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The SABL BS

Issue 95 October 2002

FROM COMMISSIONER SCOTT ELLIS, 2^ND AMER. BASKETBALL LEAGUE

The Druids finish their draft by picking Hoiberg. Next up is Akron, with its final pick.

Dennis Derby makes his last choice at 57. Only three more picks to go and the Druids are next.

Steve Walters takes his last pick at 55. The Raiders finished its draft with Kevin Ollie. Next is Iowa with its last pick.

Eduardo Najera finished the Blackhawks this year, while Bettendorf takes Anthony Carter and Voshon Lenard.

Blimps Coach Dave Scott takes his second man. Next are a couple of Amazing Feeneys.

Next at 51 is Akron.

Tiger Coach Steve Feldheim makes his last pick. Next at 49 is our other Steve.

The Evil One has taken Charlie Ward at 41 and Bowen at 43. Next at 44 is Brooklyn, with it's last pick in the draft. Stay tuned!

Charlie Dillingham finished his draft and our Second Round with Speedy Claxton at #40. Next is Bettendorf to start Round Three.

The Heat pick the Atlanta guard while the Dazzlers take Kenny Satterfield's dazzlers at 39.

The little Wizard lands with the Tornadoes at number 37

Utah's big man goes to the Dazzlers.

Number 34 is jumpin' Gerald, while Watson rolls to the Thunder, which was Galactic's first pick in this year's draft. Next up, Davenport.

Chris Feeney selects White number 32. Bettendorf takes the Seattle big man number 33.

Akron selects the Laker forward. Next is Tri-City.

The other Collins brother is picked by Charlie. Next up at 31 is Akron's Dave Scott, with his first pick in the draft.

Dazzler Coach Kevin Feeney selects Loren Woods and Donnell Harvey. Richmond takes Lucious Harris. Next up is the Heat at No. 30.

Number 26 is the leaper from Beantown. That's the Jams' last pick. Next is Davenport, with two picks in a row.

Number 23 is Joe Johnson, Bakersfield's last pick. The Dragons' last pick is Trenton Hassell. Philip Creider's last selection is Wes Person. Next up is Chapel Hill, with

The Washington players goes at 22. Next up is Bakersfield, with its last pick in the draft.

Kevin Feeney takes Collins #21, starting the second round. Next is Garden City, with its final pick in the draft.

The New Jersey guard rejoins the SABL on the Jams as Coach Tommy Field takes him as the last player in the first round. Still plenty of great guys left as we start the second round with the Dazzlers.

The Golden State player goes number 19 to the Finney Longhorns. Doug is now done in this year's draft. Next, with the last pick in the first round, is Chapel Hill.

Number 18 is the Seattle big man, going to that tradin' GM Charlie Dillingham of the Heat. Next up is his son, Doug, with his second pick in the first round.

Monster rebounder Hill goes to Tornado Coach Dennis Derby. Next up is Holcomb.

Bakersfield takes Shane Battier and River City, with its third first round pick, takes Peja Drobnjak. Next up is Iowa.

Renegade Coach Mike Resnick takes Detroit's  Zeljko Rebraca. Next up is Bakersfield with its second first round pick.

McLean Coach Bob Storey takes the man from the Nets. Next up is River City with their second first round pick.

Tri-City picks the young big man from Washington. Next up is McLean, who is making his second first-round pick at 13.

Mark Feeney's Bettendorf Druids have taken Michael Jordan at number 11. Next up is another Amazing Feeney, Chris, who picks 12th.

East Asia has chosen Brendan Haywood, while Garden City gets Jamaal Tinsley. Dragon Coach Paul Bennett is drafting for Garden City because Paul is recruiting a new coach for the franchise from Thailand. Yep, we could have two overseas coaches soon! Next up in the draft is Bettendorf.

We've added two new links - Hoopsworld and the official NBA site to our Links section. I find the Hoopsworld site to be the most informative NBA news section on the Internet. Check 'em out!

The young Chicago forward now belongs to Coach Mike Resnick. Next up, East Asia.

Richmond Coach Frank Rowley has chosen the young Chicago center. Next up is River City.

