MarylandNighthawksBlog.com

2008-09-25T19:53:00.002-04:00

7:53PM...AD on the blog...just wanted to let everyone know that I was very impressed with the talent at our tryout camp that was held last Sunday. Players will be notified tomorrow if they made the team or if they did not and then a release will go up on the website. Check out the highlight video from the tryouts...

2008-09-18T10:29:00.004-04:00

10:40AM...AD back blogging...now that the sneakerball is over with, we are busy getting ready for tryouts which will be held this sunday. Had a chance to speak with White Chocolate and he has been busy working out with the Wizards this offseason. He normally goes to the Verizon Center to play pick-up games with the Wizards, but this year he has been working extra hard. With the news of Gilbert Arenas out until Decemeber/January and the lack of guards on the Wizards' roster, White Chocolate said there's the possibility that he can be brought into veterans camp for a chance to earn a spot on the roster.

(White Chocolate seen riding the bike at a recent Wizards practice)

2008-09-17T09:01:00.002-04:00

9:02AM....A.D. here...last evening the Nighthawks attended the Fifth Annual Sneakerball Gala in Washington, D.C...the event was attended by many local atheltes and celebs as you can see from the photos below. Of course Dunkin' was the center of the spotlight and made friends with the Capital's Alex Ovechkin, Redskins' Shawn Springs, Wizards' Andray Blatche and Nick Young and the Mystics' Alana Beard. Here are some pictures from the event...enjoy!

2008-09-08T11:36:00.002-04:00

11:35AM…AD back on the blog…this must have been the longest period of time that I have not posted a blog..or at least it feels like it!...and it’s not because there’s been a lack of news or we have been taking it easy, it’s the complete contrary. I honestly have had no time to blog about all of the Exciting things that we have been involved with or planning. If you checked out the front page of the Nighthawks site recently, we were involved in the MCPS back-to-school carnival and also walked in the Gaithersburg Labor Day Parade. We have also been busy setting up our tryouts for this season, which will be held on September 21. We have received many emails from players and agents who are interested and expect a big tryout with many talented players. Also been taking care of dance team tryouts…the director this year used to be the director for the Cleveland Cavaliers so a new and improved dance team will hit the floor this season. Also been interviewing coaching candidates to join the staff and are close to announcing an “NBA Coach”…stay tuned!

2008-08-27T15:52:00.000-04:00

3:55PM…AD on the blog…just a quick note to interested players that we are aiming for tryouts for this upcoming season to take place during the third weekend in September on either Saturday the 20th or Sunday the 21st. Tryouts would last from 10am-4pm and most likely be held at the Capital Sports Complex. Although the details are not yet finalized, we are aiming for this weekend. A formal announcement will be made on the Nighthawks front page and those players/agents who previously emailed me will be notified the details via email. Looking forward to an exciting season!

2008-08-15T11:33:00.005-04:00

11:30AM…AD back on the blog….what a hectic week! Well, as some of your have heard, there have been some rumors floating around the internet that Tamir Goodman has followed the footsteps of Josh Childress and many other NBA players leaving the US to play professional basketball overseas. Those rumors have it that Tamir is leaving the US to play in Israel for the for the Maccabi Haifa Heat. I received an email from Tamir and he confirmed those rumors, “I signed the deal…send everyone my best.” Goodman was signed after a two-day tryout at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Goodman told the Jewish Press that he is “extremely excited about this opportunity.”

2008-08-13T08:02:00.004-04:00

8:00AM...AD blogging....the league website is now up! It launched last evening at 6PM. Let me know what you think about it! Working on a piece about Tamir Goodman (there has been some rumors floating around the web about his playing status next year).

2008-08-11T19:07:00.003-04:00

7:12pm...AD blogging...didn't know how much interest this website is drawing! I posted a blog entry during the middle of last week expecting the site the be launched at the last thursday/friday, but some final changes needed to be made to get approval from the league owners. SO as of 7:12 pm, all of the content is now in the site and the league is expected to switch servers and launch the site tomorrow afternoon. As I have been saying this whole time, it is well worth the wait and in my opinion is the best minor league basketball league site.

