Brooklyn expands sports franchises with SkyRockets

Aim for the sky! The list for Brooklyn sports franchises just keeps getting larger.

This November, the sports-crazed borough will have a basketball team to follow other than the Nets.

The Brooklyn SkyRockets will celebrate its inaugural season in the American Basketball Association (ABA), a league formed in 2000 that pays homage to the original ABA, which spanned 1967-1976 before merging with the National Basketball Association (NBA). The SkyRockets join a sizable league, which consists of over 90 teams from the USA, Canada, Japan and the Bahamas.

In mid-June at its home, Aviator Sports and Events Center, 3159 Flatbush Avenue, the new franchise began sowing the seeds for its growing franchise as the SkyRockets held a press conference to announce the signings of three players: Keenan Belle, Deylon Bovell and Cyrano Providence.

“That is really what brings us here today — the opportunity to meet the bedrock of the Brooklyn SkyRockets, said Dylan Giola, owner of the team. Belle, Bovell, and Providence are passionate and good people who are also amazing basketball players and I cannot wait for them to be household names.”

All three players have had levels of success in the collegiate level. During the 2009-2010 season at Broome Community College, Belle was named conference player of the week twice, and finished second in conference player of the year honors, averaging 17 points per game.

Point guard Bovell won the Genesee Community College Men’s Basketball Most Valuable Player award. Providence played for Kingsborough Community College and averaged an impressive 52 percent field goal percentage.

During the conference, Giola noted that the ABA is an accessible league with an emphasis on fun and discovery. Brooklyn deserves a team where fans can interact with their favorite players and can afford seats to every game, he said, where they can see the players and not just ants on a court, a team filled with some of the best athletes in the world who, for one reason or another, are overlooked, and coaches looking for their big break.

The owner also thanked CEO of the ABA Joe Newman, who will be stepping down within the coming weeks. “Fourteen years ago, [Newman] began on his journey to create a sports league that put an emphasis on affordability, fan engagement and diversity,” he said. “It was Joe Newman’s vision that has brought us here today, a vision I share.”

For more information on the SkyRockets upcoming season and how you can try out for the team, visit www.brooklynskyrockets.com.