McLean Nationals Coach Rob Storey picks the Golden State guard. Next up is Frank Rowley of Richmond.

Coach Philip Creider rounds out the top 5 with perhaps the best point guard prospect in the draft. Next up at Number 6 is McLean Coach Rob Storey.

Now that Blades Coach David Squires has picked, next up is Tulsa Coach Philip Creider, who is the only coach drafting in the top 5 this year with his own draft pick. Stay tuned!

The Russian Jellyfish was chosen third by St. Lucie in this year's draft. He will be joining the Ace pre-season workouts immediately.

Celebrating his signing with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, Andrei said he is looking forward to the season on one of the Classic Conference's perennial powerhouses.

"I come From Russia With Love for the game of basketball," said the fun-loving Slav, through a mouthful of his new SABL-branded delicacy, "Kiri's Caviar."

Next up in the draft with the fourth pick is Bakersfield Blades Coach David Squires.

Brooklyn Tigers Coach Steve Feldheim has made it official - he has already chosen Pau Gasol number one in this year's draft. And, Finney Coach Doug Dillingham has made it official, too - he has chosen Jason Richardson as the number two pick.

That puts it to yours truly, St. Lucie Aces Coach Scott Ellis, who owns the third pick in the draft. Reliable sources indicate that the commissioner will make his choice within 48 hours. Maybe even tonight, Oct. 21.

Even though it's not Nov. 3, we are already starting this year's draft via telephone calls (from me to you) and via email (from me to you). Several coaches have told me that they can't make our Nov. 3 draft, so rather than rely on draft lists, I've decided to give you the option of making your picks early. Right now, in fact. Expect an email or phone call from me anytime before 11pm EST asking for your pick.

Keep track of who is being chosen on our 2002 Draft link. I'll also announce picks here on our main page. I will also read the list of players chosen since your last pick over the telephone, if you wish. You can then hang up with me, study things, and email or phone me back later with your pick. You can take as long as you want to make your picks - until Nov. 3, actually. You don't have to make any picks until then, if you don't want to. You can wait until the regular NBA season starts and see what shakes down before picking anyone. Your choice.

But if you're like me and can't hardly wait to get started drafting, then let's go!!!! We might even get done with the draft before Nov. 3! Expect to hear from me soon!

Perhaps the most incredible display of SABL trading occurred before our pre-draft roster freeze. Most coaches were involved in a trade and if they weren't, they were talking to someone about a trade. Check out the trades listed below: A record-setting 42 trades occurred after our midseason trade deadline of Jan. 1. Twenty-three of them took place this month, in a three-week period, another all-time league record. It must of been a case of pent-up demand, because this flurry of transactions followed a six-month period, Nov. 2001 to April 2002, when absolutely no trades were made, another SABL record.

Trading like this is a hallmark of the Second American Basketball League. We have the most liberty of any Strat basketball league in existence. You are free to be the best that you can be, and have loads of fun getting there. Thanks to all of you for making the SABL the most exciting and competitive Strat basketball league online.

Now it's time to hone your draft list. Our rosters will stay frozen until immediately after the last player is drafted on Nov. 3. Then the free-for-all begins again. You'll have two more weeks, until 11:59pm on Nov. 17, to make your final trades for the start of our 2002-03 season, which begins on Dec. 2.

At 11:59 pm on Oct. 20, our annual two-week trading freeze takes effect. There will be no trading or cuts allowed during this period as this is the only time of the year that SABL rosters are frozen.

From the continued trading activity (see below) and the continuing offers swirling around the league, we will be suffering withdrawal pains during that fortnight.

As we approach our Nov. 3 draft, check the roster and draft picks listed for your team on our Rosters & Stats link. This is official. If I've missed players or picks, let me know before draft time. This is what I will be using during the draft. If it's wrong, let me know now, because I will not change things once the draft starts.

You might want to visit our official SABL Yahoo! Clubhouse at our Message/Chat Board link. Some of our coaches are posting pictures of themselves. You might be surprised at what you see.