2008-08-05T19:56:00.003-04:00

7:59PM...AD on the blog...well i've been recieving many e-mails regarding the league website and when it will be up live. So here's the inside scoop, if all goes as expected, the website should launch later this week with the other individual teams following shortly. I am hearing Augusta, Manchester and Vermont are nearly done. You will like this new look!

2008-07-17T13:19:00.004-04:00

1:25pm…AD back on the blog…well it was a busy weekend in the community for the Nighthawks and no way to top it off with the Allen Iverson Celebrity Football game. Randy “White Chocolate” Gill and Andrew “Spongebob” Washington joined head coach Lawrence Moten in the 10th annual celebrity classic. Although this was a friendly “flag football’ game it seemed as if White Chocolate was taking it a little too seriously tackling players. WC did however managed to score a TD in which he celebrated by dribbling the football between his legs as if it was a basketball. Check out the photos and video below for some highlights. WC is wearing the white Brett Favre packer’s jersey, Moten is wearing a blue cowboys #3 jersey, and Spongebob is wearing a blue t-shirt and white shorts.

4:15 mark is when they start showing highlights from the celeb game
5:17 – Moten tries to block Nelly
5:37 – Randy tackles someone
6:36 – Randy tries to tackle Iverson, then someone knocks him
8:10 – Randy interview
8:25 – Spongebob high fives Nelly

2008-07-11T14:06:00.000-04:00

2:10PM…AD back on the blog…sorry for the lack of posts, we’re still here just very very busy! Lots of events going on starting with this weekend, Head Coach Lawrence Moten and players Randy “White Chocolate” Gill and Andrew “Spongebob” Washington will be part of the Allen Iverson Celebrity Summer Classic. The weekend will be filled with events from a community 3-on-3 tournament as well as the famous “Celebrity Flag Football” game which all three Nighthawks will be playing in alongside with Allen Iverson, Carmello Anthony, Richard Hamilton, Nelly and much more. The game will be held on Sunday at 5PM at the PG Sports & Learning Complex and tickets are on sale to the general public. Will post behind the scenes videos, photos, and interviews from this weekend’s affairs right here on the blog! The following weekend Andrew “Spongebob” Washington and Dunkin’ will be at the Bethesda Big Train game throwing out the first pitches and signing autographs…thought you’d also enjoy this video of AND1 streetball player Pat da Roc teaching you his trademarked “Crazy Legs” move. Enjoy!

2008-06-11T20:12:00.001-04:00

8:12PM...AD blogging...The PBL announced yesterday that they have come to an agreement on an exclusive national TV deal with Penn Atlantic Networks. Penn Atlantic will be launching a new 24 hour sports television network beginning in January 2009 – right in time for the start of the PBL season. The network will be available on the new digital television sub channels. For example, digital sub channels for a main channel operating on Channel 8 would be 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3. This is part of the new digital broadcasting that will be taken effect in February 2009. Should be a tremendous amount of exposure for the league and players!

2008-06-04T14:00:00.003-04:00

2:15PM...AD on the blog...last Friday the Nighthawks were at the Washington Episcopal School in North Bethesda as they kicked off their "Believe In Your Dreams" Tour. On hand were PBL CEO and Nighthawks Owner Tom Doyle and Luis "TRIKZ" da Silva. TRIKZ was drafted 4th overall in the 2008 PBL expansion draft by the Dallas Defenders where he played last season. TRIKZ is considered to be "the best" ball handler in the world, maybe this is why Nike signed him to an endorsement deal at the age of 18 where he appeared in the Nike Freestyle commercials (see below), many consider these commercials the best Nike has ever produce. TRIKZ has also been featured in five video games (NBA Ballers I, II, III, AND1 Streetball, and LA RUSH w/Kanye West), has helped Jay-Z with the MTV Music Awards, and appeared in the movie "The Brave One" with Jodie Foster...AND when he introduced himself to the students, he said "I now play for the Maryland Nighthawks, your home team." Should be interesting to watch and see what this develops into!

