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| | Questo articolo è apparso su Arizona Republic (quotidiano di Phoenix) riguardo alla franchigia che dovrebbe essere composta di solo nativi americani (indiani) e le difficoltà anche solo di organizzare un try out camp... | CITAZIONE | Aug. 21, 2004 12:00 AM
A series of seven tryout camps for Native American basketball players, scheduled to form a professional Native American National Team, have been canceled, including one planned for today in Phoenix.
Organizers say that players who paid $200 in advance to take part in the camps won't receive a refund. Instead, they must travel to Albuquerque for a three-day tryout Oct. 3-6, paying their travel and lodging expenses.
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Kenny Dobbs Jr. is one of more than 40 Native American basketball players who paid in advance, and one of seven who paid for the Phoenix tryout. He had been hoping to land a spot on the team, scheduled to compete next season in the American Basketball Association, only to find out the Phoenix tryout is on hold.
Tryout camps in South Dakota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma and New Mexico also were called off.
Dobbs, who attended Peoria Accelerated High School, and others are questioning the operation.
Dobbs said there is "something fishy" going on.
William S. "Spider" Ledesma II, CEO of the Native American National Team, said Friday that any concerns are unfounded and that the Phoenix tryout fell through "because the (Indian gaming) casinos wouldn't step up" and pay a $6,000 sponsorship fee.
Ledesma believes the new tryout arrangement is actually better than what had been planned because players will be evaluated over three days. He also said any player picked at the regional camps still would have had to attend a "veterans camp" and would have had to pay his expenses to go to Albuquerque for it.
"The thing we paid was supposed to be for them to be renting a gym," Dobbs said. "Now I paid $200 for them to watch me play, I guess. And we have to pay all that money to go out there. It's kind of funny."
Ledesma wasn't sympathetic.
"I don't care what he says," Ledesma said. "I'm the professional."
Joe Newman, the ABA's founder and chairman, said he wasn't aware that the tryout camps had fallen through.
"If (Ledesma) doesn't resolve that, I will eliminate the Native American Team from the ABA and see what we can do about tryout camps," he said. "Tell anybody that isn't able to attend a camp that if they'll contact me, I will get them a tryout at the ABA team closest to them and there will be no charge."
Thursday, John Ghahate, identified on the team's Web site as the president of media and public relations, said that three tryout camps have been held, including those in South Dakota and Albuquerque.
Ledesma confirmed they haven't.
"I don't know why he said that," Ledesma said.
Gilbert Lopez, an assistant coach at South Mountain Community College, is listed on the Native American team's camp Web site as the president of Arizona operations for the Phoenix tryout, but Lopez said that hasn't been the case for about two months.
"I was really enthused at first," he said. "I bowed out a couple of months ago, but they haven't taken my name off their Web site.
"They wanted me to help them raise money, and then they're charging all these kids a lot of money with no guarantees."
Players were asked to pay the $200 camp fee online or show up in person and pay $300.
Lopez said he worries that some members of the team already have been selected, and organizers are using the tryouts to raise money to fund the ABA franchise.
"I decided I didn't want to be involved in that," Lopez said.
Clifford Stanger, listed as the vice president of operations in Oregon, tells a similar story.
"After the first (camp) cancellations, I e-mailed them and told them to take me off the Web site," he said. "I didn't want to be responsible when people come looking for refunds. Kids are paying to try out and then they don't have (the camps)."
One player who tried to attend the Albuquerque tryout July 24 showed up at the location and found about a half-dozen other players but no tryout and no representatives from the team, according to his sister, Timaris Montaño of Glendale.
She said her brother, who has asked that only his first name - Marshall - be used, traveled from Gallup, N.M., to Albuquerque for the tryout expecting to pay in cash. When he learned it was canceled, he was directed to the Phoenix tryout and urged to pay by credit card, according to his sister.
Montaño said her brother does not have a credit card and asked her to pay with hers. She said she contacted Ledesma to ask whether she would get her money back if the camp didn't happen.
"He told me there are no refunds," she said. "He wanted us to pay by (Friday) and said he was only taking 50 and Marshall would be No. 49. I told him I wasn't going to pay him anything."
When she learned the Phoenix camp was canceled, she told her brother and he turned around outside Flagstaff, returning to Gallup. Marshall confirmed his sister's story by telephone from Gallup Thursday night.
"It's really terrible because it gives Native Americans a bad name," he said. "As a player, I've had that held against me before a lot. Something like this looks bad."
Ledesma insists the October tryout in Albuquerque will go on as planned.
He said the team has contacted all players via e-mail who have already paid to let them know what is happening. He said players were informed from the beginning that "if worse comes to worse, we'll reschedule and hold one camp in Albuquerque."
But he said there would be no refunds for anyone who does not want to pay for the trip to Albuquerque.
"There's no refunds," he said. "There's too much that goes into this. I can't tell a coach to come and help me coach and then nobody shows up because they back out.
"This is going to happen. We're very ethical."
Dobbs hopes so.
"If it really does come through, I know I'm good enough," he said. "I know for a fact I can make that team." |
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