United States Basketball League (1994)
Tombstone
Born: 1994 – USBL expansion franchise
Folded: 1994
First Game: May 11, 1994 (W 127-122 vs. Atlanta Trojans)
Last Game: July 4, 1994 (L 147-133 vs. Atlanta Trojans @ Jacksonville, FL)
USBL Championships: None
Arena
Mississippi Coast Coliseum
Opened: 1977
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners:
- 1994: T.L. Phillips
- 1994: USBL
Background
The Mississippi Coast Gamblers were a penniless minor league basketball outfit that staggered through a single campaign in the low budget United States Basketball League during the summer of 1994.
Original owner T.L. Phillips of Indianapolis failed pay his players, coaches, cheerleaders or installments on his $150,000 expansion franchise fee and abandoned the team midway through the schedule.1Knobler, Mike. “Minor-league team has major-league problems”. The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS). June 12, 1994 Players continued to pay without paychecks for weeks on end and the USBL terminated Phillips’ ownership rights. Despite all of the off-court hardships, the Gamblers tied for first place in the USBL’s 1994 regular season standings with an 18-9 mark.
The Gambler’s most experienced player was Mississippi native Terry Catledge, a former NBA 1st round draft pick with the Philadelphia 76ers who played eight seasons in the NBA from 1985 to 1993. Catledge scored 44 points in the Gamblers’ opening game victory over the Atlanta Trojans on May 11, 1994.
The Gamblers folded at the end of the 1994 season. They were the third minor leagues hoops outfit to fail at Biloxi’s Mississippi Coast Coliseum in six years, following the Mississippi Jets of the Continental Basketball Association (1987-1988) and the Mississippi Coast Sharks (1992) of the Global Basketball Association.
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