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YORKTON - The Canadian Elite Basketball League is nearing the midway point of their sixth season, and the numbers are looking good.
The number of fans remains on an upward trajectory, and a league many would have doubted could make it in this country is doing just fine.
“It’s really gone well. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy with how we’ve started (the season),” offered CEBL commissioner Mike Morreale in a recent Yorkton This Week interview.
Morreale said it’s been a combination of factors which have allowed the CEBL “to grow at pretty exponential rates.”
A big part of the ‘combination of factors’ is the game on the court, and that comes down to the league attracting ever better talent.
“I think talent year-over-year just adds to the game experience,” said Morreale.
In terms of talent things just get better and better for the CEBL, suggested the commissioner.
“In 2019 I thought we had tremendous talent,” said Morreale.
But, as good as the talent was in the early years of the league, Morreale said it’s better today.
“It’s just incredible talent,” he said, adding he hears from many fans comments such as “’Wow! This is great basketball.”
In regards to talent Morreale said the CEBL attracts two types of players, veterans such as Byron Mullins with Winnipeg, a guy with a significant NBA resume who respects the league enough to spend a summer here, and the young player still having NBA dreams that sees the league as a way to showcase their talent.
“They (younger players) believe they can forge a path through the CEBL,” said Morreale.
In terms of success Morreale said the league also remains committed to the details of running a league.
“All the little things add up,” he said.
So does the success surprise the commissioner?
“I am somewhat surprised but only because of having to get through COVID,” he said.
The league was barely off-the-ground when the pandemic forced them into a bubble for a season. That could have been disastrous, but they managed it.
“In many ways COVID made us a better, stronger, organization,” said Morreale. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
But, Morreale said he always felt the CEBL would thrive too.
“I also had really high hopes,” he added.
With the success has come growth, and Morreale said more teams are likely at some point. He said as numbers have grown in terms of fans so too has interest in expansion.
“That has really ramped up,” he said, adding there are legitimately four cities that fit the CEBL’s current vision looking at possible teams, and others that are smaller cities that might one day be a fit.
However, whether expansion happens as early as 2025, still a possibility, or farther down the road, is not yet determined, said Morreale.
For now it’s focusing on the upward trajectory of the CEBL.
Morreale said when they look internally “there are some things we need to improve on,” but generally “it’s stay the course at the same time,” because what they have been doing has been successful.
Ultimately that comes from being self-aware as a league, said Morreale.
“We kind of know who we are, he said, adding the CEBL is not the NBA, “but we play the best basketball in this country outside the NBA. We’ve found our niche.”
