The Hawaii Hammerheads held their first official news conference Friday at the Grand Naniloa Hotel, where mayor Harry Kim broke the ice with his self-deprecating sense of humor.
“I don’t like being around basketball players because I feel so short,” Kim joked to the roomful of business and community leaders and tall Hammerheads. Kim was later presented a jersey and named official captain of the Hammerheads.
Then he praised Hammerheads president and coach Kevin Williams for his vision of community involvement, which includes more than just reading books to school kids or putting on the occasional sports clinic.
Williams said his team’s vision is to partner with the P&R department, grade schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges to weave the product into the fabric of the community.
For example, the team has an intern program, which offers internships for a wide variety of degree plans such as marketing, public relations, advertising, sales, administrative, secretarial, videography, photography, graphic and web design.
The Hammerheads intend to take their anti-bullying campaign into schools, and Williams made a call-out to help any public or private organization, emphasizing that his players will be involved in the community. Williams added that the concession stands will be run by different youth groups, and they’ll keep the proceeds.
Williams also explained how the Oceania Basketball Association originated. At first, there was supposed to be an exhibition series after ventures with the ABA (American Basketball Association) and ABL (Asean Basketball League) failed due to visiting teams insisting that the Hammerheads foot their travel bills to Hawaii.
“I thought outside of the box and emailed the different federations,” he said. “I thought I would get two or three replies, but in a week we got 15 teams. We got clearance from each federation and each island to be a true Pacific island basketball league. OBA is the first pro organization in the Pacific islands.”
OBA is under the umbrella of FIBA (International Basketball Federation), which requires each of the teams — Hawaii, Guam, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, and Cook Islands — to deposit $250,000 into an account. Williams said FIBA will handle the travel account.
Williams, who’s from Houston, has been in the minor league basketball business for six years and has seen one of his own make it to the NBA. Jonathon Simmons played for the Sugar Land Legends (Williams’ old team) of the ABA in 2013 and hooked up with the San Antonio Spurs D-League team for a few years. He recently signed a $20 million, three-year contract with the Orlando Magic.
“It feels unreal to play for your hometown,” Hammerhead guard Lanaki Apele said. “It’s a dream come true because I never thought I’d play again, especially after college (Cal Lutheran).”
The last independent pro organization on the Big Island was the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, which featured four teams, including Hilo’s Hawaii Stars, who had a roster of a half-dozen local ballplayers but drew few fans. The league ran just two seasons from 2012 to ’13 and shut down due to financial turbulence.
Unlike Hawaii Stars owner Bob Young, the personable Williams has gathered an influential counsel of local leaders, including former UH-Hilo athletic director Bill Trumbo, Mason Souza from the P&R, local hoops coach Randy Apele, Kailua-Kona businessman and sports promoter Harold Kamoku, and Stacy Higa of Na Leo TV.
Higa said the public access station, channel 54, will broadcast Hammerhead games against Maui United on Saturday and Kauai Stars on Sunday. Higa recalled back in the day that he and Apele could play ball and that BIIF games used to pack Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
“We want to help you out as much as we can,” said Higa, who noted that the broadcast affords people from far away, such as Kailua-Kona, to catch Hammerhead fever. “We’re going to broadcast the games live so Maui and Kauai can see it on naleo.tv. We’re a hyper local TV station, and this will be our first sports telecast. We have the opportunity to turn Hilo back into a crazy basketball town again.”