Cleveland Cavaliers buy D-League team
New Mexico Thunderbirds – NBA Update
Last week, the Cleveland Cavaliers joined the likes of Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs as the fifth team to operate a NBA Development League team.
The Cavaliers have officially purchased New Mexico Thunderbirds from D-League. The franchise will be relocated to Canton at the beginning of the next season. After purchasing the Thunderbirds, the Cleveland Cavaliers will not only
control its businesses aspect completely, the organization will also carry the basketball operations of Thunderbirds. In short, Cavallies will be the sole NBA affiliate for the Thunderbirds from now onwards.
Dan Reed, NBA Development League’s president welcomed the development;
“We're very excited to welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers to a rapidly expanding group of NBA teams realizing the advantages of an exclusive relationship with their NBA D-League affiliate. The combination of supportive city leadership
and an outstanding organization in the Cavs leads us to believe the future of the team in Canton is very bright."
The Thunderbirds will play the 2011-2012 season at the Memorial Civic Centre in Canton and the Cavaliers have launched a campaign, asking the fans to suggest nicknames for the newly acquired team.
The Cavs have appointed Scoot Woodruff as the Chief Operating Officer for the Development League team. Woodruff was previously serving as the Vice President of Corporate and Ticket sales for the Lake Erie Monsters, an American
Hockey League team.
Speaking on the occasion, Cavaliers President Len Komoroski said, "We are very excited and looking forward to a great partnership with the City of Canton, fans and the surrounding community. We have a strong connection with the
Canton regional market and we are excited to further engage our fans.”
This comes as the latest, in the series of developments at the Cleveland franchise. About two weeks back, the Cavs drafted in Kyrie Irving as the number one pick and Tristan Thompson as the number fourth pick. The franchise is
already in a rebuilding process after finishing with the worst record in 8 years last season.
With a renewed roster, the Cavaliers will be looking to expand their fortunes in the main stream league, whenever its season kicks off. To add to that, NBA is experiencing a lockout and as to when the league will get back to business
is anybody’s guess at the moment. This might actually work in the favour of the Cavaliers, as they will have more time to concentrate on their newly acquired team.
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