| abstract
| - The Kentucky Basketball Developmental League, often abbreviated to the KBDL, formerly known as the Kentucky International Basketball Association (KIBA), was a professional basketball minor league based out of the city of Newport, Kentucky, United States. Its stated goal was to be a minor league to develop American basketball players for professional basketball outside the United States, but was essentially a very unsuccessful failure. The KBDL used FIBA rules. League management used poorly planned methods, and as a result many players and coached left and disavowed themselves of any business with the league. Management also used threats and meanacing tactics, including trumped up lawsuits, to create an atmosphere where the director would take sole credit for everything done and for the little success the league did have. In its truest aspect, the main business was run out of a small garage in Northern Kentucky, and the league's newspaper, operated and prepared by the league director's wife, only produced one issue. All press releases were issued by the same director. The director and his wife had no prior knowledge of the game of basketball and he was merely was a businessman working in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. The KIBA began play in June 2006 with four teams:
* American Bulldogs (Hopkinsville, Kentucky)
* Louisville Lightning (Louisville, Kentucky)
* Mountain Blazers (Hazard, Kentucky)
* River City Gamblers (Shively, Kentucky) In July, 2006, the KIBA renamed themselves the KBDL - Kentucky Basketball Developmental League and expanded with more teams:
* Central Kentucky Express (Irvine, Kentucky), head coach: Larry Tiller
* Hazard Shooting Stars (deleted in 2008)
* Lancers (Lebanon, Kentucky), head coach: Kevin Ellery
* RiverCity Gamblers (Louisville, Kentucky), head coach: Maurice "Mo" Smith
* Southern Indiana Generals (Elizabeth, Indiana), head coach: Scott Schoen
* Thoroughbreds (Lexington, Kentucky), head coach: Steve Miller The 2009 season saw teams in Cincinnati, Ohio - Huntington, West Virginia - Indianapolis, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee as KBDL expanded and reaches out for new talents and teams. This too turned out to be a large failure. For example, an incident occurred during a game in Milford, Ohio in May of 2009. The league director, based on what many determined to be paranoia, stripped a team owner of his team, and publicly destroyed his credibility. The same team's head coach was pulled from the bench in the middle of the game for no given reason, and slandered by both the team owner and the league director during the a final public argument between the two in which the owner threw all team property at the league director. Rather than pursue legal action against either of them, the coach chose to immediately disassociate himself from the league and its director, and returned to his regular coaching position at a local high school, with no explanation given to anybody. The league's last known completed season was the 2010 season, which had these teams in it:
* Cincinnati Stallions
* Northern Kentucky Thunder
* Rivercity Gamblers
* Southern Indiana Generals
* Thoroughbreds (travel team)
* Tri-State Tankers Since 2010, the KBDL has disappeared from complete view and is considered defunct. ************* 2016 - There is so much wrong in that this fool wrote. You can tell by the vitriol in his words that he is writing out of anger. There was NEVER a Tri-State Tankers team. We NEVER had teams in Huntington, Indianapolis nor Nashville. And the biggest misrepresentation is that stopped existing in 2010. We are still playing and we still do not have a team in Harrodsburg. Let me clear up some of the writers lies, taking lines out of the above writings: "...Its stated goal was to be a minor league to develop American basketball players for professional basketball outside the United States, but was essentially a very unsuccessful failure." We have sent over 60 players to play Pro ball overseas and even a head coach came from KBDL. "...League management used poorly planned methods…" REALLY ??? If you will check other leagues, you will find that many are using the methods that we created, some so close that it looks like OUR website. Many have even adopted the basketball that we use. "...and as a result many players and coached left and disavowed themselves of any business with the league…" That would be SEE BELOW "...Management also used threats and meanacing tactics, including trumped up lawsuits…" SEE BELOW. That is the ONLY lawsuit that KBDL has been involved in so far. "...In its truest aspect, the main business was run out of a small garage in Northern Kentucky..." An out and out Lie…It is run from my spare bedroom..., "...and the league's newspaper, operated and prepared by the league director's wife, only produced one issue…" The boy should learn to count. I have what I consider the best six front pages framed on my bedroom office (not Garage) wall. I COULD simply erase what the fool above wrote, but this is more interesting. The team in question was the Harrodsburg Tankers, not the Tri-State Tankers (never heard of them. The writer probably used that name so he could not be identified on an anonymous site such as this). There was a player on the Tankers that had started two fights in previous games. The GM, who was a "minister" (I put that word in quotes for reasons that you will see if you read on) was told in no uncertain terms that the player was NOT to be associated with the KBDL in any form from that night forward. In spite of direct instruction, he showed up in Cincinnati, dressed and playing. I spoke with the GM during warmups that he was NOT to play…he played. During half time I took the GM - who was the GM, he was NOT THE OWNER - into the office and we talked strongly and loudly about this problem. In the end I said "He is OFF the team." The response was "Its MY team and I will play who I want." I responded "You're fired." He said that the team would walk, I offered to hold the door for them...and it went downhill from there. After the game, in the parking lot, I did indeed ask for the uniforms, etc and they were indeed threw at me. Now the interesting part. In subsequent emails with the "minister" GM, I asked for the T-Shirts and merchandise that KBDL paid for, to allow the Tankers to sell. The response was basically "WHAT T-SHIRTS ? I don't have any T-Shirts." Then all contact was broken. I collected all of the information, photos, receipts etc, built a "case" sent it to the leaders of the Church outfit that this "Minister" was a part of. Suddenly he was back in contact asking me to not put his "ministerial" career in jeopardy but still denying the merchandise existed. Our Attorney prepared a court case. Part or our case were photos of the GMs own MOTHER at the merchandising table selling Tanker merchandise. We pushed the fact that if we went to court, his Mother would definitely be our Star witness to testify against him. At this point, the offer was made to return the merchandise. Also at this point, since we had been informed on several occasions that there WAS NO MERCHANDISE, we simply demanded the money for the merchandise or we would go to court. The merchandise that "didn't exist" was paid for through our attorney avoiding court. I still have all of the photos, emails, and evidence and our attorney still has the files if anyone would like to check this out. I also still have the same attorney, who also checked out this response before I placed it (Admittedly he said I should just let it go, but also said that I was on strong legal grounds if I published it. If the writer believes this is false, sue me…maybe we can call his Mother as a witness. I would suggest that the writer stick to being a "minister" and not attempt to destroy... I will copy this and send it to the Ministerial Board again to show that this is still going on, despite their warnings.
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