The Cincinnati Stuff were a

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

team in the

International Basketball League The International Basketball League (IBL) was a semi-professional men's basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States. In 2010 the Albany Legends became the first team in the Northeastern United States to join. The ...

(IBL) from 1999 to 2001.

History

The Cincinnati Stuff were founded in March 1999, with Doug Kirchhofer as president and former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

MVP Oscar Robertson as an advisor and part owner together with Neil Kirchhofer. The Stuff held the 1st pick of the 1999 IBL draft, which they used to select Devin Davis. However, Davis never played for the franchise, and the final roster for the first season was announced in late November 1999: the first players were

Roderick Blakney Roderick Bertrand Blakney (born August 6, 1976) is an American-born naturalized Bulgarian former professional basketball player. College career Blakney, a 6 ft 1 in (1.86 m) point guard played college basketball at South Carolina State Univ ...

, Lenny Brown, Allen Edwards, Damon Flint, Damon Frierson, Phil Hickey,

Courtney James Courtney James (born December 24, 1976 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American retired professional basketball player. James played collegiately with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. He started two seasons for the Gophers before leaving the team in ...

Chris Kingsbury Christopher J. Kingsbury (born September 18, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. A shooting guard who was known for his long range 3-point shooting, he was one of the top ranked players in the 1993 high school class. He pl ...

, Soumaila Samake, Alex Sanders, Eric Taylor and Wayne Turner. The head coach was Joby Wright, with Greg Herenda and Scott Spinelli as assistant coaches. In their first season, the Cincinnati Stuff finished with a record of 43-21 and won the East Division, qualifying for the playoffs, where they lost 2-0 in the conference semifinals against the

Richmond Rhythm The Richmond Rhythm were a professional basketball team based in Richmond, Virginia from 1999 to 2001. The team played in the International Basketball League. They played their home games at Siegel Center on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth Uni ...

. In 32 regular season games, the team had an average attendance of 3,615 (the league average was 3,072). In June 2000 Joby Wright announced that he would not return to coach the Stuff for the 2000-01 season. In the 2000 NBA Draft Soumaila Samake, who averaged 9.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game, was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the 36th pick: he is the only player drafted from the IBL to the NBA. On July 1, 2000 the franchise announced Mike Frink (former assistant coach of the

Brazil national basketball team The Brazil national basketball team is governed by the Brazilian Basketball Confederation ( pt, Confederação Brasileira de Basketball), abbreviated as CBB. They have been a member of the International Federation of Basketball (FIBA), since 19 ...

during the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

) as the new head coach. In their second season the Stuff signed Billy Thomas, who they had drafted in 1999, and finished the season with a 27-24 record (.529). The franchise ceased operations after the IBL folded in 2001.

Season-by-season records

All-time roster

*Lenny Brown * Joe Courtney * Allen Edwards *Damon Flint *

Tremaine Fowlkes Tremaine J. Fowlkes (born April 11, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player at the small forward position. Fowlkes was drafted out of Fresno State by the Denver Nuggets with the 54th pick of the 1998 NBA draft, though he did n ...

*Damon Frierson * Ronnie Grandison *Derrick Hayes *Phil Hickey *

* Nate Johnson *Jamie Kendrick *

Melvin Levett Melvin Levett (born April 25, 1976) is a former American basketball player and American high school basketball coach for the Winton Woods High School (Cincinnati, Ohio), Winton Woods High School Warriors. As a shooting guard he was drafted by the ...

*Martin Lewis * Todd Lindeman *Jeff Potter * George Reese * Soumaila Samake *Alex Sanders *Nick Sheppard *Eric Taylor *

Marcus Taylor Marcus Taylor (born November 25, 1981) is a retired American professional basketball player. He was a Naismith All-American, McDonald's All-American, two-time Parade All-American and USA Today 1st-team All-American. He also went on to win Mr ...

* Billy Thomas * Wayne Turner *

Jaquay Walls Jaquay Walls (born April 3, 1978) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Indiana Pacers in the second round (56th pick) of the 2000 NBA draft. He played two years as a shooting guard with Compton Community ...

*Fred Williams

Awards

*All-IBL First team:

(2000),

(2001) *All-IBL Second team: Alex Sanders (2000)

References

{{reflist

External links

INTERNATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE HISTORY
on apbr.org Defunct basketball teams in the United States Basketball teams in Cincinnati International Basketball League (1999–2001) teams Basketball teams established in 1999 1999 establishments in Ohio Basketball teams disestablished in 2001 2001 disestablishments in Ohio