Despite 23 programs across four NCAA Division I conferences, no HBCU player was selected in the NBA Draft for the 10th consecutive year.
ADVERTISEMENT
An HBCU’s most recent NBA draft pick was Norfolk State’s Kyle O’Quinn in 2012. An HBCU’s last first-round pick was Carlos Rodgers of Tennessee State in 1994.
Tennessee State’s Robert Covington is the only former HBCU on an NBA roster, according to The Athletic.
Whatever the reason behind it, the fact remains: the NBA hasn’t drafted HBCU players with any regularity in decades.
FIRST PERSPECTIVES:Deion Sanders has compiled a list of HBCU players who should be drafted. Here is where they landed.
THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING NEW? :James Houston is the first NFL draft pick of the Deion Sanders era. Will it be the catalyst for more?
WHO IS NEXT:Which Jackson State player will be the next NFL draft pick under Deion Sanders in 2023?
So, Kimberly Clark decided to co-found the HBCU Basketball Association, a professional league that aims to give HBCU alumni a chance to pursue their careers in a space of their own.
“It’s like how Power 5 players leave and go to the NBA,” Clark said. “The SWAC, MEAC, CIAA players can leave and their relief will be us. We want to be the NBA for HBCU players.”
The league is scheduled to begin in February 2023 with a draft the week before the Super Bowl. The inaugural season will run from April to June. The playoffs will end with a championship round in Miami.
The league will start with six base cities: Atlanta, Birmingham, Daytona Beach, Houston, Jackson and New Orleans. All of these cities have at least one HBCU in the region.
“We’ve already named the teams, the logos are done, pretty much everything is in place,” Clark said. We want to play in an HBCU in the first season so we can get attention and encourage people to support.”
Creating a black professional league to combat the lack of opportunities in traditional leagues is far from a new concept. There were the Negro Leagues in baseball and the Black Fives in basketball, among others, with varying levels of success.
The black leagues and the Black Fives disbanded after segregation was banned and black players were allowed to join traditional leagues such as MLB and NBA.
Funding was a challenge then, and still is today for upstart leagues such as the HBCU Basketball Association. The league has sponsors involved, but Clark and his business partner are also putting in some of their own money.
“The hardest part (to start the league) was getting people to see the vision you have,” Clark said. “Some people’s vision isn’t as big as yours and not as long as yours. And we’re letting people know that our culture has always been inclusive. We don’t leave anyone behind. It’s our own league , but a league for a super culture.”
Ultimately, Clark envisions the league building a loyal fanbase in base cities before expanding to the East Coast, where there are HBCUs playing in the MEAC, Big South and Colonial Athletic Association. .
The HBCU Basketball Association comes at a time when HBCUs are seeing renewed interest after Jackson State hired Deion Sanders as their football coach in 2020. Sanders has repeatedly used his platform to call out the NFL for its lack of HBCU players. This year, four HBCU players were selected in the NFL Draft, up from zero in 2020.
By playing in the HBCU’s geographic footprint and partnering with some of the schools, Clark hopes the new league can both use some of the buzz and build on it.
“The momentum had died down,” Clark said. “People were coming together to get people to return money and attend HBCUs while we were planning this. But then the momentum picked up, so we were excited to see it. … Everything fell into place, and that’s great. But we want to make sure people know that we, as alumni, are responsible for keeping the momentum going. We can’t stop now. This is just the beginning. .
