Professional Basketball Returns To Springfield

By Davina Sutton, NBADLeague.com

The NBA Development League is growing, from its original eight teams to 16, and this spring it added two new franchises in the northeast. One of those teams was strategically placed in the northeastern town of Springfield Massachusetts.

The delegation of the NBA D-League team to Springfield happened relatively quickly. Michael Savit is the Springfield Armor’s managing team owner. Savit had spent the last two decades building his business brand with great success in owning and operating sports ventures. His HWS Group began its minor league baseball endeavors with the purchase of the Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League in 1998. The company then purchased the Michigan Battlecats of the Midwest League in 2000 and since has added the Mobile BayBears of the Southern League, the Modesto Nuts of the California League and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the New York-Penn League.

Savit said, “I had a chance to do independent leagues and other types of things, but I’ve always wanted to do things under the umbrella of the MLB and be apart of major league baseball.”

So when Savit began his exploratory talks with the NBA D-League in the summer of 2008, he was intrigued by the NBA brand and the league’s direct connection to its major league.

“I certainly would not have done this just to do minor league basketball if it weren’t apart of the NBA,” Savit said. “It’s a calculated risk because the NBA is already a great brand. I think the potential growth of the D-League and what’s going to happen down the road is going to make this a very successful business. That was my same philosophy for minor league baseball.”

In his meetings with the NBA D-League, Savit’s desire for where the franchise would be placed matched the vision of the league. Savit is based just outside of Boston and knew he wanted his team to be in New England. The decision to place the expansion franchise in Springfield fell in place and in less than eight months later the Armor will kick off their inaugural season on Friday November 27th, 2009.

“I admit, in retrospect, if I had another year to plan it that might have been preferable. But overall I think things worked out pretty good and we are looking forward to our opener.”

Bringing basketball back to the place it was born

In understanding basketball and its roots, some argue that the town of Springfield could rival the state of Indiana, the Hoosier State. Springfield Massachusetts is best known as being the birth place of basketball. James Naismith, who was a physical education instructor at Springfield College in the late 1800’s, is credited as the inventor of the game. Springfield is also the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Because of this, the community of western Massachusetts has an infrastructure of basketball interests and has embraced other local teams in the past. Armor owner Michael Savit has tapped into that and said the people have definitely taken note of his new team. But Savit anticipates that it will actually take the entire season before the Springfield community realizes that they are seeing basketball that is an extension of the NBA.

“They’ve heard me, seen me, and they’ve listened to me. With the NBA D-League commercials and all the PR stuff we’ve done to gear up for the season, I still don’t think they realize how good the caliber of basketball this really is and that they are in for a treat,” Savit said.

However, Savit is optimistic that his business decision to purchase a sports team at a time of extreme economic distress in this country will prove to be one of his best business decisions.

“Obviously people told me I was nuts to start a new business and a new team in the dead of winter, in the worst recession in this country in 80 years. I said ‘I don’t care! Buy well, sell high.’ I was gung ho to do it.”

Building the team

Part of Michael Savit’s pitch to the NBA Development League was his ability to lock down the use of the MassMutal Center on Main Street. The Armor will play 24 home games at the MassMutal Center, a recently renovated facility that can seat up to 6,000 fans.

After the league announced the team in Springfield in April of 2009, the HWS group was flooded with resumes from coaches, potential coaches, former players who wanted to coach, former players who had experience as coaches, agents pushing their clients and more.

At the end April the team held a press conference at the Basketball Hall of Fame and invited NBA D-League fans and the Springfield community to participate in a “Name the Team” poll. On June 30th, the Armor unveiled its name, logo, and colors. (The Armor nickname is homage to the historic Springfield Armory, which was established by George Washington as the center of the Continental Army's arsenal. It was the primary center for the manufacture of U.S. military small arms.)

At the end of July, the Armor announced that the franchise’s first head coach would be former NBA player Dee Brown. Brown also serves as President of Basketball Operations for the team.

“Of all the decisions that have been made this past year to get this franchise running, the selection of Dee was right up there at the top,” Savit said. “He had all the experience in terms of his playing days and he’s worked in the front office for a couple of NBA teams and WNBA teams. To top it all off, I found out that his wife actually attended college in Springfield. So I was like ‘This is a no brainer. Dee’s going to be the coach in Springfield.’ ”

Dee Brown was a guard out of Jacksonville University and was selected by the Celtics as the 19th overall pick of the 1990 NBA Draft. In 1991 Dee Brown won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest with his famous “no-look” jam, and ended his 12 year pro-career in 2002. Brown had stints in the WNBA as head coach and even dabbled in broadcasting when he won ESPN’s Dream Job in 2005.

“I had opportunity to coach at different places, but I was looking at the environment here—the basketball Hall of Fame, being back in Massachusetts— and it was a perfect fit for me to make that decision,” Brown said.

Brown said he had been drawn to the NBA D-League simply because of its concept of mentoring young players.

“One of the great things about the D-League is that you get to develop players on and off the court. You get an opportunity to communicate staying power. It’s about mentally and physically knowing how to stay in the NBA.”

