United States Basketball League (1991-2001)
Tombstone
Born: 1991 – USBL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 2001
First Game: June 5, 1991 (L 123-116 vs. Philadelphia Spirit)
Last Game: June 30, 2001 (L 118-99 @ Pennsylvania ValleyDawgs)
USBL Championships: None
Arenas
1991: SUNY-Old Westbury
1992: Westbury High School
1993: University at Stony Brook
1993-1994: Hofstra University
1995: St. Dominic High School (2,100)
Branding
Team Colors: Sea Green, Process Blue & White11995 Long Island Surf Yearbook
Ownership
Owners: Ed Krinsky, Roger Gaeckler, Jeff Ramson, Jed Kaplan, Bert Karlin, et al.
Background
The Long Island Surf were a nomadic but durable minor league basketball operation that wandered through various high school and collegiate small gymnasiums on the Island between 1991 and 2001. The Surf were part of the United States Basketball League, a primarily Eastern Seaboard circuit that played short (20-30 game) schedules from May to July each year.
Dozens of teams came and went during the USBL’s tempestuous 1985-2007 lifespan. No other franchise matched the longevity of the Surf’s eleven seasons on Long Island.
The Surf appeared in back-to-back USBL championship games in 1997 and 1998, but fell to the Atlantic City Seagulls in both finals.
Anthony Mason
The USBL billed itself as the “League of Opportunity”, a place for the over-looked and under-sized to get a second (or third, or fourth) look from NBA scouts. No player better fit the USBL’s storyline than former Tennessee State power forward Anthony Mason, who played for the Surf during their debut season of 1991.
Drafted and cut in training camp by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1988, Mason chased paychecks from Tulsa to Turkey to Venezuela for the next three years. With the Surf, the 6′ 7″ Mason dominated the USBL in 1991, scoring 27.8 points per game and a league-leading 11.2 boards.
Mason signed with the New York Knicks later in 1991 and never returned to the minors. developed into an All-Star performing, winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award with the Knicks in 1995. Mason enjoyed a 12-year NBA career before retiring in 2003.
Tragically, Mason passed away after suffering a heart attack at age 48 in 2015.
In Memoriam
Anthony Mason died on February 28, 2015 after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier that month. New York Times obituary.
Links
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