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For the 14ers, it's all about The Dream

James B.Meadow, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 9, 2006 at midnight

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omewhere, between the sharp squeak of rubber on wood and the arc of a bottle thrown angrily through the air, between the thunk of a ball on the court and a long bus ride through the freezing black of a winter's night, between a young man's percolating self-assurance, an older man's quiet hope and the looming sting of reality - somewhere between all this lies The Dream.

The Dream is delicious, Technicolor bold. It's all about making it to the grand stage known as The League - the National Basketball Association, a fairy tale land of dunks and jump shots and athletic shoe contracts and charter flights and swanky hotels and big money.

And, best of all, it's attainable.

Just ask Pooh Jeter, a player you never heard of who's playing for the Colorado 14ers, a team you never heard of, at the Broomfield Event Center, an arena you never heard of, in the National Basketball Association Development League, a league you never heard of.

"Can I make it in the NBA? Most definitely," says Jeter ("Like a jet -- y'know, jet-er"), a high-octane 24-year-old point guard from Portland University who isn't letting the fact that the Sacramento Kings of the NBA cut him in October dislodge his grip on The Dream.

"Of course, I was disappointed, of course, I was hurt. But I found out after I was released from the Kings it wasn't about my basketball skills - their roster was loaded with guards. So I didn't give up. Now I play in Broomfield, Colorado, in the D-League, which gives me exposure to showcase my God-given talent."

Normally as effervescent as champagne, Jeter turns flat sober, insisting, "I don't like it when people give up and say, 'I can't do it.' You can do it. I'm never gonna give up."

Which is probably what Uncle B would have said eight years ago.

Uncle B is Bakari Hendrix, another guy you never heard of. At 29, he's the oldest 14er - hence the "Uncle" sobriquet his younger teammates have hung on him. Although Hendrix takes the old-man jokes in stride, he also knows, "At 29, I'm considered an elder statesman. That's crazy-sounding, but it's the truth."

Hendrix knows plenty about the truths of professional basketball in the shadows. Since he left Gonzaga University, he has played in Turkey, Korea, the Philippines, Greece, Italy, France and Portugal, to say nothing of Alabama and Iowa. He has sat on the bench under canopies designed to protect players from the coins, bottles and other objects angry European fans sometimes throw. He has traveled on icy buses over icy roads and wedged his 6-foot-8, 230-pound frame into coach seats on airplanes.

In the process, he's made a decent living because the money overseas isn't bad. But now he's in D-League Land, where the top salary is $24,000 - or $388,718 less than the NBA minimum. Where he lives in a residence motel with a roommate and is happy to get 50 percent off meals at some local restaurants.

Why?

Because he remembers the five games he spent wearing a Utah Jazz uniform seven years ago. "I wanted to give it one more shot for an opportunity to play in the League. I mean, you can only chase the dream for so long."

Still, Uncle B knows there are worse places than Broomfield to do the chasing.

The lite fantastic

Hunkered down right next to the Boulder Turnpike, just east of the Wadsworth Parkway exit, the Broomfield Event Center is a $45 million arena that the general manager of the Colorado 14ers calls, among other things, "quaint."

Oddly, Troy Medlock is right.

Sure, the brand-new building offers a covered parking garage, a fitness room, a separate practice facility, a merchandise store, 6,000 seats, 26 suites, two lounges, a pub, a restaurant, an octagonal overhead scoreboard with four 12 mega-pixel quality video screens and some great sightlines. Still, something about it makes it feel homey, accessible, not larger than life. If the D-League is NBA Lite, then the BEC is Pepsi Center Lite.

Good thing, because "We're doing grass-roots marketing here," says Medlock, who also is general manager of the Rocky Mountain Rage - the BEC's minor-league hockey team. "We rely more on one-on-one than mass media; we're going after Rotarians, Lions clubs, families. We try to be folksy; we're not selling glamour. We take the mom-and- pop approach."

Part of that mom-and-pop approach includes mom-and-pop prices.

Where the NBA Nuggets' average ticket price is $56.13, you can purchase a seat on the 14ers floor for $40. You can also walk up on game day and score a pretty good 14ers seat for $8.

Another way to view the price chasm between NBA and D-League is to talk to Jim Phillips, who says his two 14ers season ducats on the floor near center court cost "less than what I spent on Nuggets playoff tickets last year."