2008-05-22T16:01:00.001-04:00

4:00pm…AD blogging…thought id update you on some of the nighthawks players and what they have been doing since the season has ended (I am going to post player in depth interviews on the main site as off season progresses). Anyhow, Andrew Washington was playing in Mexico for a while and White Chocolate had a stint playing in the Dominican Republic. Both players are now back…the summer is an interesting time, some of the Nighthawks players play on the AND1 team (Hugh “Baby Jones” Shaq and David Bailey), some go overseas while others play at Rutgers Park in NYC and at Barry Farms in Washington DC. Let me know who’d you like to hear from and we’ll do an interview!

2008-05-21T15:13:00.001-04:00

3:15PM…AD here…well it’s been a busy week at the Premier Basketball League headquarters in Washington DC…the PBL announced this week that it will have seven expansion teams that will tip off this upcoming season: the Buffalo Dragons, Manchester Millrats, Vermont Frost Heaves, Detroit Panthers, Quebec Kebs, Montreal Sasquatch and Toronto Lasers. Including all of last season’s teams, the PBL now stands at 17 teams. Should be interesting with the PBL now in Canada and a very talented Vermont Frostheave team who won the last two ABA championships.

2008-05-19T13:52:00.002-04:00

1:55PM…AD on the blog...hope you nighthawk fans are enjoying this great weather! I have been receiving lots of positive feedback from the new website….people seem to like the design and the easy navigation. I just sent out an email blast to the people on the Nighthawks mailing list. If you haven’t already signed up for the mailing list, you can do you by registering here….anyways I have a pretty interesting story to share with you. I was out grabbing a bite to east last evening at Chima steakhouse in Tyson’s Corner and guess who walks in….Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards! I was contemplating whether or not to go up to him and talk to him, so finally after a few minutes I see him go up to help himself at the salad bar so I decide to go up to. Now, for those of you that don’t know…a few years ago back in my “youth” days, I was a huge Gilbert Arenas fan, went to a Wizards game on my birthday, made a sign asking for his jersey, and what do you know, he spots it and I get his jersey! So Gil and I are talking last evening, I thanked him for the jersey started talking about his contract situation – when asked him if he was going to stay in Washington, he replied “we’re working on that.” Finally, I told him my story and how I work for the Nighthawks and then he says “isn’t that the team White Chocolate plays for,” so we start talking about White Chocolate and how he works out at the Verizon Center in the summer. Then I tell him about the celebrity player rule that the PBL has which enables a celebrity to play in a game (the Nighthawks have had former Baltimore Raven Adalius Thomas, Gheorge Muresan, and J.P. Flaim of the Junkies play). He sounded pretty interested; don’t know if NBA contracts allow it, but hey, you never know…Gilbert in a Nighthawks jersey?…anything is possible!

2008-05-15T17:01:00.002-04:00

4:55PM…AD here…OK you probably already saw the new site design entering this blog! What do you guys think?! Everyone here at the Nighthawks and the PBL is happy with this great new look and slick feel. We tried to emphasize ease in the new layout and minimize the number of clicks to get to your designation. The RSS feed is also a nice add on enabling you to receive streamed information in real time. All of the other PBL team’s websites will look similar to the Nighthawks site and feature the same technology. Let us know what you think of the site by responding or casting your vote on the front page!

2008-05-14T12:42:00.001-04:00

12:42PM…AD here, I apologize for the lack of posts, but believe it or not, the off season is more busier than the regular season, at least from the front office’s perspective. This is the time where we get out sponsors that enable us to scout and sign our players, cover some of our expenses, as well as get involved in the community. Dunkin’ the mascot is a whole operation/business alone so, as you can see there is a lot going on right now…Thought you guys would like to get the inside scoop, MarylandNighthawks.com is going to be launching a brand new website within this coming week. The look is like no other and will have all of the latest technology and is very fan interactive! Maryland is the first of the 14 PBL teams that is having its website re-designed. All of the other team’s sites will look similar to the Nighthawks web layout. The league is also having its web site re-designed so get ready and excited for this brand new look of the Nighthawks!

