The league held its draft recently and Myers felt like his team had a successful one. It was a league-wide draft with all 35 teams involved.
The first pick, fourth overall, was Cameron Estill, a 6-5 wing who has played at Hill College (JUCO) and Avila University (NAIA).
“We loved his energy, athletic ability and focus on embracing community aspects of TBL,” Myers said.
Ernest Carter also went in the first round as the 31st pick. He played college ball at Robert Morris and has played for multiple TBL teams.
“He’s a savvy, big guard who is very effective and physical,” Myers said.
The other draftees, all in the second round, were Justice Hayes, Cory McKinney, Jalen Wilmington, Myles Johnson and Ditwan Gary.
Those draftees and a total of 25 invitees will participate in a training camp which starts Sunday and runs through Wednesday.
The Iron Horses have an exhibition against the Lebanon Leprechauns on Feb. 24. The first official game is at Cincinnati on Feb. 28.
The Iron Horses’ first six games are on the road. Their home opener is March 23 against St. Louis in the Berry Bowl.
Myers was the previous owner of the Lebanon Leprechauns, so he enters with experience on how to run a team, which he is doing in Logansport.
“I took a position with the league, and the league assigned me to help Logansport get off the ground with a new franchise,” he said. “It’s sort of a pilot program where it’s a team with some help from the municipality to get things going and put it in a good, steady place off the bat.”
Mayor Chris Martin and the City of Logansport, as well as the mayor’s Youth Advisory Council have played a big role with the team, including naming them the Iron Horses, Myers said.
“The mayor’s office has been really great to work with,” he said. “They’ve had a lot of ideas, shared some key connections, things along those lines. I’ve tried to involve the mayor’s office and the mayor’s youth advisory board with the things that they can help with. For this to be successful, the league needs a city, this league needs a place on the map to buy in and say, this is really neat. I’m talking about bringing players in from all over the country to and highlighting this little town. It doesn’t take long before it makes an impact. Lebanon is a great example. Kokomo is a great example. Those two teams have done phenomenal jobs as far as integrating into the community, bringing players in that have now set down roots and decided, Hey, I’m a Kokomo resident now and that’s where I’m going to put my stamp on the world.”
Myers added he sold the Lebanon team before he took his current role with Logansport.
“Believe it or not, the fellow that has the Leprechauns now is a Logansport native, Chris Canal,” Myers said. “He was a big Leprechauns fan and has a restaurant business mostly where he made his money from, but saw the potential of the community asset basketball team and took my spot in the Leprechauns. And funny enough, it just so happens that I ended up here.”
The hope is to eventually find an owner or ownership team to take over the Iron Horses, Myers said.
“Our hope is to find a local ownership group to take it. But if we’re successful and this is working, the league can hold onto it until they find the right guy and the right group,” he said. “This is new. Typically there’s an investor that contacts the league and says, ‘I’d like to put a team in whatever market.’ We look at the market, say, ‘yeah, this looks good. Your plan’s in place, let’s get you a team.’ This is a little bit different where the market, we knew we needed another team in the Midwest, so the league said, let’s find a market that’ll fit our needs.”
The Iron Horses have a veteran coach in the first season, Wayne Casey.
“Wayne Casey has been a veteran coach in the TBL. He’s been in charge of the West Virginia Grind the last few years and was looking for a new opportunity,” Myers said. “And as soon as he called the commissioner, the commissioner called me and said, ‘Hey, this is a guy that I would consider interviewing.’ So I interviewed him and some other guys too. But I really liked Wayne and thought that he would be a good fit in a new program, specifically here in Indiana because he coaches the way people in Indiana usually like: Intensity, defense, pressure defense, transition offense. It should be an exciting system and I think he’ll fit really well and he understands the mission and how to make this work.”
The players will make a minimum of $500 per month.
“Each contract is negotiated individually. I would say the rookie minimum in our league is just $500 a month. Most of our veterans make between $1,000 and $2,000 a month,” Myers said. “There are some guys in the league that get paid a little more than that. I think we’ll be somewhere in that average middle of the pack payroll when you look at the whole league. The resources we’ve got, we may stretch and reach for a guy if we think he can make an impact, but the more we stretch on one end, that may mean that it opens it up to a smaller contract on the back end of the bench.
“From a living situation, we’re working through with some of our local hotels, trying to find some rooms that could be negotiated for that three-month time span,” he added.
Ticket sales contribute to the players’ salaries. Myers is hoping the team does well and will stay in Logansport past one season.
“I’d like to say we’re going to sell out the Berry Bowl, but that’s a lot of seats to fill. It’s like, let’s be realistic,” Myers said. “We want to give a great night of entertainment. In my opinion, it needs to be about as expensive as going to the movie theater. Tickets are going to probably range anywhere between $10 and $15 depending on the seat. And popcorn will be available and everything else. It’ll be basketball very much what we should come to expect, but at a price point that’s family friendly. And something neat is this is pro basketball you can touch. The players are great, the atmosphere’s great, and it’s right there.
“Back in the ‘70s you could go to an ABA Pacers game and get to know those players. Here in the TBL you get to know these players. They’re amongst you, they’re going to shake your hand, they’re going to high-five, they’re going to autograph for you. It’s not like the NBA where the players are at a distance to the fans. The most important thing to me is to make sure everybody walks out of there smiling and happy no matter what the scoreboard says.”
Myers added the TBL has been a success. There are now 35 teams throughout the nation in four conferences. There is a tournament at the end to determine a national champion.
Logansport is in the Midwest Conference along with the Cincinnati Warriors, Kokomo Bobkats, Lake County Legacy, Lebanon Leprechauns and St. Louis Griffins.
“From a league perspective, the goal is to be our own league. We’re not trying to necessarily compete with any other league in the world. We’re trying to do our own thing,” Myers said. “ The Magley family, Evelyn Magley and David Magley, are the founders of this league, and Evelyn is the CEO. And she is not bashful about telling you that this is a God-given vision for a league run in a different way than a lot of other pro leagues, where it’s about the people and it’s about the communities and not just about chasing the almighty dollar or chasing opportunities to enrich ourselves that way. It’s about chasing opportunities to enrich lives as opposed to that. And that’s what this league is. I think every year it’s getting better, it’s getting stronger, it’s growing.
“Each year, the map changes a little bit. We lose a team here, we gain a team there. Some of the mainstays are there. I think this is our seventh year as a league. And it started with very humble beginnings and has now grown into truly a national league that rivals just about anybody else that’s not owned by the NBA,” he added. “The G League is owned by the NBA. So we don’t want to say we’re just league No. 3 on that list: NBA, G League, then us. But in the Western Hemisphere when you look at it, there are a lot of leagues, but there are very few that are in the same position that the TBL is in to be so strongly held up around the world.”
There are several TBL players who went to appear in the NBA.
Lindy Waters, who played with the Enid Outlaws, is currently with the Detroit Pistons. Kylor Kelley, who played for the Salem Capitals, is currently with the Dallas Mavericks. Xavier Moon, who played with the Albany Patroons, played for the Los Angeles Clippers. Craig Sword, who played for Omaha’s Finest, played for the Washington Wizards.
There are also former NBA guys who have played in the TBL. Jamario Moon of the Cleveland Cavaliers went to Albany. Smush Parker of the LA Lakers also went to Albany. Edwin Ubiles of the Wizards went to Albany. Kareem Rush of the Lakers went to Kansas City.
Myers expects to field a competitive team in Year 1.
“We’ve got really the same things that all those other teams have,” he said. “It’s just like anything, a matter of, do your players buy in? Do they give great effort? They play hard and play smart. That’s the name of the game.”