Rochester will be playing in the new North American Premier Basketball league for the upcoming 2018 season.
CHICAGO, IL. — Dr. Sev Hrywnak unveiled a new international professional basketball league, the North American Premier Basketball League (NAPB), at a press conference in the Aloft O’Hare Hotel recently.
CEO Hrywnak is co-heading the league with President/COO Dave Magley. Magley most recently served as Commissioner for National Basketball League Canada (NBLC), and played for Kansas University and the Cleveland Cavaliers .
The NAPB will operate from coast to coast in the United States and in Western Canada. Combine tryouts are set to take place this fall in 15 cities. The league’s inaugural season kicks off Jan. 1, 2018.
The NAPB will enlist former NBA Director of Officials Ronnie Nunn to serve as Vice President of Officials to set high standards for league referees. Nunn has flown across the world to speak to leagues in Europe and Asia about officiating, training, and league regulations.
According to Hrywnak and Magley, the now defunct Continental Basketball Association, and the effort to move NBA’s G-League teams closer to their parent teams, leave markets across the US abandoned. A marketing study conducted over a 2-year period identified 60 cities in the USA and Canada that have the fan support and financially stable ownership groups to sustain professional basketball in the area.
The NAPB will look to revive these cities and bring the spirit of the game back to these areas. The co-owners have set a 20-25 team total expansion goal for the 2020 season.
Magley cites the new league’s unique standards as the main factor that will separate it from other leagues across the world. These include financial standards for team owners, sliding scale payments for players, venue and uniform regulations, and community initiatives.
Magley and Hrywnak are dedicated to including valuable programming for local communities, particularly schools from the elementary to high school levels. Programs include players reading to younger children, hosting basketball camps for teens, and speaking in school-wide assemblies about substance abuse and staying in school.
As for Hrywnak’s previous endeavor, the Premier Basketball League (PBL), will act as a second division to the NAPB. His team, the 2017 PBL champion Rochester RazorSharks, will be the first team to make the move to the NAPB this Fall. Other cities that have submitted applications to join the new league include Vancouver, Seattle, Hawaii, and Las Vegas.
The North American Premier Basketball League combines are now open for registration. The Rochester combine will be held on Nov. 4. To register go to: https://thepbl.wufoo.com/forms/s1ddoub41jevdqk/