Every year I do our annual pre-draft and pre-season predictions and every year, I am horribly wrong. This year's annual preview is one of our best ever, thanks to two things: I didn't write the predictions portion of it and journalist extraordinaire Tom Jargo, our Miles Bulldogs Coach, did. Thanks so much Tom for your hard, but fun work on this. Everyone can enjoy this preview at our Draft Preview 2002

After several years of really poor drafts, this one looks to be the best in quite a while. Tons of new talent & potential, along with plenty of guys that can help some teams right away. Check out our draft preview for more and also see our 2002 Draftable Players for an almost complete list of who is available in the draft. I say almost because the 2002 Draftable Players does not include all the cuts that have been made in the last two months. There have been some interesting players cut this fall, so you need to read the articles below to see just who else is available. Anyone with at least one NBA minute is available for drafting.

This year's draft will take place both on the telephone and on our Yahoo club section that Akron Coach and Strat-O-Matic guru Dave Scott has so graciously set up for us. Our Yahoo club has both regular type chat and voice chat, so break out those microphones, plug 'em in and test 'em out to see if they are working before the draft starts.

If you are on Yahoo Internet chat, we will ask you to make your draft picks there. Even if your microphone doesn't work, you should still be able to hear us at SABL Draft Central and you should be able to hear all the other coaches online with voice chat. If you can't voice chat, you should still be able to see all the typing  and type yourself to make your picks.

BUT STAY ALERT!!!! WE WILL NOT SLOW DOWN THE DRAFT FOR TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES ON THE INTERNET. You might want to send me a draft list or keep a telephone line open so I can call you under our old and still primary telephone drafting system. If you have any questions, email or phone me!

At 11:59 pm on Oct. 20, rosters are frozen and no trading is allowed until after the draft is over sometime on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 3. It's the only two weeks of the year that the wild and wooly trading our league is noted for is verboten.

The next important date on the SABL calendar is Sunday, Oct. 20, when everyone who is not going to participate by telephone in the Nov. 3 draft has to have their draft lists in to me. If you are going to participate by telephone or Yahoo Chat on the Internet in the draft, you don't have to send in a list, but if you are not and don't send in a list, then the Commissioner, that's me, will draft for you.

The Internet draft is still experimental at this stage. I haven't had a chance to study it or push it enough to get everyone on board this year. I will be updating the draft picks on our website continually, too, so you can check back here to see who's been taken between your picks. The telephone will still be our primary means of drafting though, so keep a phone line open. If you get skipped because you were online checking out draft results, tough. You got skipped.

Read the Constitution to see how it works. The 2002 SABL Draft will begin at 1 pm EST, Sunday, Nov. 3. Basically, it goes like this:

2002 SABL Drafting Instructions

If a coach cannot participate in the annual SABL phone draft, he can send a paper or email instruction sheet to the commissioner or let the commissioner (that's me) draft for him. The commissioner will ring your phone number twice and hang up. If your line is busy, I’ll try twice more. If I can’t get you by then, I’ll draft for you.

When you call me back, I’ll read you the list of players that have been taken since your last pick. You’ll have 10 seconds for each player chosen to make your decision. If you don’t pick anybody by then, the commissioner will hang up and pick your player for you. The draft usually lasts about four hours. When the draft is completely over, trading begins again.

At 11:59 p.m., Nov. 17, the Post draft trading period ends. By Nov. 24, I'll post our Dec. 1 rosters, which must be used until Dec. 31. Also at this time, I'll compile our official 2002 SABL league disk (sabl.exe), and put it on our website for your download. I'll also email it to you. It's a self-extracting file, so all you have to do after downloading it is double-click on it (or single-click, depending on how you have your W95/W98/WinMe configured) and it automatically installs our SABL league and schedule into your SOM game for you. No muss, no fuss, just start your game, it'll be there.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO OUR NEW COACHES: You MUST use the official SABL league disk (sabl.exe). SOM Computer Basketball doesn't work like SOM Computer Baseball, Football or Hockey does - everyone must use the same exact league disk and rosters or your stats will be unimportable into my official SABL league database and the databases of every other SABL coach. That would mean a lot of extra work and headaches for everyone, so please, don't play official league games on your own, homemade-cloned SABL league, or you'll get penalty points when the inevitable issues occur.

