THURSDAY, JAN 31 -- Today, I will be attending a reception in Portland, Maine as a few business associates begin the process towards landing a D-League expansion franchise. Today's tour and the reception are the first public step after news of the bid broke last week.
Last Sunday, Portland, Maine columnist Steve Solloway wrote a piece outlining Jon Jennings' dream of landing the minor league team for the sports fans of Maine:
COLUMN Dreaming of a pro team in Portland
Jon Jennings is a believer and an optimist, and Portland basketball
is on his radar.
By STEVE SOLLOWAY January 27, 2008
Jon Jennings is a Hoosier. A 45-year-old Indiana kid who picked
up the hint of a Boston accent and has been walking around
Portland lately, pitching an idea. He wants to bring pro
basketball back to Maine in the form of an NBA Development
League team.
He says he can succeed where others have failed. He says he can
make the numbers work in an economy going soft. He says the
fan experience will make his idea work, or not.
"The affiliation with the Celtics is nice and winning is important,
but at the end of the day," says Jennings, "you've got to make
this the hometown team. It's as simple as that."
Jennings is right, which means he has a chance to make this idea
fly. He's more basketball man than businessman, but don't sell
him short.
He made cold calls to Bill Ryan Sr. and his son, Bill Ryan Jr.
Jennings needed investors who understood Maine and the larger,
outside world of professional sports. The Ryans, banker and
lawyer and responsible men, fit that criteria.
Jennings is easy on the ears and that's one reason people listen.
He's a dreamer with a plan and the combination can work.
That K.C. Jones, when he was the Celtics' head coach, hired
Jennings in 1991 as a scout and assistant coach gets people's
attention. Throw in a friendship with Larry Bird and Reggie
Lewis. With Lewis, Jennings started Team Harmony to bring
Boston youth together.
Know that Red Auerbach was a father figure to Jennings.
After Rick Pitino arrived in Boston to become head coach and
general manager of the Celtics, Jennings was ushered out of the
organization in 1997, with Jones, Dennis Johnson and about a
dozen others. Out of basketball, Jennings found work in the
Clinton White House, and taught courses on the Congress and
presidency at Stonehill College before returning to Indiana to
run for Congress in 2004.
Jennings lost to a five-term conservative Republican. His
consolation prize was he got more votes than any of the other
opponents.
"Two days after I lost, Red (Auerbach) called me. He said, 'Now
that you've got that (stuff) out of your system, are you ready to
come back to basketball?' "
It took a few more years.
"Besides my family, the passion of my life is basketball. I've got
the proverbial hole in my heart."
Little about Jennings' idea is certain. Expansion franchises
should be awarded this spring. Thursday, an NBA rep arrives to
look around. A new team needs a place to play. The Cumberland
County Civic Center is one option. The better choice would be
the Portland Expo.
Jennings isn't touting a scaled-down version of the NBA
experience. If the Hoosier in him really is selling the game and
not the circus of mega-decibel light shows and mugging for
video facetime on the jumbo scoreboard, the Expo is the place.
Start there.
Want a hometown team experience? Sell the game along with the
atmosphere of the Expo. Jennings says he wants to start small
and grow. If you keep him on the phone too long, he'll talk
about someday getting the private money to build a new arena
in Portland, one where the fans feel like they're part of the
action, or on top of it.
He says he doesn't want public money. He says schools need it
more to save teachers' jobs. Whoa. Say again?
"My mom drilled into my head to give back," said Jennings. "With
the Celtics, I took the community relations side of things very
seriously. I was on the board of about 10 charities."
He's selling and he's not sure who's buying. The NBA
Development League works in places like South Dakota and Iowa
and New Mexico. As of today the league has no teams east of
the Mississippi. An expansion of one or two teams won't work.
Six would, but the track record of minor league basketball isn't
good.
Who's in? Jon Jennings, a dreamer. The world has too few.
Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or
at:
ssolloway@pressherald.com
Copyright © 2008 Blethen Maine Newspapers
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