2008-04-29T11:41:00.003-04:00

11:45AM...AD back on the internet airwaves...The PBL announced that Nighthawks guard Randy “White Chocolate” Gill has been named to the 2008 PBL All-Playoff team. Gill helped lead the Nighthawks to the second round of the playoffs averaging 26 ppg, 5.5 rpg, and 5 apg in two post season games.

The 2008 Premier Basketball League All-Playoff Team is listed below:

Nick Tuggle, Arkansas Impact
Jeremy Bell, Arkansas Impact
Anthony Lumpkin, Jacksonville Slam
Randy Gill, Maryland Nighthawks
Bobby Anderson, Quad Cities Riverhawks
Tayron Thomas, Reading Railers
Keith Friel, Rochester Razorsharks
James Reaves, Rochester Razorsharks
Rashi Johnson, Rockford Fury
Byron Mouton, Wilmington Sea Dawgs

The PBL will announce the 2008 All-League Team award winners shortly, including Most Valuable Player and Coach of the year honors.

2008-04-18T08:05:00.002-04:00

8:12AM...AD here….there was an article that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post that talks about the new proposed arena in which the Nighthawks would play in. The proposed midsized arena, which would hold anywhere between 6,500-8,500 seats, would be built on Montgomery College’s Germantown Campus and would be similar to George Mason’s Patriot Center. If all goes as planned, I am hearing the arena would be ready for the 2009-2010 season!

2008-04-17T09:22:00.003-04:00

9:25AM…AD back on the blog…been a while since I last posted, lots of stuff evolving with the Nighthawks and the PBL. The PBL just announced that there will be a Southeast Asia expansion team in the PBL next season, and the PBL is planning on touring J.O.’s native Thailand this summer. The Nighthawks have a busy schedule and are going to be appearing in a lot of events this offseason, starting with Randy “White Chocolate” Gill appearing at Montgomery Knolls ES to talk to the students and motivate them before they take a week-long test….going off-topic, but I thought the following interview would give you guys a laugh. At the 3:32 mark in the video, Gheorghe Muresan, the former Washington Wizard was asked on Washington Wizards Magazine how he felt playing for the Nighthawks in the tallest staring line-up game two seasons ago…the 7-foot-7 Muresan replies “It was kind of weird for me...I feel very short”

2008-04-04T09:14:00.001-04:00

9:17AM...AD Bloggin...MarylandNighthawks.com recently caught up with Nighthawks guard Tamir Goodman and discussed this season, an update on his finger injury, his summer plans and much more! Read the complete chat transcript here!

2008-04-01T08:20:00.005-04:00

8:25AM...AD back again…it’s been a busy week since the Nighthawks season ended, the Razorsharks took home the inaugural 2008 PBL Championship with a win over Arkansas in front of over 9,000 fans AND quietly, the Nighthawks front office has been talking non-stop, to lets just say a former legend and they finally sealed the deal…the Nighthawks have scheduled a HUGE press conference today at 10AM at the Hanley Center to announce the signing of Michael Jordan who will come out of retirement and wear the #23 for the Nighthawks!....APRIL FOOLS!! Just had to throw that in :) Anyways…for those who didn’t watch the PBL Championship game on the PBL Virtual Stadium network, you missed a heck of the game…yes the score was a blow-out 142-112, but during the first quarter, Rochester’s James Reaves and Sammy Monroe went up for a put-back dunk, grabbed the rim, and the backboard shattered! See the picture taken by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Newspaper. James Reaves got the best of it with glass going in his eyes and cuts but was okay and returned to action. The game was delayed close to 50 minutes, but Rochester came out and won the Championship, which they deserved. Hopefully next year the Nighthawks will make a huge stride to bringing a ‘Ship to Maryland!