Akron Coach Dave Scott started this last year, but we still haven't gotten much response from our coaches. He worked hard to get set up a new communication channel for the SABL on Yahoo's chat and message boards. I think it would be great to support it. I've added a link to it, Message/Chat Board on our masthead. Any Internet drafting in the 2002 SABL Draft will happen here, on Yahoo Chat. Below is Dave's explanation of how it works:

This is an experiment that might increase our SABL fun. It's a Yahoo Clubhouse where can meet to chat, talk trade or catch up on news. It's free, but does require you to sign up for a Yahoo identification, which also is free.

I think it would be a great place for us to meet during the Draft. We could share news about who has been picked and kibbutz about who might be the next choice. Participating might make the draft go a little faster because we would be up-to-date on who has been taken. 

The site also has a calendar that will include the latest, updated SABL schedule. It also can provide you with an e-mail update for coming deadlines, if you like.

I'd be happy to explain more, but I wanted to keep this note short.

Here's the e-mail address to get your started:

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/secondamericanbasketballleagu

Dave Scott

DougDillingham50@msn.com. Longhorn Coach Doug Dillingham has moved. This is his new email addy.

These trades take effect now:

43. Finney trades its 2nd pick to Holcomb for Holcomb's 2003 3rd and 2003 4th.

42. St. Lucie trades Finney's 1st to Chapel Hill for B. Knight

41. East Asia trades Iverson, A. Mason, M. Taylor, Stepania, D. Reid & its 2003 2nd to Good News for P. Pierce, Best, P.J. Brown, Outlaw, Good News' 1st pick and Good News' 2003 3rd pick.

40. Chapel Hill trades its 2003 1st pick to Bakersfield for Bakersfield's 2002 2nd pick

39. St. Lucie trades Brooklyn's 1st pick and Galactic's 1st pick to Bakersfield for Bettendorf's 1st pick and Finney's 1st pick.

38. St. Lucie sends Sam Cassell to Davenport for Brooklyn's 1st pick

37. St. Lucie trades Brooklyn's 2nd to East Asia for McKie

36. Davenport sends B. Jackson to East Asia for Whitney

35. Good News trades B. Grant & M. Norris to Finney for Outlaw & Best

34. Davenport trades A. Johnson to Akron for Potapenko.

33. Davenport sends its 3rd and 4th picks and Miles 3rd pick to Bettendorf for Bettendorf's 2003 3rd

32. St. Lucie trades Snow & J. Crawford to Good News for Stockton & Galactic's 1st pick

31. River City trades its 2nd to Davenport for Davenport's 2003 2nd and East Asia's 2003 3rd

30. River City trades Chapel Hill's 1st pick to Richmond for Houston and Richmond's 1st

29. Davenport trades G. Anthony to River City for Nesby

28. Davenport trades C. Robinson to Finney for Cato

27. Miles trades its 3rd pick to Davenport for Skinner

26. St. Lucie trades Chris Mills to Brooklyn for Brooklyn's 2nd pick.

25. East Asia trades its 2002 2nd and 2003 3rd round picks and Chapel Hill's 2002 2nd to Davenport for M. Taylor & Stepania

24. Richmond trades Bender, J. Crawford, its 2003 2nd & 3rd picks & St. Lucie's 2003 1st pick to St. Lucie for McDyess, Houston and Good News' 2nd

23. East Asia trades E. Jones, Outlaw & East Asia's 2002 1st and 2003 1st to Finney for Iverson & M. Moore

22. McLean trades S. Williams and its 2nd & 3rd picks to Bettendorf for Bettendorf's 2003 2nd.

21. Holcomb trades B. Russell & Finney's 2nd to Finney for Ratliff

20. St. Lucie trades Laettner, M. Curry & D. Curry to Chapel Hill for Miles' 2nd, W. Williams & C. Mills

19. Good News trades Grant Hill, Payton, D. Marshall & its 2002 & 2003 third picks to Galactic for Stockton, Foster, Norris, A. Harrington & its 2002 & 2003 1st picks & its 2003 2nd pick

