The Las Vegas Silver Bandits were a 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 I ...

(IBL). They played at the

Thomas and Mack Center The Thomas & Mack Center is a multi-purpose arena located on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. It is home of the UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball team of the Mountain West Conference. History The facility was fi ...

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

in 1999. The team president was Michael A. Olsen. The V.P. of Basketball Operations was Cindy Hays. Burke Reeder served as Director of Sales. Tony Desiere who now does sports radio in the Denver Colorado market, was the sports information director. Tim Neverett who is the new voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates was the Silverbandits play by play announcer. Jackie Robinson purchased the Silver Bandits in the spring of 2000. Robinson achieved All-American and Hall of Fame status at

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

, and went on to win an NBA World Championship with the 1979

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

. In business, Robinson has spent the past twenty years building successful businesses in real estate, construction, credit, and in the food and beverage industries. The IBL suffered from lack of interest and attendance and folded in 2001 with pressure from the NBA Development League.

References

International Basketball League (1999–2001) teams Basketball in Las Vegas Basketball teams in Nevada 1999 establishments in Nevada 2001 disestablishments in Nevada Basketball teams established in 1999 Basketball teams disestablished in 2001 {{Nevada-basketball-team-stub