2008-03-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

1:04PM...AD on the boards...With the season in the books, I thought I’d give out my season awards to this year’s team. Although the team did not perform as well as they had hoped to this season, there were many positives that came out this year and lots of reasons to look forward to 2008-09. Here we go!

Most improved player: David Bailey…this was an easy pick. The 6-foot-9 forward from Prince Georges CC took on a starter’s role, something that he has not done previously in his career and gave it his all on both ends of the floor. Bailey showed immense improvements in various parts of his game this year. In his third season with the Nighthawks, Bailey posted career highs in almost every statistical category averaging 10.6 ppg, a team-high 7.6 rpg, and just under 1 bpg. He started the season off with a double-double (10 points and 15 rebounds) and had 5 more double-doubles on the season. Bailey is one of the most aggressive rebounders in the game and if he can develop a consistent mid-range jumper, he will be an All-Star for years to come.

Sixth Man of the Year: Derick Payne…Although Payne cracked the starting lineup towards the end of the year, this true small forward built like an ox is deserving of sixth man of the year honors. Payne was one of the most consistent scorers on the Nighthawks and filled up the stat sheet across the board each and every night. Payne averaged 16.6 ppg and tallied double-figures in 13 of his 16 games with a season high 27 points against the Razorsharks. He topped the 20-point mark six times and showed vast improvements to his game as the season progressed. Payne vouched at the end of the season that he will be back for another exciting season. Should be very exciting to watch this fearless up-and-coming dynamic forward!

Defensive Player of the Year: Germel Stoute…plain out beast! This 6-foot-9 255lb forward/center came all the way from Trinidad to play for the Nighthawks. With a body built like Aristotle and game similar to former NBA star Charles Oakley, opponents feared to drive the paint. Stoute posted solid numbers across the board with 8.2ppg and 5.8 rpg while leading the team in fg% at 55%. Germel started the season off slow but earned his way into the starting lineup and finished the season scoring in double figures six out of the last seven games.

Offensive Player of the Year: Randy Gill…known to most of the world as “White Chocolate,” Randy at times seemed like he was from planet Mars heating up the scoreboard. This 6’2” shooting guard posted a 17.1 scoring average to along with a solid 4.2 rpg and 4 apg. Gill posted a career-high and PBL single-game record of 45 points against the Razorsharks on Feb 24 and finished with 37 points in the Nighthawks second round playoff game. Gill also set a Nighthawks record with 8 3-pointers made in a game. Gill is a competitor and does not like to lose, look for this flashy veteran to start next season just where he left off!

MVP: Warren Jefferson…this was a tough-choice just because there were a number of players who were well deserving of this honor, but from a team’s perspective, the Nighthawks floor general, Warren “D-Nice” Jefferson got the slight edge. Jefferson posted impressive numbers coming from the point guard position with 14.1 ppg 3.9 rpg, 3.8 apg. When D-Nice was rolling, the Nighthawks were rolling. Jefferson proved he could run and control a team on both ends of the floor. Jefferson scored 20 or more points six times this season including career-high 29 in a win against the Chicago Throwbacks. Jefferson’s tremendous efforts were seen just as much on the defensive side as this pesky-speedy guard averaged 2.1 steals and gave offenders a difficult time. His trademark was forcing a steal, using his speed to go coast-to-coast and converting on the other end of the floor. Jefferson has a feel for the floor and always manages to find the open-man to knock down the big shot. Warren Jefferson, M-V-P!

2008-03-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

10:00AM…AD blogging post-season style ;)…The Nighthawks upset the 2nd seeded Wilmington Sea Dawgs yesterday 125-112 in the first round of the playoffs! The win advanced the Nighthawks into the East division semi-finals where they will play the Reading Railers today at 12pm EST. The Railers are the third seed and beat the fourth-seeded Jacksonville Slam 136-120 yesterday. The Railers have beaten the Nighthawks in all three meetings I the regular season including a 112-81 win five days ago. The Nighthawks have their hands full today, but should be another exciting post-season game!