Santa Fe, pro sports-hey, it could happen.
You remember the ABA. Admit it.
Even if you weren't born-or were just incredibly stoned-during the heyday of the American Basketball Association, ***image1***you've surely seen those grainy images of Dr. J and the Ice Man palming red, white and blue basketballs and scraping the stratosphere with their Mt. Everest afros.
Gil Gonzales remembers. Even if he was less than a year old when the league hung up its shoes in 1976. But now the 29-year-old has a chance to follow in the path of ABA ancestors like Julius Erving and George Gervin.
In Santa Fe, no less.
Which is why Gonzales is sitting in the bleachers at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center watching a four-on-four game unfold on a Saturday morning in early June. This is the first public tryout for the New Mexico Style, an ABA expansion team set to lace up its sneakers this fall.
"I think it's a beautiful situation for Santa Fe to have a professional basketball team," Gonzales says. "Out here we have nothing. But now it's official, we have a team."
Sort of. The roster won't be finalized for another five months. In the meantime, the team doesn't have an official coach and the Style's owner Antonio "Tree" Adams and General Manager John Lewis aren't even sure where the team will play. Then again, flying by the seat of your gym shorts is business as usual in the ABA.
The league was resurrected in 2000 with eight teams and will purportedly field an astonishing 61 franchises in three countries when the 2005-2006 season tips off in November. Teams like the Charlotte Krunk, the Tijuana Dragons, the New Mexico Style and the Cleveland…er…Chattanooga Steamers.
The ABA has survived by billing itself as a funky, exciting alternative to the NBA while drawing quasi-marquee names like rapper Master P and former NBA wack job Dennis Rodman into its ranks. But both are long gone. As are all but one (the Kansas City Knights) of the original teams from the second incarnation of the ABA.
The league's nomadic existence calls into question whether New Mexico can sustain a single team for more than a year. And-with the formation of the Gallup Talons-the Land of Enchantment will have two. But the ABA prides itself on grassroots appeal. Which is why the Style announced it would host three public tryouts to give the Everyman a chance at being The Man.
It's a welcome opportunity for amateurs like Gonzales, a former California high school star who was considering playing for a club in Spain before the Style casting call was announced.
"This is a lot different from growing up in a big basketball environment," says Gonzales, who has lived in Santa Fe for three years. "[In California] the gyms are packed every day and there's a high level of competition. You go out here and you've got to go down to Albuquerque to get a good pickup game."
Gonzales is sitting the first opportunity out. He is attending this first tryout to introduce himself to the coaches and to scout his competition. He will spend the next few weeks preparing for the last tryout on July 2 at GCCC. After surveying the talent, he is confident he'll be among the 30-some players to be invited to the team's veteran's camp in November.
"That's a given, man," Gonzales says. "I can't wait to start lighting it up."
There are only eight other players lighting it up at the first tryout. They hustle up and down the court in their complimentary New Mexico Style T-shirts as Adams barks instructions.
"If you're open, PUT IT IN THE HOLE," the towering former Marine screams.
"Show me what you got," Adams instructs as a player sets up for a three-pointer. Apparently all the player has is air. His three misses the rim by a good two feet. Both player and coach share a grimace.
Adams is looking for people who can hit those shots in droves. He touts a high-scoring, run-and-gun style conducive to wearing out scoreboards and exhilarating fans. And even though the prospects tug at their shorts and gasp for air halfway through the tryout, Adams is pleased.
"I'm excited," Adams says. "I think these kids have some talent. There's a lot more talent here than I expected, actually."
Adams wasn't expecting much.
"If we got 10 players we thought it'd be a miracle," Adams says.
While some 30 players will be plucked from the tryouts to participate in the veteran's camp, only 10 to 12 will make the final cut.
"This is the easy part," says 21-year-old Aaron Rodriguez, a Santa Fe High graduate who was one of four players to be invited to the veteran's camp after the first tryout. "This is just the first step. You have to come with your best game at the camp. If you don't, you're going home."
Then again, that's kind of the point. Adams anticipates one or two local athletes will make the team. Without a fervent local following, a team's chances of survival in this ABA are virtually nil.
"This is not a traditional basketball team," Adams says. "Our ultimate goal is to give the community a team that represents the community well on and off the court."
Lewis thinks the community is also an ideal fit for the team. Some might be surprised that the ABA bypassed bigger cities in favor of two teams in New Mexico. But Lewis says the utter lack of professional sports around Santa Fe is exactly why the City Different is a good testing ground for a league different.
"Northern New Mexico is crazy about their basketball," Lewis says. "I'm getting positive feedback from the community but also from all over the country. This is the right place at the right time."
