International Basketball League (1999-2001)
Tombstone
Born: 1999 – IBL founding franchise
Folded: July 2001
First Game: November 26, 1999 (W 107-95 @ Baltimore BayRunners)
Last Game:
IBL Championships: None
Arena
Sovereign Bank Arena
Opened: 1999
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: Herb Greenberg, et al.
Background
Obscure minor league basketball outfit that flopped brutally at the box office when Trenton, New Jersey opened its brand new $53 million arena in October 1999.
The Trenton Shooting Stars were one of eight founding members of the International Basketball League (IBL) in 1999. The IBL was a minor league circuit with similar player talent to the NBA-affiliated Continental Basketball Association (CBA) at the time. The IBL boasted slightly higher player salaries and typically aimed for larger markets and arenas than the CBA. The IBL’s initial slate of teams featured former NBA cities such as Baltimore, Cincinnati, San Diego and St. Louis. (In this sense Trenton was actually a more typical market for the CBA than the IBL).
Competition with Trenton Titans Hockey Team
The Shooting Stars had the misfortune to open for business in direct competition with the East Coast Hockey League’s expansion Trenton Titans in the fall of 1999. Both teams were original tenants of the city’s new Sovereign Bank Arena, which sat 7,800 for hockey and 10,500 for basketball. The Titans boasted an NHL affiliation with the nearby Philadelphia Flyers. The Shooting Stars had … former NYC schoolboy legend Lloyd Daniels, whose college and pro careers had been derailed by drug addiction and a near fatal shooting.
The Titans sold 5,000 season tickets and drew nearly a quarter million fans for their inaugural season. Meanwhile, the Shooting Stars muddled along through two seasons at Sovereign Bank Arena. Attendance was often less than 1,000 patrons per night. In July 2001, team owner Herb Greenberg, founder of the management consulting firm Caliper, disclosed the Shooting Stars had lost $3 million over two years and would not return. The IBL itself folded a few days later.
Trivia
The Shooting Stars center during the 1999-00 season was a exceedingly large human named Garth Joseph. The 7′ 2″ 315-pound Dominican center parlayed his IBL stint into a cup of coffee in the NBA, playing four games with the Nuggets and the Raptors in 2000-01.
In Memoriam
Shooting Stars owner Herb Greenberg passed away on January 19, 2016 after a battle with cancer. He was 86.
Links
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