After a long, long absence, pro hoops is back in Saskatoon
The CEBL's future is far from known. There's every chance they crash, and every chance they thrive.
This, in a nutshell, is the challenge for the Saskatchewan Rattlers: To kick down Saskatoon’s long and sordid pro-basketball history, to crush it under their sneakers, to build something fresh and permanent.
Easy? Goodness, no.
The Rattlers, who play in the brand-new Canadian Elite Basketball League, tip off Thursday at SaskTel Centre (7 p.m.) against the visiting Niagara River Lions.
They’re playing on a shiny, newly-varnished floor that previously belonged to the Toronto Raptors. They’re shooting at and defending the Raptors’ former hoops, hoping to make new stories on a slice of hardwood that’s already experienced so much.
“Lebron James to Steph Curry, you name it, have come and played on this court. They’ve warmed it up for us,” said Lee Genier, the league’s president and chief operating officer of western operations, during a Wednesday press conference.
Thursday’s rumble is Saskatoon’s first professional basketball game since the Fargo-Moorhead Beez beat the Saskatchewan Hawks 112-100 before 1,780 onlookers at SaskTel Centre on March 22, 2002.
Sean Lampley, who later played 45 NBA games, collected 32 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks.
They finished the Continental Basketball Association season with an 8-32 record.
Then they died.
When the Hawks finally folded at the conclusion of the season, CBA commissioner Gary Hunter didn’t want to talk about them anymore. He wouldn’t answer our questions.
“He was presumably tired of trying to put a happy face on an unhappy situation,” we wrote then.
“Hunter’s silence is a fitting end to a team that made plenty of noise a few years ago before it started accumulating nicks and scars and bruises.
“By the end, nobody wanted to own the Hawks. The commish didn’t want to talk about them.
“They just faded away …”
All told, three different Saskatoon pro basketball teams have played in four different leagues. Two of those leagues folded in mid-season. Since the Hawks disappeared, various people have kicked tires in Saskatoon, measuring the market — folks ranging from con artists to well-meaning lovers of the sport.
And now we have the Rattlers, more than a decade-and-a-half removed from the last serious attempt at putting something together in this city. But since then, we’ve met the National Lacrosse League’s Saskatchewan Rush, who demonstrated exactly what’s possible if you do it right.
And that’s what the Rattlers, and the CEBL, bank on as they launch this new season with teams in Saskatoon, Fraser Valley, Edmonton, Guelph, Hamilton and Niagara.
It’s a cross-Canada league aimed at boosting Canadian basketball players — a splash of imports, a wave of homegrown talent.
When the Rush strolled into Saskatoon, Genier was front-and-centre with bold predictions that they’d sell out SaskTel Centre. And they did just that.
Genier later left the Rush, and now he’s doing this basketball thing. The team hired former University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ head coach Greg Jockims as their bench boss, providing an instant jolt of credibility.
They now have players, balls, uniforms, and a sharp-looking trophy to play for. The Rattlers sold 1,200 season tickets and they predict they’ll fill the lower bowl Thursday. That bowl holds roughly 5,500 people.
Mike Morreale, the league CEO, says Saskatoon is ahead of the rest of the league when it comes to ticket and corporate support.
“They are doing as expected, which is better than all the others, which we also expected,” Morreale said, and the wish in the Rattlers’ corporate office is that the rest of the league picks it up quickly.
The CEBL’s future is far from known. There’s every chance they crash, and every chance they thrive. Here in Saskatoon, where there’s been a lot more crashing than thriving (we’re looking at you too, pro baseball), fans can be forgiven if they harbour a touch of pessimism.
Morreale’s aware of those past failures. He addressed them Wednesday.
“We want to be around for a long, long time,” he said. “This is not just a fly-by-night. We learn from the things in the past, and there’s many cases of leagues in the past that have not been able to sustain themselves. But our model is much different, and the timing is much different. Basketball in this country is completely different over the last 25 years. We’ll be around for a long, long time.”
The start of that long, long time — if it happens — is Thursday night in Saskatoon, on gleaming hardwood, with a curious fan base.
Pro Hoops in Saskatoon: A Timeline
Feb. 6, 1990 : World Basketball League announces Saskatoon’s entry into the world of professional hoops.
May 11, 1990 : A WBL-record crowd of 8,276 watches the host Saskatchewan Storm lose 117-115 to the Las Vegas Silver Streaks in their opener.
Aug. 1, 1992 : The StarPhoenix reports the WBL has folded in midseason with Dayton Wings owner Milt Kantor making a public announcement during halftime of his team’s home game against the Storm.
Jan. 29, 1993 : The National Basketball League forms and brings Saskatoon into the fold.
Sept. 8, 1993 : The Saskatoon Slam win Saskatchewan’s first and only professional hoops championship with a 109-107 victory over Cape Breton in the NBL final.
July 11, 1994 : The NBL folds in midseason.
Jan. 9, 2000 : Former Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien announces he’s moving his International Basketball Association franchise from Youngstown, Ohio, to Saskatoon in mid-season. He sells 70 per cent of the team to Tom Tao and later drops out of the ownership picture.
Sept. 28, 2001 : A few weeks after bailing out of the defunct IBA and joining the Continental Basketball Association, Tao vows the team is “definitely here to stay.”
Dec. 5, 2001 : The Hawks draw 6,733 onlookers — all there with free tickets — for their season opener. Tao, meanwhile, has disappeared and nobody knows where he is. The league and a First Nations investment group eventually take control of the squad.
May 1, 2002 : The Hawks fold after ownership talks between the CBA and the investment group collapse.
April 5, 2007 : Troy Burns announces plans to put a Saskatoon franchise in the International Basketball League.
May 1, 2007 : Burns pulls out after a StarPhoenix investigation reveals his tangled web of financial improprieties. He lands in Edmonton, changes his name to Troy Barns, gets an IBL franchise there and disappears during the team’s season, leaving numerous jilted creditors in his wake.
June 14, 2013 : The proposed Canadian Basketball League announces that it’s looking for investors willing to buy into a Saskatoon franchise. The league never gets off the ground.
May 2, 2018 : The Canadian Elite Basketball League announces plans to play in 2019 with six teams, including a franchise in Saskatoon. Key league management figures include Lee Genier, who was instrumental in the off-floor success of the National Lacrosse League’s Saskatchewan Rush.
Jan. 24, 2019 : The Saskatchewan Rattlers announce the hiring of new head coach and general manager Greg Jockims, who led the U of S Huskies to a national title in 2010.
May 9, 2019 : The Rattlers will play their inaugural game at SaskTel Centre against the Niagara River Lions.








