The house lights went dark, the familiar music of the Alan Parsons Project began to play and a near-sellout crowd reacted enthusiastically as the public address announcer introduced the home team’s starting lineup.
Saturday night was a case of deja vu for those fans who remembered the Bulls’ six championship seasons, especially with Stacey King as one of the game’s coaches and when “No. 24 from Providence, Dickey Simpkins” was announced. Simpkins hardly played during the Bulls’ second three-peat, let alone started, but here he was, fighting for another title.
This time Simpkins was a member of the Rockford Lightning, the Continental Basketball Association’s American Conference champion, going against the Dakota Wizards in a winner-take-all game for the league title. Instead of playing before 21,000-plus fans at the United Center, Simpkins and his teammates took the floor at Rockford Metro Centre in front of 7,201–a season high equal to about three or four regular-season crowds combined.
Simpkins played all 48 minutes, finishing with 32 points and hitting 16-of-21 free throws. He also had 16 rebounds, five assists and three steals. But the Lightning lost 116-109, leaving Simpkins with only huge icepacks on his knees and right ankle to show for his effort.
The Wizards won the title despite forfeiting home-court advantage because of a conflict with the World Curling Championships, which were booked into their arena in Bismarck, N.D. They were a resilient team in a resilient league, winning the final title in the tiny International Basketball Association, then joining the CBA when the IBA folded last summer.
The CBA was not exactly stable, an ownership snafu causing it to declare bankruptcy and cease operations in midseason last year after it had functioned continuously for 55 years.
It came back because of the dedication of people like Rockford resident Wayne Timpe, who says he lost more than $600,000 in his effort to bring pro basketball back to his hometown. Although the Lightning fell well short of Timpe’s goal of a 1,000-season-ticket fan base, he says he’ll be back next year.
“If I have another year like this one, I’m probably going to have to say the heck with it,” Timpe said. “But my wife and I talked it over, and we want to make this work. I’m a stubborn guy and I’ve never failed at anything. Besides I love basketball and this city.”
King grew close to the people of Rockford during his two years as coach but isn’t sure if he’ll be back. He hopes to move up the ladder, as is the case with virtually everyone associated with the CBA, and he’s sure he can put what he has learned to good use.
His relationship with Jeff Sanders is a case in point. A first-round draft pick of the Bulls along with King and B.J. Armstrong in 1989, Sanders averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds per game last season and 18.4 points and 10 rebounds this season, making first-team All-CBA both years. But King had Sanders coming off the bench by playoff time–he had six points and four rebounds in the title game–and they had a falling out as Sanders saw his chances of being called up to the NBA evaporate.
King says Sanders had trouble separating their friendship from the player-coach relationship. Never again, he vows, will he coach someone with whom he has played.
“There’s a lot of change and turnover in this sort of league, so I felt like a chef who was constantly trying to add the right ingredients to find the right chemistry,” King said. “To be honest I felt underappreciated this season.”
King is 17 games above .500 in his two years as a coach. He plans to explore other CBA options before next season, as well as opportunities in the NBA’s Development League. If Bill Cartwright, his old friend and former teammate, opens an assistant’s job with the Bulls, King would love to get an interview.
Many of Saturday’s title-game participants will move on and perhaps up, in particular Dakota guard Miles Simon, the former Arizona star who was MVP of the regular season and the championship game. The league expects to add expansion franchises in Boise and Yakima to its existing eight.
Then there is Simpkins, 30, a six-year NBA journeyman whose championship-game effort capped off a CBA comeback in which he averaged 20.5 points and 11.9 rebounds in 26 games. But the performance was not about next year or even next week. It was a demonstration of Simpkins’ drive to succeed, the greatest attribute among most CBA players.
“I came in here with a professional attitude, trying to make myself better mentally and physically to get another shot at the NBA,” Simpkins said. “After all this hard work, we still walked away with nothing. But we built the championship standard for whoever comes here next year.”