18. Good News trades Abdur-Rahim, Snow, Olajuwon, M. Curry & its 2nd pick to St. Lucie for Payton, G. Hill, P.J. Brown & Ervin Johnson

17. Good News trades Dampier and Jason Williams to Finney for Olajuwon & B. Barry

16. Holcomb trades Fox and D. Anderson to Chapel Hill for Christie

15. Holcomb trades Weatherspoon, D. Glover, St. Lucie's 3rd and McLean's 4th to Finney for Fox & A. Hardaway

14. St. Lucie trades S. O'Neal, Weatherspoon & its 3rd pick to Holcomb for Duncan & Laettner

13. Holcomb trades R. Strickland to Finney for C. Atkins

12. St. Lucie trades D. Anderson & its 1st and 2nd picks to Holcomb for A. Houston

11. Miles trades Ewing to Bettendorf for Sabonis

10. McLean trades VanExel and its fourth round pick to Holcomb for Bakersfield's 1st pick and Holcomb's 2003 2nd pick.

9. St. Lucie trades its 2003 1st pick to Richmond for E. Johnson

8. Holcomb trades Terry, M. Miller and Finney's 1st pick to Bakersfield for Houston, Mohammed and Bakersfield's first pick

7. Holcomb trades Cato, Artest & Oakley to Finney for Garrity, Russell and Finney's 1st and 2nd picks

6. Miles trades K. Clark and its 2003 2nd pick to Richmond for Mashburn.

5. River City trades Reggie Miller to Miles for Chapel Hill's 1st and Miles 1st round draft picks.

4. St. Lucie trades its 2003 2nd pick to Davenport for Weatherspoon

3. St. Lucie trades J. Vaughn to Brooklyn for P. J. Brown

2. Davenport trades its first pick to Brooklyn for Q. Richardson and Brooklyn's 1st pick.

1. Holcomb trades Garrity and Best to Finney for Mike Miller

The last week before the roster cut deadline saw more than a dozen deals take place. The last day, 6 deals occurred. Wow!

Blades Coach David Squires lets these three go.

The Gladiators are without a coach, so I made these cuts in consultation with East Asia Coach Paul Bennett, who is recruiting a replacement coach for Garden City. Hopefully, we will have a new coach for this franchise by draft day.

Ace Coach Scott Ellis lets these two go.

Thunder Coach Steve Walters cuts these two.

Miles Coach Tom Jargo cuts the above.

Chapel Hill Coach Tommy Field has released the above.

Davenport Coach Kevin Feeney has cut the above.

Sorry, Charlie, Tri-City Coach Chris Feeney has cut you.

Tiger Coach Steve Feldheim cuts the above.

Longhorn Coach Doug Dillingham does the above.

Coach Mark Feeney has let those three go.

If you haven't checked SABL rosters lately, you might want to peruse them. Many trades and cuts have been made.

Coach Frank Rowley has made this drop.

Twister Coach Philip Creider has cut Tim Hardaway.

Tri-City Coach Chris Feeney has cut the above player.

Coach Mark Feeney's new evil -er- email addy is bettdruid@mchsi.com

Iowa Coach Dennis Derby drops Drew, M. Smith & DeClerq.

Akron Coach Dave Scott cuts Geiger, Blaylock & Hoiberg

Final Official 2002 SABL Draft Order

The following is based on won-lost records and includes penalty point adjustments. Divisional and World Champions draft last, unless penalty points alter that, which they did in the case of Finney this season. Where won-lost records were tied, penalty points and autoplaying were used to break the ties.

1. Davenport 2. Garden City 3. Bettendorf 4. Brooklyn 5. Tulsa 6. Bakersfield 7. Chapel Hill 8. River City 9. Good News 10. Holcomb 11. Akron 12. TriCity 13. McLean 14. Miles 15. Galactic 16. Richmond 17. Iowa 18. St. Lucie 19. East Asia 20. Finney