It took us 6 years to finally get a real, functioning G League. Now, its officially the 2nd best Pro Am league anywhere. Only SIBA pro eligible players can participate, making it a real developmental league for SIBA. Players can be called up, sent down, & sign 2 way contracts, just like IRL. Looking back at all the history of this league this morning, reminds me of the very humble beginnings.
The original SIBA was to consist of 8 teams with 7 players each. By draft day, 4 days after the discord was made, we had 12 teams of 8 players each, a set 16 game schedule per team, not a single forfeit. Every team finished every regular season game that season, and it stayed that way for the following 33. I didnt even know what WR was, or any other league for that matter. I thought pro am was what you saw on the wall in your pro am gym, from the ranked. I didnt have another discord from a different league to recruit from, didnt have a twitter, just Facebook groups, reddit, LFG, and word of mouth. It's always been free to join, but our first 4 seasons had no prize money. it was all for fun & pride. The way the game is meant to be played.
On May 14th, SIBA turns 6 years old. I had a league before that, but it was crippled by infighting & me allowing too many cooks in the kitchen. I learned from those mistakes & kept the league growing. I've learned so much since day 1 & continue to learn everyday. I probably know about 10% of what is needed to know to run a perfect Pro Am league, and I'm constantly making mistakes -- which is good, the fastest way to success is to double your failure rate. I need both hands and feet to count how many of my ideas turned out to be useless or terrible. The idea is to not stop brainstorming. Even the bad ideas can manifest into a good or even great one after much trial & error.
We're going into our 35th season on Saturday. We've grown from a small, free, 0 prize money 12 team league to a 48 team pro/20 team college/100 team high school & 12 team G League behemoth that gives out thousands in prize money every year. I also make a modest side income now while keeping the league 100% free to join & play. We've come a long way, & if you're waiting for me to forget where I started, if you're waiting for SIBA to get so big I lose touch with the player base & take my finger off the pulse of the random casual players. If you're waiting for me to get complacent, lazy, "too big", you're shit outta luck. To me, SIBA is always gonna be that "small league" that the randoms come to play because they're not good enough for the big leagues & LAN events. I keep that mentality with me every time I sit down in front of my PC and get to work. 4am, 12 noon, 11pm at night. I wont be out worked. By anyone. EVER. Point blank period.
Nothing in particular preceded this twitter post, I was just scrolling through the 1st discord conversations in the SIBA server 6 years ago, back when my (not so) little brother was here playing & helping me run it everyday. There are so many guys that were part of the first season & they're gone, I'd love to get back in touch with them and get them playing again. Especially now with the G League being so successful.
Anyway here's to the next 6 years (i'll be 50 by then!), I wonder where SIBA will be at that point? I still got so many ideas I've yet to put in motion. Just gotta stay tuned & see where I take it next.
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