Elder Bryant Rolls the Dice With ABA’s Vegas Team

In the beginning, no one’s watching and you play because you love the game. At the end, no one’s watching and you play because you love the game.

It’s in the middle, when the crowds swell and the money is stacked to the sky, that things can get confusing as the Bryants, father and son, could tell you.

Kobe’s dad, Joe, a veteran of eight NBA seasons and until last week a retiree, returned Tuesday night as coach of the Las Vegas Rattlers of the American Basketball Assn., who fell to the Long Beach Jam before an announced crowd of 987 in the Pyramid.

“It’s just for the joy of basketball,” Joe said. “I’ve always been a gym rat, always enjoyed the game and I enjoyed teaching....

“You focus on the young men that you work with and that’s the beauty of it. It’s not the glory of the crowd, because this league doesn’t attract that many spectators. Hopefully, as time goes on, it can survive and make it happen.”

For those who haven’t kept track, which is everyone but players, staff and blood relatives, the ABA is back after a one-year vacation to find new money after fielding and folding the Los Angeles Stars, who played out of the Forum, and the Anaheim-based Southern California Surf, may it rest in peace.

Oh, and since the Jam is 8-1 and in first place after bombing the Rattlers, 132-113, we’re No. 1!

This is actually a promotion for Joe, whose last gig was in something called Slam Ball, which was played on a trampoline. The ABA has its problems, but at least plays on hardwood floors.

Of course, the Rattlers are starting three weeks after the rest of the league after a snag in securing a site on the Nevada Las Vegas campus, reportedly stemming from the involvement of Jerry Tarkanian, who is no longer venerated by the school.

Tarkanian’s son, George, was supposed to be the coach, but he was finally jettisoned last week and Bryant was hired.

Not that the Rattlers were behind, but after losing their opener and Bryant’s debut, they cut five players. Tuesday was Bryant’s second game.

There are indignities in the big leagues too, and the NBA has taken its share of criticism. On the other hand, all its teams have venues locked up.

The problem with minor league basketball isn’t the basketball, however, which is played at a high level. The Jam last week sent Coach Paul Westhead back to The Show as an Orlando Magic assistant and starts former UCLA Bruin Matt Barnes and DerMarr Johnson, the sixth pick in the 2000 NBA draft.

“The easy part is putting the product on the floor,” says Steve Chase, the former Laker official who is now the Jam president. “The hard part is putting people in the seats, getting people to see what a terrific product you have so they come out to watch you.”

The problem is stability, of which there has been none. Minor league baseball has flowered in recent years as fans decided they liked the game in a more intimate setting.

Minor league basketball, which also plays well in an intimate setting, meanwhile, sailed off the Earth, when Isiah Thomas bought the entire Continental Basketball Assn. so he could sell it to the NBA and folded it when the league decided to start its own league and save the purchase price.

Now there are three minor leagues: The NBA’s National Basketball Developmental League, which is national in title only, stretching from Roanoke, Va., in the north to Huntsville, Ala., in the south; a revived CBA in the East and Northwest; and the ABA, which is a Western circuit, except for its lonely franchise in Trenton, N.J.

The NBDL has the financial support and gets the publicity. The CBA has the established cities and the experienced owners. The ABA is the fledgling circuit.

For the record, Kobe wasn’t there, the Bryants are thought to be reconciling and Joe won’t discuss it.

The game was fine, you could get in for $5 and there were no lines at the concession stands. There was the only-in-the-ABA stuff, such as the Jam’s Corey Gaines breaking the drawstring on his pants and changing on the floor, and Percy Miller, the Rattler guard who is the well-known rapper, Master P in his other life, getting his shots blocked, one after another.

The ABA, it could be fan-tastic too. All it needs are the fans.