(Photograph and Graphics by Maggie Coughlan)FROM THE CONCRETE TO THE HARDWOOD
BASED ON A TRUE STORY –
"THE LOCKOUT"
After former Director of Basketball Operations, Player Personnel, and Head Coach Michael Logan would become privileged to inside information, he would then have the opportunity to speak with Jersey Express Team Owner- Marsha Blount (NJ) on January 11th 2009- (the NYC Internationalz first official ABA Away Game) at Drew University. Michael Logan would tell Sharhan after the lost game that, Marsha just asked me- "Why am I doing this? Do I want my own team or what?” This would be the turning point, when Marsha Blount and Michael Logan would foster a relationship with each other and the league CEO to lockout and sabotage the NYC Internationalz.
Michael Logan would manipulate players (principally brought to play by Quintin Gittens- his friends), conceal player information (Names, addresses, date of births, validation of identification, and player contracts) over budget player salaries, even materializing what was now recognized as two phony sponsors; Luma Diamond Consultants- his Fraternity brother and a Mary Kay Representative- his wife. He stated that, these sponsors would provide the NYC Internationalz with monies for advertising their businesses on the http://www.nyciz.com/ website, but after 3 months no monies where ever received for these services; Also, Michael Logan still has in his possession over $7,000 worth of uniforms and equipment from this grassroots NYC team.
Additionally, Michael Logan would continually share information between the League CEO- Joe Newman, Marsha Blount (Jersey Express Team Owner), and several head coaches through a self created ‘Coaches Forum’ to gain a footing for opening the lines of communication between himself and team owners which compromised the business of the NYC Internationalz unknowingly. Michael Logan’s act of social engineering was induced by befriending the two team owners; his influence amongst the league has allowed him to attain his own team franchise- NYC Thunder. An unofficially announced ‘travel team’ by CEO Joe Newman (where Newman and Michael Logan have spoken about him having a team for the 2009 ABA season expansion) that, is owned and operated in the same market as the NYC Internationalz in the ABA by Michael Logan; With one-third of the season having already been completed….Michael Logan was able to qualify for the playoffs after playing 1 game in NJ against the Jersey Express (Team Owner Marsha Blount), which was cancelled 3 days before the February 28, 2009, original ad-hoc schedule agreed to 1 month prior between both team owners.
In the middle of all the madness and mass e-mails, Joe Newman- ABA CEO, would ask the NYC Internationalz, if they wanted to participate in the playoffs, and would try to do so by encouraging the Internationalz involvement by waiving a newly created (in the middle of the season) ad-hoc “70% rule” (per Joe Newman- “Eligibility for ABA Playoffs. We have begun to determine the method of qualifying for the ABA Playoffs. As you know, we will have a mini-tournament in four divisions to find the four teams to go to Nashville to compete with the 4 teams that will receive a bye. Right now, the plan is to take the average number of games played by the top 3 teams in the division - and take 70% of those - to become eligible to play. Example. If the average number of games for the top 3 teams is 26, it will take 18 games to qualify for the mini-tournament.” After the “70% rule” was waived Newman stated to the NYC Internationalz- “Your team will qualify for the playoffs. You have been doing an excellent job and we understand the situation there.”)
And then, an extra impromptu rule, lastly mentioned via communication with NYCIZ and the ABA CEO was where, Newman stated- “Another rule is that all players must have played in three (3) ABA games.” This would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as NYCIZ would have no qualifying roster to play a part in the ABA playoffs per Newman’s rule; Newman was asking a question he already knew the answer to, as he had already given authorization and consent of the transferred former team roster from the NYC Internationalz to create Michael Logan’s new ‘travel team’- the NYC Thunder; who made a public announcement to national and international public media (http://www.usbasket.com/ and http://www.eurobasket.com/) entitled
Michael Logan would manipulate players (principally brought to play by Quintin Gittens- his friends), conceal player information (Names, addresses, date of births, validation of identification, and player contracts) over budget player salaries, even materializing what was now recognized as two phony sponsors; Luma Diamond Consultants- his Fraternity brother and a Mary Kay Representative- his wife. He stated that, these sponsors would provide the NYC Internationalz with monies for advertising their businesses on the http://www.nyciz.com/ website, but after 3 months no monies where ever received for these services; Also, Michael Logan still has in his possession over $7,000 worth of uniforms and equipment from this grassroots NYC team.
Additionally, Michael Logan would continually share information between the League CEO- Joe Newman, Marsha Blount (Jersey Express Team Owner), and several head coaches through a self created ‘Coaches Forum’ to gain a footing for opening the lines of communication between himself and team owners which compromised the business of the NYC Internationalz unknowingly. Michael Logan’s act of social engineering was induced by befriending the two team owners; his influence amongst the league has allowed him to attain his own team franchise- NYC Thunder. An unofficially announced ‘travel team’ by CEO Joe Newman (where Newman and Michael Logan have spoken about him having a team for the 2009 ABA season expansion) that, is owned and operated in the same market as the NYC Internationalz in the ABA by Michael Logan; With one-third of the season having already been completed….Michael Logan was able to qualify for the playoffs after playing 1 game in NJ against the Jersey Express (Team Owner Marsha Blount), which was cancelled 3 days before the February 28, 2009, original ad-hoc schedule agreed to 1 month prior between both team owners.
In the middle of all the madness and mass e-mails, Joe Newman- ABA CEO, would ask the NYC Internationalz, if they wanted to participate in the playoffs, and would try to do so by encouraging the Internationalz involvement by waiving a newly created (in the middle of the season) ad-hoc “70% rule” (per Joe Newman- “Eligibility for ABA Playoffs. We have begun to determine the method of qualifying for the ABA Playoffs. As you know, we will have a mini-tournament in four divisions to find the four teams to go to Nashville to compete with the 4 teams that will receive a bye. Right now, the plan is to take the average number of games played by the top 3 teams in the division - and take 70% of those - to become eligible to play. Example. If the average number of games for the top 3 teams is 26, it will take 18 games to qualify for the mini-tournament.” After the “70% rule” was waived Newman stated to the NYC Internationalz- “Your team will qualify for the playoffs. You have been doing an excellent job and we understand the situation there.”)
And then, an extra impromptu rule, lastly mentioned via communication with NYCIZ and the ABA CEO was where, Newman stated- “Another rule is that all players must have played in three (3) ABA games.” This would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as NYCIZ would have no qualifying roster to play a part in the ABA playoffs per Newman’s rule; Newman was asking a question he already knew the answer to, as he had already given authorization and consent of the transferred former team roster from the NYC Internationalz to create Michael Logan’s new ‘travel team’- the NYC Thunder; who made a public announcement to national and international public media (http://www.usbasket.com/ and http://www.eurobasket.com/) entitled
“Change of name for the Internationalz",
Stating that, “because of reasons not under the player control, the NYC Internationalz underwent a ownershing change. The original owner left the team, and the players decided to go another way. The ABA league took the change with open arms, keeping the team in the league, so the same team (with the same roster) will play the New Jersey Express tomorrow night as the New York Thunder.” This e-mail was sent from Quintin ‘Tim’ Gittens and Michael Logan, before the February 28, 2009 game that Jersey Express cancelled 3 days before the game. This would leave the original NYC team owners with no qualifying roster or games to play, even with new 'original players' and coaching staff.
One of the thousands of messages from supportive fans everywhere was…. How does a ‘travel team’ participate in any playoff when they are only there to fill season games? And, why would the ABA and team owners try to Lock Out NYCIZ?
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