Bell tolls for International Basketball League

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Mike is too hard to grasp.

Too superhuman. Too far from their reach.

When a player signs with the International Basketball League, he patterns himself not after Michael Jordan, but after another NBA guard.

Be like … Raja?

The IBL, which added the city of Everett to its league for the upcoming season, includes one high-profile alumnus who currently resides in the NBA. That former IBL player, Raja Bell, was at KeyArena on Wednesday as a member of the Phoenix Suns.

But don’t expect the IBL to be waving any flags in his honor.

“Raja Bell is a big name, and his association with the IBL is a great story,” said Nathan Mumm, who serves as director of operations for the IBL’s Everett Explosion, “but the league really doesn’t have a poster boy.”

Why not? Why wouldn’t the league hitch its wagon to a former player who is now averaging more than 15 points per game for one of the NBA’s best teams?

Maybe it’s because Bell never actually played in the IBL.

The current Suns player was on the roster of the IBL’s Sioux Falls Sky Force when the Philadelphia 76ers called him in 2001, but wrist and ankle injuries prevented him from playing in Sioux Falls.

As it turns out, the IBL’s most notable model of success was barely an IBL player at all.

“I could probably tell you more about the CBA,” Bell said, referring to his time with Yakima of the Continental Basketball League, “than I can the IBL.”

Not that Bell has anything against the IBL. He appreciates all the opportunities he had and is a proponent of minor leagues that give chances to others.

“Those leagues, to me, are really important,” Bell said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “There are plenty of guys in those leagues who could play in the NBA, but they never get the chance.”

Bell is in his seventh NBA season, averaging a career-high 15.3 points per game. He took the road less traveled, with the IBL among his stops along the way.

He was at a Denny’s restaurant in Sioux Falls, S.D., in April 2001 when the Philadelphia 76ers gave him a call to offer a 10-day contract. Bell played in just five regular-season games with Philadelphia, but he started to earn playing time in the postseason and had a breakout performance in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

After scoring 10 first-half points to help the 76ers knock off Milwaukee and advance to the 2001 NBA Finals, Bell’s basketball career took off.

“That was an interesting game,” Bell said. “If I hadn’t had success in that game, my career could have gone the opposite direction. But it worked out for me, and that meant a whole lot to my career.”

Bell has played with the 76ers, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and now Phoenix. While the IBL was only a small step on his way to NBA success, he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

“Fans (from Yakima) always come to see me when I play in Portland and Seattle,” Bell said. “I know how much me making it out of there means to them, and I always try to express how much that league meant to me and my career.”

Everett’s Mumm said the IBL is proud of Bell’s accomplishments but that the league does not want to give players a false sense of hope about following in his footsteps.

“It’s really giving players an opportunity to show what they can do, and that can lead to an invite to the NBA summer league,” Mumm said. “What you do with the summer invite is an opportunity of a lifetime. That is your one opportunity to get looked at and maybe become a future star.”