Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Lightning flashes into PTC this Friday

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The Southern Crescent Lightning, Peachtree City’s new minor league professional men’s basketball team, will take the court at Starr’s Mill High School Friday night for their first game of the season. The game will come five days after their first practice, but head coach and general manager Litterial Green is confident that his team will be ready to play and will be highly competitive in what he thinks will be a very tough league.

“These guys have lots of basketball knowledge,” Green said of his team, which features former University of Georgia standouts Ezra Williams, Chris Daniels and Damien Wilkins, Michigan State’s Marcus Taylor, Ole Miss’ Derek Allen and Georgia State University’s Dion Gresham, Lamont McIntosh and Shernard Long, among others. “With the right break, anyone of these guys will one day be playing in the NBA, or at least the highest level of play in Europe.”

Assistant coach Travis Williams, who was an assistant coach under Lefty Driesell at Georgia State University, is also looking forward to working with this team. “This is a great group of guys that catch on very quick,” said Williams. “They play with a lot of intensity and have a lot of fun.”

Long is excited that he gets to play with a group of talented players and is also looking forward to playing near where he went to college. Long’s tenure with the Georgia State team was one of the most exciting periods in the program’s history, as they went to the NCAA tournament and excited everyone in the area.

The World Basketball Association is a developmental league for the NBA, which is something that Green knows about. Before Green, a star at UGA, played for the Orlando Magic, he needed to play in a developmental league. That is something that Green feels helped sway a lot of players who haven’t made the NBA yet to the Lightning.

Though the Lightning will be thrown into the fire this week, so will every other team in the WBA. The rosters were filled over last weekend through a draft process and the team has one or two spots still to fill.

“Chemistry takes some time to develop and the team will gel as the season goes on,” said Green. “They know how to play the game though. We will give them our team concept and they will have the freedom to play within that framework.”

The Lightning is also looking to get involved in the community and will spend time between practices this week visiting the schools. They want to be community service oriented and want the citizens of the Southern Crescent to embrace them as their team. In addition to the action on the court, there will also be other festivities for fans of all ages at the games. The Starr’s Mill dance team will perfom as will the team’s personal dance team, “The Southern Belles.” There will be contests, giveaways and other performances that will have the crowd on their feet.

The Lightning will host the Rome Gladiatiors Friday night at 7 p.m. and will face the Raleigh Knights on Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for children, while children under the age of four will be admitted for free. This weekend’s games will also be Family Night games. On Friday, all Fayette County elementary school students will be admitted for free when accompanied by an adult (limit two children per adult), while on Saturday, all Fayette County middle school students will be admitted for free when accompanied by an adult. Visit www.wbalightning.com or phone 770-486-8677 for more information.