NBA Lockout Will Not Affect Toros' Season
Good news for local hoops fans
By Will Schmidt, 4:12PM, Thu. Sep. 22, 2011
As local pro-hoops fans sit on their sofa beds, monitoring the NBA lockout in continuous waves of uncontrollable helplessness, watching its snail pace with incapacitated eyes, I come forth with good news for you sad basketball-loving individuals.
If November comes around (as it should), and there's no NBA basketball to be seen due to player/owner, he said/she said, lockout continuation, our local Austin NBA Development League team, the slam-tastic Austin Toros, will be lacing up their basketball sneakers for the November 26 season opener against their in-state rivals, the Texas Legends. Yes, it's true! Stop worrying! Even if the NBA loses theirs, the Austin Toros and the NBA D-League will have a season.
Remember the film A League of Their Own, when Geena Davis, Madonna, and Lori Petty took the baseball field because World War II snatched up all the men? Well, flash-forward 70 years and you have a similar scenario with the NBA's potentially evaporated 2011-2012 season. If the players and owners continue their stalemate into January, more and more players will ship off overseas, and the world will be without NBA basketball. Many, including numerous basketball experts, simply assume the NBA lockout would transfer itself down to the minor-league level, the NBA D-League. False. I'm telling you, good folks of Austin and beyond, the Toros will have their season! The coaches are in the zone as we speak, mentally preparing for the biggest campaign of their professional lives.
As autumn approaches, the Toros front office is preparing for open tryouts on October 8; a special day, a true tradition, as it gives the top echelon of Austin ballers the chance to play professionally for their hometown club. Further details on this tryout will follow once we get a little closer to the event. And as November 26 and the start of the season approaches, please sleep soundly at night knowing that the Austin Toros will play basketball in 2011/2012. Something special happened 70 years ago with Geena Davis, women, and baseball, and I have a genuine feeling that we'll be witnessing that same brand of underdog magic during the upcoming Toros season. I already feel the electricity. Season tickets are currently on sale, and individual game tickets will join them a little on down the road.
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