Outside last month’s announcement that the Cape Breton Highlanders were suspending operations for 2019-20, there hasn’t been much off-season news regarding the National Basketball League of Canada in general, or the St. John’s Edge, in particular.
For example, the latest entries in the news category on both the league’s and the Edge’s official websites relate to the June 21 announcement of protected lists for the upcoming season.
Mind you, that new season is still more than three months away — the NBL Canada won’t start up a new campaign until November — although a schedule has yet to be released.
Meanwhile, some players who were with the Edge as they went all the way to the league final this past spring are working on their games, including Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who was St. John’s marquee acquisition in 2018-19.
The former National Basketball Association champion is back with The Power, one of the entries in the Big3, the summertime professional three-on-three league founded by actor-musician Ice Cube and which mostly involves former NBAers.
Davis and The Power, whose roster also includes Cuttino Mobley, Quentin Richardson, Corey Maggette and Chris Andersen, and who are coached by Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman, won the Big3 championship last summer and are 4-1 so far this season.
Davis has averaged just over five points and almost four rebounds per season, but received the most attention for a July game that saw him ejected for arguing with referees. Before leaving the court, Davis walked up into the stands, engaged with applauding fans, then removed his jersey and threw it into the crowd.
The league later announced Davis would be “fined significantly” for his actions, but the amount was not divulged. He was not suspended.
Davis was one of two notable big men — both former NBA second-round draft picks — who joined the Edge last season. The other was 7-2 Satnam Singh, who has never played in the NBA, but was nevertheless involved in an NBA transaction last month.
That deal saw the Dallas Mavericks, who drafted Singh in 2015, sends his rights, along with two second-round draft picks to the Memphis Grizzlies, in exchange for Deion Wright.
This doesn’t mean Singh will be playing with the Grizzlies — in the NBA, rights to players are frequently transferred with no follow-up action — but Singh is maintaining his big-league dream, working out at the Sacramento Kings training facility since the Edge’s season ended in May.
The 24-year-old Singh played sparingly for St. John’s. starting just two of 38 games and averaging 2.1 points and 1.2 rebounds per contest, but he recently told the Hindustan Times that his season with the Edge still proved valuable to his development.
“In Canada, we trained in the morning for close to four hours,” he said. “In the evenings, it was either basketball drills or gym. For the last six months, I have been involved in the game 24/7. My footwork and offence have improved. The biggest gain has been the motivation to work on my own.”
Neither Davis or Singh were included on the Edge’s protected list. Neither, for that matter, was Newfoundlander and star guard Carl English. Then again, English wasn’t protected by St. John’s after his MVP season in 2017-18; like then, it’s a reasonable assumption that if the 38-year-old English does elect to continue his playing career in the NBLC, it will be with the Edge.
The Edge’s protected list for 2019-20 includes five other Canadians — Junior Cadougan, Kyle Johnson, Murphy Burnatowski, Jarryn Skeete, and Shaquille Keith — along with Americans Russell Byrd and Dez Lee, the team’s de facto MVP last season.
The protection means the Edge hold their rights within NBL Canada for the entirety of the upcoming season, although if they are unsigned by St. John’s, they can be offered contracts by other league teams. The Edge then would have two days to match the offer.
Butrnatowski and Keith are among NBL Canada players taking part in the off-season Canadian Elite Basketball League, which is in the midst of its inaugural season. Keith is with the Saskatoon Rattlers and Burnatowski with the Hamilton Honey Badgers.
Other former St. John’s players participating in the CEBL, which is largely made up of domestic players, include Grandy Glaze, Maurice Jones, Alex Johnson and Guillaume Bouchard.
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Highlanders still hope to play next season
It was three weeks ago that the Cape Breton Highlanders announced they wouldn’t be participating in the National Basketball League of Canada next season because it couldn’t meet finance-based deadlines set out by the league. However, Highlanders president Tyrone Levingston recently told the SaltWire Network’s Jeremy Fraser the team is working on some things and that he believes the Sydney, N.S.-based club could be saved for the upcoming season.
The league is scheduled hold a board of directors meeting Tuesday and Levingston hopes to have an official answer for the 2019-20 season around that date.
“We’re working on some things and if they come into fruition then we’ll be making some announcements then,” he said.
“Anybody that knows me knows how optimistic I am. I’m always optimistic because anything could happen.”
Twitter: @telysports
