If you haven’t heard, Dan “Moose” 
Lewis is planning to start a segregated basketball league. Comments at the white supremacist website Stormfront are universally in favor, but repellent rednecks may be in for disappointment: this is probably just an incredibly stupid bid for attention.
Lewis, it turns out, is the former promoter of a small-time wrestling league. In that capacity, he
promoted events in Alabama and Georgia during the ’90s using a mix of local talent and top independent talent of the day, such as Mike Quackenbush, Shark Boy, and Reckless Youth.
A quick Google search found a Facebook page with the above photo; it also turned up notes at a Birmingham, Alabama sports site about Lewis, who’s been trying to start a basketball league since at least August of 2001. Originally named the ABA, it followed a pattern of low-rent sports promotion. The entries include these gems:
Birmingham is named as one of eight cities in the Southeast as a member of the new American Basketball Alliance. Only five other cities were named; Atlanta (GA), Macon (GA), Savannah (GA), Augusta (GA) and Chattanooga (TN). The remaining two cities will be announced in the future if owners can be found.
A thirty-six game schedule is set to begin on November 17th. Each team will have ten players and a two-player taxi squad. Half of each team will be comprised of “territorial” players from local colleges.
Knowing how the NCAA frowns on that sort of thing, it’s no wonder the college-kids idea gets no more mention in Lewis’s press releases. September that year:
Lewis issues a statement to the media stating the ABA will delay the start of the 2001-02 season from November 19, 2001 to January 4, 2002. The season will now be played from January through May 2002. The 2002-03 season will begin in November 2002 on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and complete its season and playoffs in April 2003.
Lewis claims the reason for the delay is due to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC on September 11.
If the story is beginning to sound like an episode of This American Life, you’re catching on. The Birmingham team was supposed to be called “the BreakOuts,” and featured a prisoner in its logo. October brought this item:
Lewis states that the Alliance will sport a return to the classic look of 1970′s basketball. His uniforms, being finished now, will have the retro 70′s look of ABA-style uniforms. “We’ve also told the players that we’ll pay the white guys extra for [wearing] crew cuts, and the black guys extra for [wearing] afros,” Lewis said.
The league appears to have been a one-man show, with all the “ideas” coming from Lewis himself:
Lewis also announces that players will be able to wear their nicknames on the back of their jerseys.
Ooh! Edgy!
December:
On the 13th, it was announced that Mexico City and Tijuana have agreed to join the league, expanding the number of teams to eight.
You can be a Stormfront hero even after doin’ bidniss with Teh Brown, I guess.
Sadly, in March 2002:
John Jordan resigns as head coach of the Breakouts. The lack of a confirmed facility, staff or schedule were reasons cited for his decision. “I wish the GBA founder, Moose Lewis, all the best but could no longer sit in limbo as to whether Birmingham was going to have a team or not. I traveled to Birmingham in good faith with the understanding that the arena deal was done. Much to my dismay after the press conference announcing me as coach I found out that no arena deal was set. The league dates and locales have been changed several times and with it this close to the announced season I feel it is in my best interest to no longer be involved with this league.“
After changing its name, the league played one actual game — after which Lewis made even more grandiose plans:
(T)he Global Basketball Alliance announces a change in format in the league’s inaugural season. The GBA claims they now won’t be simply a professional basketball game, but rather fans will witness a “professional basketball event”.
Their press release says it best: “Mix in the best of the Harlem Globetrotters, the XFL and its cheerleaders, and professional wrestling – and you have the red, hot, GBA! You will see players “high-fiving” each other, teams with their respective music, disc jockeys spinning club music, players at the end of the game tossing their jerseys into the stands, players screaming after a successful shot or key play, players in the stands at halftime, music artists at intermission, and ticket stubs redeemable for discounts on merchandise and admission to entertainment establishments. The GBA’s founder, Don “Moose” Lewis will be drawing from his years of professional wrestling, professional boxing, and television production to bring this to the people. The GBA offers beautiful and shapely cheerleaders for dad, handsome basketball players for mom, tee shirts and giveaways for the children, the hippest music for the young adults, and exciting memories for all who attend.
I’ll make a $100 wager this league never even gets as far as the last one.
