A free agent camp will be held at BCIT next week for a new American Basketball Association senior men’s franchise starting up in Burnaby.
The ABA team, to be called the Vancouver Balloholics, is looking for local talent to come out to the one-day camp on Tuesday, July 22 at the BCIT gym beginning at 6 p.m.
It is the hope of team owner Dave Poon Tip that the restructured ABA league will fill a gap that currently exists in Canada for players after their university and college careers are over.
“The challenge right now is awareness that we’re here and people’s perception of what the league is,” said Poon Tip, who also runs Victory Sports Camps, a non-profit organization with the goal of teaching school-age kids the game of basketball as well as the life lessons that can be learned from the hard work and dedication to the sport.
Players selected from the free agent camp will be invited to future sessions leading up to the team’s inaugural exhibition season.
The Balloholics will field a senior men’s team in the new ABA, which will play a regular league season from November to April.
The team will play its league games at BCIT or the Langley Events Centre, said Poon Tip.
Earlier this month, B.C. and Canadian basketball hall of famer Lars Hansen was named the team’s first head coach.
The former Centennial High School star and two-time provincial MVP went on to play collegiately at the University of Washington, where he made All-Pac 8 conference before leading Canada’s national team to an eighth-place finish at the World Basketball Champion-ships in 1974.
Hansen was the first player from B.C. to be drafted into the modern-day NBA as a third-round pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1976.
Hansen also played in Europe, where he had a very successful career, culminating in a league championship and player of the year honours with FC Barcelona of the Spanish first division.
Hansen is also the principal founding member of the Canada One Athletic Foundation, which launched the HSBC Basketball Classic preseason tournament, which provides opportunities for players of all ages, genders and abilities.
Local high school coach Wayne Best will take on the game-day operations as the team’s first general manager.
“We have high expectations of our players character-wise,” said Poon Tip in a Balloholics’ press release. “The training starts with your character, community work, work ethic and those qualities bring future opportunities at higher levels. Paid positions will also be available in our youth programs, which run year round.”
The ABA is a good first step towards moving on to the professional NBA development league or playing Europe, the press release stated, adding the new league has currently entered into a contract with ESPN to televise games.
To register for the camp, email [email protected].