FYI, the 14ers play 24 home games; the Nuggets had two home playoff games.

No, you don't get to see Carmelo or LeBron or Kobe or Shaq for your dough, but apparently that's not a deterrent to some fans.

"It's competitive enough," says Tony Larson, as he watches the 14ers play their first-ever home game against the Los Angeles D-Fenders - another team you've never heard of. "I love basketball in general, and these guys are good. Besides, I can afford to take all three of my kids here."

"It's OK basketball," says Tony Pearson, part of the 2,983 ("You can say 3,000 if you want," says Medlock) in attendance. "They're not the most athletic guys in the world; maybe not the greatest shooters.

"But there's . . . more passing," adds Pearson.

There's also less body art. One of the things you can't help but notice about the 14ers is that, with the exception of Bakari, no one sports a tattoo - a display of bare skin rarely experienced in today's NBA.

Not that Mike DeMuth would be able to see a tattoo anyway.

Ensconced in row S - which is as far back as you can be ensconced - Mike DeMuth is perfectly happy: "I don't know how to say this, but it all feels a little more personal, watching these guys play."

Indeed, with the Broomfield High School Band sitting in, the 14ers' opener has a definite homecoming vibe. There's something even comfortably hokey about William T. Goat, the team's mascot.

But if the atmosphere is refreshingly small town, the player accommodations are anything but.

Hendrix, who has practiced in "middle schools where the gym was one of those cafeteria-auditorium deals - y'know, with a stage at one end" - took one look at the BEC's separate practice facility and locker rooms and went "Whoa."

He was equally impressed by the presence of "luxury suites" and "all those nice seats. I don't think there's any other minor league arena that has all this."

No wonder 14ers coach Joe Wolf says that, as far as facilities go, "It's like winning the lottery."

Then again, really winning the lottery for Wolf would be realizing his dream - to be an NBA coach. He spent two seasons coaching the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association before quitting in July to interview for three different NBA assistant coaching jobs. When none was offered, he took the 14ers' position.

A low-key, pleasant guy who spent 11 journeyman years in the League, Wolf freely admits that he is "hungry" for an NBA job. Which is why he can relate to his players.

Players like Antoine Hood, who dazzled fans of the Air Force Academy, but fell short of making the Nuggets. Players like Julius Hodge, who was the Nuggets' No. 1 pick last year and, because of injury and flaws in his game, just joined the team a week ago. Players like Von Wafer, who had a cup of coffee with the NBA Los Angeles Lakers last year and now burns to emulate Smush Parker, who toiled in the D-League and now starts for the Lakers.

Is Wafer bummed about being in the D-League?

"Most definitely not," he says. "You have to play to get better. Here, I get in-game experience I wouldn't have with the Lakers. This could be a blessing in disguise."

According to Brian Walsh, a 14ers assistant coach and scout, while D-Leaguers in general have "an advantage" over players in Europe because the scouts are closer, 14ers players have an even bigger advantage because "scouts will be happy to come here. Hey, this isn't like Bismarck where it's 90 below zero."

Which is good news for Walsh because he also has The Dream.

"Sure, I want to be a coach in the NBA," says the man whose résumé includes jobs with the New Mexico Slam, the Nebraska Cranes and some team in Norway. "Like the players, I'm confident I'll make it."

Not that you have to be a coach or a player to view D-League competition as an audition. Trainers, front office personnel share The Dream. Referees, too. Every referee hired by the NBA since 2002 has apprenticed in the D- League.

Sometimes it seems the only people at a 14ers game not intent on making it to the NBA are fans.

'This is about the suburbs'

All this - the desire and hustle of the players, the affinity of the fans for a more intimate, less pricey setting - is exactly what Tim Wiens and John Frew were counting on when they decided to create a minor-league empire.

Actually, Wiens, a developer and a banker, was initially looking for an "entertainment anchor" that would "drive traffic to and through" his burgeoning Arista development.

But if he was going to have an anchor, he'd need anchor tenants. After sitting down with Frew, a lawyer who ran the Denver Grand Prix for a few years and has done legal work for the Nuggets and Coors Field, a plan was hatched: two teams.

When Broomfield was willing to underwrite the arena with public bonds, Wiens and Frew went about securing teams. After a brief flirtation with the Continental Basketball Association, they switched allegiances to the D-League, ante'd up the $400,000 franchise fee, and added a hoops team to their new hockey franchise in the Central Hockey League.

