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Recreation
Silverados and Vipers Pro Basketball Teams Launch First Seasons in Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley Vipers play at Dodge Arena.
Professional basketball has arrived in the Rio Grande Valley – in duplicate.
In November‚ the Rio Grande Valley Vipers began play in the NBA Development League‚ a minor league for the National Basketball Association. At almost the same time‚ the Continental Basketball Association welcomed the Rio Grande Valley Silverados to the fold.
The Silverados were the first to hit the hardwood‚ debuting Nov. 17 at the 3‚000-seat McAllen Convention Center. Team co-owners Kevin Mitchell and Art Gonzalez founded the expansion franchise as a gift to the region.
“We wanted to bring something to the Valley‚” says Mitchell. “This is something we’re passionate about.”
The team plays in the 10-team CBA‚ a 60-year-old league that has sent scores of players to the NBA. That will be the dream of the first crop of Silverados‚ who were selected at the CBA’s draft and through various tryouts.
The team plays a 48-game schedule from November through April‚ followed by the league’s playoffs.
But wins and losses will only be part of the equation for the front office when it weighs the results of its first year of operation.
“Success for us will be being able to provide a high level of entertainment‚” Mitchell says.
Less than a week after the Silverados tipped off‚ the Vipers played their first game in Hidalgo’s Dodge Arena‚ which seats more than 5‚500 for basketball games. The team sold more than 1‚000 season tickets in advance of the first game.
The franchise was born after a meeting between Ryan Murphy and the NBA president of development and expansion. Murphy quickly put together a group of community investors to entice the NBA to choose the Valley as the site of an expansion franchise.
The Vipers’ roster will be stocked with players from three NBA clubs: the Houston Rockets‚ New Orleans Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers. Many of those players will bounce back and forth between the Vipers and the NBA.
Bob Hoffman‚ who coached at Texas-Pan American in addition to other stops in a lengthy career‚ was tabbed as the team’s first coach. NBA Hall of Famer George Gervin serves as the club’s director of basketball operations‚ part of what Murphy calls “a superstar team.”
Murphy says one goal of the franchise is to “promote the Rio Grande Valley and bring national and international exposure to the McAllen region.”
The club plays a 50-game schedule‚ also from November to April.
Story by Dan Markham
Photo by Antony Boshier
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