despite the talent, the USBL struggles to make a buck each season. Over the past 17 years, Meisenheimer has reserved the right to fold teams at his discretion. As recent evidence, only three of 13 owners that had teams in 1999 remain in the league today. One of three, the Brooklyn Kings, has drawn an average of 378 fans through its first four home games, despite playing in the nation's largest market. Other teams have managed to draw larger crowds in smaller markets like Enid, Okla., Dodge City, Kan., and St. Joseph, Mo.

But it takes more than a $5 ticket to attract a crowd.

"I used to think this was a nice, sexy basketball league," said Meisenheimer, a stock broker who has invested $3 million to absorb losses over the years. "It's a business now. If you do nothing to market your team, you will get nothing."

Since Meisenheimer announced the league's creation, its marketing has included the use of players with marquee names. New York Knicks greats Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe stood beside Meisenheimer on that first day in December 1984. In recent years, boxer Roy Jones Jr., rapper Master P and football players Simeon Rice, Randy Moss and now Terrell Owens have briefly provided the league with national attention.

"There's no doubt that bringing a guy like Terrell into our league puts us on the national map," said Mike Sweet, the general manager of the Adirondack Wildcats, a first-year team on which Owens is playing this season. As GM of the Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs, Sweet suited up Moss for two games last season. "On the local level, it usually does help translate into dollars, because people who didn't know about us, suddenly do."

The back road to the NBA

USBL teams pay their players $300 to $600 per week throughout the three-month season. "We tell our players that they are trying to make the investment to get to the next level," league commissioner Daniel Meisenheimer said. While NBA scouts are not in attendance as often as they are for CBA games -- where scouts can spot talent and immediately make a call up -- players say that the USBL is another place to be seen. "If you play consistently, the players here all feel that they have a chance to get noticed,” said Ronnie Fields, a guard for the Pennsylvania Valley Dawgs who also plays in the CBA. Current NBA players who have played in the USBL include Darrell Armstrong, Mark Blount, Michael Curry, Emanual Davis, Derrick Dial, Adrian Griffin, Darvin Ham, Kevin Ollie and Charlie Ward

National attention is actually easy to command for team owners that are willing to do anything. Each April, when the league has its draft, at least one team will make headlines for reserving the rights to improbable players. Teams have drafted a radio broadcaster, a top NBA draft pick (Stephon Marbury) and even women like Cheryl Miller, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo and Jackie Stiles.

Stiles wasn't as far fetched as it might seem. Nancy Lieberman played in the USBL for two season in the mid-'80s.

"We have great players," Meisenheimer said. "But until someone tells the public that we have great players, they don't know."

The USBL, which plays its games during the spring and summer to avoid competition like the Continental Basketball Association, also has used coaches with familiar names to sell tickets. Eight of the 10 teams this season are coached by former NBA players, including Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Darrell Dawkins and Harvey Grant.

Over the past six years, Meisenheimer has been paying closer attention to the bottom line. That's because in 1996, the USBL (USBL.OB) became the only league to go public. But the lack of real returns has limited the stock, which hovers around $1, to more of a recreational buy.

Meisenheimer says that's changing: Three owners are savvy businessmen with a net worth of more than $50 million each, and a record 15 new team applications will be reviewed in the off-season. Meisenheimer hopes to have 48 franchises within the next five years that will sell for $1 million each.

"Everyone thought I was nuts," said Meisenheimer, 51. "But I knew I could prove them wrong."

Darren Rovell covers sports business for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com.