Anchorage Daily News

The topsy-turvy American Basketball Association says it plans to add an Anchorage franchise next season.

"We've been looking at Alaska for expansion for quite some time," Joe Newman, the ABA's chief executive officer, said in a press release. "Basketball is very popular there, as ... evidenced by the very successful Alaska Shootout. The problem has been transportation. We believe that has been worked out."

This ABA is not the same league of basketball upstarts who played with a red, white and blue ball and once featured such talented players as Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood and George Gervin.

This ABA was established in 1999 and, while using the same colorful ball, it does not feature players of that caliber or play games that are telecast from major arenas.

The regular season stretches from November or December through March. And many teams don't make it all the way.

The league Web site shows some teams last season playing as many as 31 games -- the Manchester Millrats went 21-10 -- and others playing as few as two. The St. Louis Stunners were 0-2, scoring 86 fewer points than their opponents before ending their season last year.

"Sometimes they show up for games, sometimes they don't," said Robert Rizzo of the Fresno Bee, a newspaper in Fresno, Calif., where the ABA Fresno Legends play. "Every time you think they're legit, they go and play at the local rec center.

"They don't get any crowd here, but there's a lot of competition for people's attention."

The ABA Web site lists 46 franchises for next season, spanning the country from San Francisco to New Jersey, with international franchises in such locations as Montreal and Monterrey, Mexico.

In March, the Vermont Frost Heaves defeated the San Diego Wildcats 87-84 to win a second consecutive ABA title. Vermont in May promptly jumped leagues and will now play in the Premier Basketball League.

"We look forward to a greater degree of predictability in the PBL, both in the quality of competition and the standards of operation we see in our fellow teams,'' Frost Heaves founder and president Alexander Wolff said in a statement.

DAVIS WILL OWN TEAM

The team in Anchorage will be owned by Trey Davis, according to the ABA. Davis is a teen and outreach coordinator with the Boys and Girls Club in Mountain View, with background in marketing and events coordination.

"We named our team the Alaska Dream because it has truly been our dream to have a professional basketball team, particularly an ABA team, here in Alaska, and this is like a dream come true," Davis said.

He said Alaskans have long wanted a ABA franchise, "but the problem has been finding a plan to reduce the cost of travel.

"It will be affordable for ABA teams to visit here and for us to do our road games on the Pacific Coast."

Davis said he's been working on an Anchorage franchise for about a year and is "very confident" that the team will play in the upcoming 2008-09 season. He said that the ABA charges teams $20,000 to get into the league, and he estimated annual expenses at $200,000.

"Travel is the main hurdle for us," he said. "Most teams go by bus."

SULLIVAN DATES SOUGHT

He said he's negotiating with officials at Sullivan Arena to secure dates between December and May, working around the already-scheduled Alaska Aces and UAA Seawolves hockey teams, which have most prime weekend dates locked up.

Depending on the outcome of those negotiations, he said the home opener would be between Dec. 6-12. He estimated ticket prices would run $15-$25 and that he needed an average home attendance of about 1,000 fans to break even.

And his hope is for a roster full of Alaska talent.

"That's what I want to do. That's what I'm going to do," he said. "Fill this team with Alaska players. There is no doubt we have some great talent here and will be competitive."

If successful, the Dream would become Anchorage's second professional basketball team. Many people don't remember the Anchorage Northern Knights, who won the Continental Basketball Association title 28 years ago.

But for five seasons, the Knights were arguably the hottest ticket in town. And until the Alaska Aces won their ECHL championship, the Northern Knights were the city's only sports team to claim a major championship in nearly three decades.

KNIGHTS WIN THE TITLE

The Knights beat the host Rochester Zeniths 108-99 on April 20, 1980, in Game 7 of the finals behind series most valuable player Steve Hayes.

The team's most famous alum was probably Brad Davis, who went on to play 15 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. Other former Knights played in the NBA too, but Davis had the biggest impact; his jersey was retired by the Mavs.

Other players to make the jump from Anchorage to the NBA included Ron Davis (San Diego Clippers), Arvid Kramer (Denver Nuggets) and Hayes (Houston Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers).

The Knights joined the CBA in the 1977-78 season, paying a $10,000 entry fee to become the league's first West Coast franchise in a league of fewer than a dozen teams that, back then, was a step beneath the NBA.

By their second season, the Knights reached the CBA Finals, losing to Rochester in four games. A year later, they won it all.

Pat Flanigin played with the Knights for the first two seasons and was a member of the runner-up team. The 6-foot-10 center is the only former player still living in town, he said.

ANCHORAGE WAS A HOOPS TOWN

At the time, Flanigin said in 2006, Anchorage was known as a basketball city -- sporting a CBA team and the Great Alaska Shootout -- not the hockey town it is today. The Knights played home games at West High and regularly packed the place.

"Being a savvy basketball community, the crowds really got behind us," Flanigin said two years ago. "Every game was pretty well sold out. It was incredible."

Part of the reason the Knights drew so well -- especially during the two seasons in which the team advanced to the CBA Finals -- was because they were the only show in town. The new Alaska Dream won't have that advantage, competing against professional and collegiate hockey teams as well as UAA basketball programs that advanced to the Final Four among Division II teams last season.

"Anchorage had never experienced anything like that,'' Flanigin said of the Knights' championship. "The support of the city was incredible.''

Daily News reporter Van Williams contributed to this story. Mike Campbell can be reached at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

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