Ex-Panthers hold court in Columbus
Showcase in Columbus has a rewarding prize
They love the game — and a big prize
For several years from afar, Jamel Artis watched The Basketball Tournament (TBT), a winner-take-all event with a sizable cash prize, with a certain level of curiosity.
Artis, a former Pitt standout, had been approached in the past about participating and was intrigued by the possibility, but circumstances were never quite right and the idea didn’t fully materialize. After his professional season in France had suddenly been cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he had a desire to continue playing in some way. Months later, such an opportunity arose and TBT, even during a public health crisis, became that much more attractive.
“Basketball season probably won’t start until late August or September,” Artis said Tuesday in a phone interview. “If I can hoop with these guys right now on national television, oh man, I can’t beat that. Why not do it?”
Since early March, after the suspension of the NBA season and the cancellation of the NCAA tournament, basketball in the United States was at a standstill with nothing resembling meaningful competition being played, let alone broadcast nationally. Well, until now.
Artis is one of hundreds of players who flocked to Columbus, Ohio, this month for the chance to vie for a split of a $1 million prize in front of ESPN cameras and a basketball-starved audience. Well before NBA players headed to Disney World and the quarantine bubble the league built there, TBT participants went to their own oasis, albeit for a different type of competition with different stakes.
The 24-team event includes four Pitt graduates — Artis, Ryan Luther, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee — all of whom are taking part in a gathering which doubles as an experiment for how a return to sports might look and function.
“It’s fun out there,” Artis said. “I love the game of basketball, so why not go out there and compete with some guys I know?”
TBT began in 2014 as a 32-team showcase in which the winner split a $500,000 prize. In recent years, it has grown in size and prestige, bringing in as many as 97 teams in one year and awarding $2 million to the winning side each of the past four years.
Like the rest of the sports world, its original plans were eviscerated by the novel coronavirus. TBT went from 64 teams to 24, shrunk its prize purse in half and condensed the tournament from a nine-city, cross-country extravaganza to a single, centralized location — Nationwide Arena, home venue for the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. There, it will host of 23 games over an 11-day stretch that began July 4.
“Once the pandemic started unraveling, it became a pretty big obstacle and it was increasingly obvious that we wouldn’t be able to put on TBT as it was originally conceived,” TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar said to The Washington Post. “The difference in [prize money] is going into health and safety entirely — from testing to lodging to meals. [We spent] more than a million dollars on health and safety.”
Bringing about 500 people from various parts of the country to a single site during a pandemic has, understandably, come with a number of safeguards.
Teams’ arrivals in Columbus were staggered to prevent a concentrated rush. Tests were required for players before leaving for Ohio and upon their arrival, along with three tests during training camp. Artis said players have been tested during the tournament about once every other day. There is a 24-hour in-room isolation period and all players were mandated to be in isolation for at least five days before they played. TBT rented an entire hotel two blocks from the arena, where there is a single main court, in addition to four practice courts in a ballroom where teams practice. Perhaps the most notable precaution comes when a player tests positive. If that occurs, a team is removed from the tournament.
For participants such as Artis and Luther, such measures made their decision to play that much easier.
“Going into it, there was a little bit [of hesitation], but once we started getting information from the TBT people, they obviously treated it very seriously,” Luther said Tuesday in a phone interview. “I think they’ve done a really good job.”
Additionally, court access is restricted to only about 50 people, which includes teams, TV crew members, arena employees and sideline staff. Players on the bench aren’t required to wear masks, but workers such as clock operators are being kept at least 6 feet from the court.
“It is a little bit weird or eerie when someone is at the foul line and it’s dead silent,” said Luther, who played professionally last season in Latvia and has signed to play for a team in Turkey next season. “But at the end of the day, once you start hooping, people are talking and getting excited and just competing. It’s just basketball.”
A Pitt alumni team hasn’t been in the TBT field since 2018, leaving former Panthers to find alternate avenues in the event. Artis is with Sideline Cancer, which plays for a foundation seeking a cure for pancreatic cancer, a team that
won its first two games and will play Saturday in the TBT quarterfinals. Luther is playing with Herd That, a group of mostly Marshall alumni. Brown and McGhee’s squads were eliminated in the first round. Brown announced Wednesday he is retiring after a nine-year professional career.
In two games, Artis has averaged 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest while Luther had 7 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocks in a July 5 victory.
As the tournament progresses, the two are trying to relish the experience as much as they can, even as it bears little resemblance to any form of basketball they’ve previously known. Though players can’t leave the hotel except for games, and never leave rooms without a mask, there are designated suites where teammates can gather. Luther said he and his teammates have utilized that time to watch other TBT games, play cards and generally decompress.
The reason that brings all the players together in Columbus, aside from a general love of the game, is never far out of mind, especially in a single-elimination tournament in which one loss or a positive test can axe a dream (not to mention a nice payday).
“You only get one chance at this, so it’s not like you lose and come back,” Artis said. “One loss and you go home. I’m not trying to go home right now.”