International Basketball League Fired Up About Upgrades For the Upcoming 2010 Season

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com -The International Basketball League (www.IBLhoopsonline.com) is a sixth year basketball league with teams from
America, Canada, China and Japan. The following bullet points illustrate some of the important features of the IBL.
· The IBL is international: Shanxi China and Edmonton Canada competed in the IBL 2008 season and in the 2009 IBL
season, a team from Japan (the Nippon Tornadoes) and a second Canadian team—the Titans from British Columbia
(Canada) competed in the IBL. In addition to teams from Asia and Canada playing in the IBL, the Central Oregon
Hotshots and the Elkhart (Indiana) Express played five games apiece in China.
· An entertaining game—by allowing only one timeout per quarter, and reducing dead time with an immediate
inbounds, International Basketball League games are always fast and entertaining and the contest only lasts 2 hours.
· Dates of play: The IBL season occurs from late April through the first week of July. The IBL season starts after the
overseas leagues have been completed and as well—this IBL season occurs after the NBDL season has been
completed. The IBL season finishes days before the NBA summer leagues and overseas tryouts occur; the timing of
the IBL season has led to great players wanting to play in the league—players who need to continue their development
or maintain their development. These players go on to overseas jobs after the IBL season.
· Player development: The IBL is a development league due to the timing of the IBL season (described above); in fact,
after the 2007 IBL season, 102 IBL players went on to play overseas basketball. This 2007 IBL season was the year
that established the IBL as the league to play in—to get or maintain an overseas basketball job.
· Former NBA players that have played in the IBL: 21 former NBA players have appeared in the IBL including
former NBA All Stars Tim Hardaway, Dennis Rodman and Shawn Kemp. 2 former NBA all stars have coached in the
IBL—Terry Mills (season) and Slick Watts (All Star game). A team in L.A. featured 6 exNBA
players (next page).
· Highest attendance: An impressive attendance was garnered at an IBL game played in 2006 in Portland Oregon at the
Rose Garden where 4,400 fans watched the Portland Chinooks beat the Vancouver Volcanoes (video available on the
IBL web site, click on Vancouver Volcanoes); a year later, that attendance record was eclipsed when 6,000 fans saw
the Elkhart Express (IN) beat the Grand Rapids Flight (video found on IBL web site, main page video player)
· Key feature of the IBL for an owner: the IBL was designed around the concept of creating extremely low travel
costs for the owners— organizing teams in regional clusters has enabled the IBL to offer owners an unprecedented
‘one flight guarantee’. The ‘one flight guarantee’ has led to team and league stability, relative to the industry. IBL
teams can play a variety of opponents from all over the country, indeed, from all over the world (sellable product) but
the owners only have to budget for—one flight per year (affordable product). This efficiency is not only for the North
American teams but this (one flight guarantee) also applies to international teams, who can play a complete 20 game
schedule with just their single flight to the United States (the Asian team is based out of either Seattle or Portland).
· About IBL founder Mikal Duilio: Mikal Duilio has operated sports leagues and events for 24 years. As a teenager
from 1985 to 1992—Duilio founded and directed the Indianola Jamball League (Iowa). In 1992, Duilio obtained a
Masters Degree from Iowa State University and moved to Portland, Oregon where he founded and directed
PortlandBasketball.Com in 1993—for 16 years and running—PortlandBasketball.Com has been and isthe
world’s
largest basketball league with 6,500 amateur basketball games per year. Duilio founded PugetSoundBasketball.Com in
Seattle in 2004, but sold the business within a year. In November of 2003, Mikal Duilio founded the International
Basketball League concept with test games in the Pacific NW; the first official IBL game occurred in April of 2005—
on that opening night—former NBA All Star Tim Hardaway scored 45 points (for a team in Waterloo, Iowa) in a 129
to 131 overtime loss. The International Basketball League is heading into its sixth year—starting in April of 2010.

Commissioner Bud Selig shaved drug suspensions of players and broke the rules of MLB. Will Manny Ramirez and three others do a year? What will happen to dozens of minor league players whose records, teams, and leagues are affected? Read the whole story at SZ ( www.mlnsports.com).