Kevin Whitted was hand picked by Brown to be his assistant coach. This will be Whitted’s second season as an assistant coach in the NBA Development League after serving in a similar capacity with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2008-09. Brown already had a personal connection with Whitted because their daughters play on the same AAU team.

“He has the coaching experience in a minor league system and the D-League, and he’s a guy that I trust because we have a relationship off the court.” Brown added, “Plus he’s 6’9” and can work with the inside players, and I’m 6’2” so I go out with the guards. It works well for us.”

The Armor acquired two players from the expansion draft held in September and invited five from their local open tryouts. They filled out the rest of their roster from the draft and selected JamesOn Curry as their first pick.

Curry played three years for Oklahoma State before he made the jump to professional basketball. He had stints overseas and in the NBA D-League with the Iowa Energy. Curry is eager about his opportunity with the Armor.

“I was hyped when I knew what team I was going to play for and who the coach was because I knew what kind of player Dee Brown was,” Curry said. “One of my personal goals is to get to the next level and the only way I’m going to do that is to go out there and do whatever it takes every night. To get there, this is a huge step I’ve got to take. So I was just really excited and couldn’t wait to get here.”

In selecting players, it was important to Coach Brown that he recruited athletes who understood why they were there.

“Some guys feel that they are entitled to be in the NBA and the reason they are not there is because a coach didn’t like them or whatever situation,” Brown said. “The key for me was to have guys who wanted to come in and work and take the information and direction that we wanted to give them to make them better players.”

The Armor Way

Coaches of the NBA Development League are commissioned to aid the development of players and to make them NBA ready. This is especially true when the NBA affiliates assign their rookies and their sophomores to NBA D-League teams. At the same time, teams are expected by their owners, fans and supporters to win games. Balancing those elements could at times be a daunting task.

“That’s one of the hardest things about this league is to try to balance that. You want to win as many games as possible. If you win a lot of games, then obviously NBA teams think you have really good players and they’re going to take them from you. So you have to revamp and start again,” Armor Coach Dee Brown said.

But both Brown and team owner Michael Savit agreed that winning games is what they want, but it would also be a success if NBA teams called-up players because of the work they have seen from them on the Armor.

“Truthfully, I would rather have three or four players called-up to the NBA and feel like based on what we did in Springfield they were able to make it to the NBA, rather than have an entire team that is not called up and win every single game,” Savit said.

In training camp Coach Brown immediately established what this new Armor team will be about.

“Defense,” Brown said. “I think people get mixed up in understanding that at the next level…the NBA, that coaches want players to at least guard somebody and play defense.”

Brown also stresses fundamental NBA principals.

“Most NBA teams pretty much have established who their superstar player is, so these guys have got to try to find their niche and their value to another basketball team in the NBA.”

In that light Coach Brown tells his players to showcase their value at every opportunity.

“If an NBA coach walked in here right now, what would they see? Are you a shooter? Are you a defender? Are you a rebounder? Show that every time you step on the court. Find out what your value is to help one of these NBA clubs to want to grab you and put you on their roster.”

Armor guard JamesOn Curry has soaked up Coach Brown’s message and said he is excited to practice everyday under his direction.

“You want to be at practice and you want to get better everyday. I love playing for him. He’s a coach that wants you to play, he doesn’t want any robots,” Curry said. “Our one team rule is respect. Then he wants us to give effort. As long as we give effort, then he’s OK.”

The inaugural season

The Springfield Armor is affiliated with the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers. In the NBA Development League, NBA affiliates are permitted to assign players in their first or second seasons to their NBA D-League partner. (NBA players can be assigned up to the three times a season for any length of time.) However, NBA D-League players can actually be called up by any NBA franchise and not limited to their affiliate.

To handle this, Coach Brown has come up with a coaching strategy that is designed to showcase the talent on the team and also incorporates a mixing and matching of the systems the Armor affiliates use.

“I’ve spoken with our affiliates and we want to teach NBA principals,” Brown said. “Basketball is basketball, a pick and roll is a pick and roll. Teams may call it a different name, but teams have been running the pick and roll for 50 years.”

Coach Brown said the Armor have a vivid team goal for this inaugural season of 20 home wins and to be .500 on the road.

While guard JameOn Curry has his sights set on a Gatorade Call-up, he is also looking to bring the championship to Springfield.

“Play to win. Just play regardless of any of the preseason standings. We’re here to win a championship. That’s only reason to play basketball,” Curry said.

As team owner, Michael Savit is on board with these aspirations but is also looking at the franchise’s long term goals.

“The three most important words to me are ‘affordable family entertainment,” Savit said. “I mean, we are certainly concerned with wins and losses, but the experience for the fans and the entertainment value is what I am excited to bring to Springfield.”

The Armor will kick-off their first season with a home opener at MassMutal Center on Friday November 27, 2009 at 7 pm. They will match up against the Iowa Energy. Be sure to log-on to NBADLeague.com to watch the game for free on the NBA Futurecast.