After reviewing such possible names as the Majestics, Ascenders, Hang Dogs and Rustlers, the owners went with 14ers, as in Colorado's 54 cherished 14,000-foot-plus peaks.

But it's one thing to name a team; it's another to make the team a success. Especially a minor league team in a city where the Broncos, Rockies, Avalanche and Nuggets have etched the concept of Major League - and nothing but Major League - onto the public psyche.

No problem. In the first place, "This isn't about Denver at all," says Frew. "Not everybody wants to go to Denver, put up with the hassle of driving and parking, the price."

Instead, "This is about non-Denver, this is about the suburbs."

Specifically, it's about the "1.3 million people who live within a 15-mile radius of our building"; the people in Broomfield, Westminster, Arvada, Thornton, Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior.

But it isn't just market numbers. You also need what Wiens calls "the perfect storm" to occur. You need total control over every single revenue stream - corporate sponsorships, tickets, concessions, parking. You need control over the scheduling of the facility."

And once you have this, says Wiens, "You have a reasonable opportunity for profitability."

And something else, as well.

"The idea that you're an owner, it's hard to describe," says Frew. "You walk into an arena and it's your team. You walk a little taller, you look at it differently. It's like having an out-of-body experience."

Mayberry meets Broomfield

Right now, Antoine Hood is having an in-body experience, and that body is pretty sweaty. Still swathed in his uniform, he hasn't bothered to shower before signing autographs after the 14ers' 112-100 win.

A voluble sort, Hood was a crowd- pleaser while a cadet, and turning pro hasn't diminished his buoyancy. You talk to him, you get an earful. Everything from, "Most definitely, I'll make it in the NBA," to "getting cut wasn't based on talent. A lot had to do with the team had 15 guaranteed contracts."

"Oh, it's great to be here," he continues, unable to give short replies. "You're a heartbeat from the NBA. You're in sight, in mind. Being in Broomfield is a giant opportunity; I don't see any negatives from this whole endeavor."

Apparently there are no negatives in the endeavor of meeting his public in the BEC restaurant, perspiration barely dry. Here he is, Sharpie in hand, signing jerseys, programs, scraps of paper, everything - right down to the pink cast on the hand of 11-year-old Taylor Hodapp, who is several Zip Codes beyond ecstatic.

Nor is she alone.

As the other players shower and come into the room, new ripples of excitement spread through the crowd. As Russ Applehans takes a photo of his son Brandon and 14er Elton Brown, the 12-year-old's feet barely touch ground.

"Amazing!" says Brandon. "Great game! Great passing! I like this better than the Nuggets!"

And it's not just kids. Middle-aged men gather their programs and get autographs. Sometimes, they get the autographs of the 14ers Dancers, good-naturedly hitting on them, hoping.

It is now an hour after the game and still the players are there, still the fans are there, each embroidered into the moment. It's such a sweet and wholesome aura - pro basketball comes to Mayberry. You look at the fan faces, the young ones, and the expression says, cooooool.

Then you look at the players, and as friendly as they are, you suddenly realize - none of them really wants to be here.

No, they want to be somewhere else. Where the spotlight is brighter and the money is greater and there's plenty of legroom on your charter flight. Where fame can cover you like confetti and destiny kisses you sweetly. So what if it takes you a little longer to arrive? One day you will. And then, most definitely, you will be living The Dream.

The ABCs of the NBA's Developmental League

Want to attend a game? A look at the NBA and the NBA D-League.

Player salaries

• NBA D-League: (3 tiers, 20-week season)       $24,000, $18,000, $12,000

• NBA minimum salary   $412,718

Per diem (daily allowance)

• NBA D-League    $30

• NBA    $106

Average ticket price

• 14ers   $16

• Nuggets   $56.13

Cheapest ticket

• 14ers    $8

• Nuggets    $35

Most expensive ticket

• 14ers    $40

• Nuggets    $270

Colorado is one of seven new markets and 12 teams for 2006-07.

Western Division

• Albuquerque Thunderbirds

• Anaheim Arsenal

• Bakersfield Jam

• Colorado 14ers

• Idaho Stampede

• Los Angeles D-Fenders

Eastern Division

• Arkansas RimRockers

• Austin Toros

• Dakota Wizards

• Fort Worth Flyers

• Sioux Falls Sky Force

• Tulsa 66ers