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At UMass Boston, professional basketball was the order of the week, when the Clark Athletic Center played host to the Shaw's Pro Summer League during the last week of July. The league, a collaborative effort of UMass Boston, the Boston Celtics, Shaw's Supermarkets, the United Way, and Resource Plus, drew an estimated 30,000 fans to campus for the six-day event. The hometown Celtics, who ended the event with a 6-0 record, were joined by six other NBA franchises &emdash; the New York Knicks, the Seattle Supersonics, the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Nets, the Washington Wizards, and the Indiana Pacers &emdash; as well as the German Select Team. Each NBA team sent three roster players as part of its 12-man squad, with the other nine spots occupied by free agents and draft selections.
With the teams came the celebrities. Such high profile head coaches as Boston's Rick Pitino, New York's Jeff Van Gundy, Philadelphia's Larry Brown and Indiana's Larry Bird joined New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and comedian Bill Bellamy to make the Clark Center the place to be in Boston for the week.
The purpose of summer league play in the NBA is to allow coaches and scouts to evaluate players who are trying to earn or keep jobs with their clubs. Fans were able to watch NBA stars of today and tomorrow attempt to improve their visibility. The highlight for UMass Boston, however, proved to be the successful drive to attract children to the games. The organizers of the event combined to distribute more than 12,000 complimentary tickets to local youth and community organizations, and judging by the number of children in atttendance during the afternoon sessions, the tickets were well utilized. The Shaw's Pro Summer League is just one of the many events that the department of athletics has welcomed this summer. The highly successful National Youth Sports Program wrapped up in early August, and the Bay State Games completed another stint on the UMass Boston campus earlier in July. -- Chuck Sullivan |
