Iowa v. Mad Ants and the NBA D-League Showcase

Happy New Year to All!!!

Last night I attended the Iowa v. Mad Ants game and had a chance to spend the day with the superb staff of the Mad Ants. I especially want to thank Jeff Potter, the Mad Ants team president, and Jeff Johnson, their terrific VP of everything. Both guys gave me a good sense of what we will need to do once we finally announce our franchise in Portland!

The Mad Ants do everything first class from their printed materials to their theme nights. Last night happened to be 70's Night and they pulled out all of the tricks. The entire staff wore 70's themed clothes which made me glad I was not of age in the 70's! They had a guy at halftime who pretended to be the Village People with fake members of the band strapped to two poles. You may have needed to be there to visualize! He was very entertaining and a possible halftime act for us in the future.

Frankly the best part of the night was the game. Both teams played hard and aggressive from the opening tap. These guys are truly one step away from the NBA! Fortunately for the Mad Ants they pulled the game out in overtime. Both teams had terrific players that will be playing in the NBA soon.

I am off to the NBA D-League Showcase today to start scouting players who may someday play in Portland. The Showcase is where all 16 D-League teams come together for scouts and others to judge talent in one location. The Showcase is broadcast live on FutureCast on the D-League website (www.nba.com/dleague). There are four games a day beginning at 11 am Utah time. I hope to post updates once I return.