The Halifax Rainmen have until April 30 to submit their pitch to become the NBA D-League’s newest expansion team.
The Rainmen, who pulled out of the American Basketball Association last month, are moving forward on a proposal to gain entry into the NBA’s top development league.
“We’re in the process of putting everything together for that April 30 deadline,” Rainmen owner Andre Levingston said. “It’s a lot of hard work, and we’re just doing what’s been asked of us and we’ll get it done in a timely fashion. It’s very exciting.”
D-League commissioner Dan Reed has said it “would be premature to comment at this time,” while media relations director Larry Berger directed all questions to an online blog posting from Reed which lists the market, local owners and the arena as the evaluation criteria for expansion franchises.
Levingston said he is having “good conversations” with Reed.
The Rainmen left the ABA after one season, saying they had outgrown it and felt the D-League — a 16-team circuit based in the western U.S. — was the perfect fit.
Levingston appeared to part ways amicably on March 19, but ABA chief executive officer Joe Newman spoke out against him on the league’s All Access podcast on Saturday. He said Levingston “trashed the ABA” and that it was “sick” and “wrong.” He added that Halifax “was a problem from Day 1.”
“I’m flabbergasted by the things he was saying,” Levingston said. “But I’m past that. Like I said in my press conference, I thank Joe for the opportunity to own a professional team.”
