Desperados pick Dales as coach
As they sought a coach for the ABA expansion Delco Desperados, owner Kinji Ridley and general manager Chrisheena Boyd had a firm list of demands.
Longtime man-aboutPhilly-basketball Leon Dales III, they would find, fit every one.
He had Delaware County connections, having played at Neumann University, coached at Haverford School and studied under Villanova head coach Jay Wright.
He had a master’s degree in business, a must for a start-up franchise with big hopes. He is, Boyd said, a man of “high family values,” which she believes is essential for a program prepared to provide “affordable, fun, family entertainment.”
Mostly, Dales told Ridley exactly what ownership knew it needed to hear: The championship aspirations will begin at once.
“He said, ‘If we can’t win in Year 1, then I’m not doing my job,” Ridley said. “He’s a man after my own heart. If you put a good product out there, people will come. And winning begets winning. Delaware County is starved for that. All we have is the Philadelphia 76ers, but Delco needs a hometown team to rally behind.”
Come November, the county will have a choice of two, with the Yeadon Kings also planning to begin their expansion season in the 175-team ABA, a league with a traceable DNA strain to the majorleague that once was absorbed in parts by the NBA.
Ridley, the Collingdale financial consultant, is convinced Dales is capable of leading the Desperados to instant success, signing him to a two-year contract with a third-year option.
An Abington High grad whose basketball skills were developed in the longsuccessful Sam Rines AAU programs, the 6-3 Dales played four years at Neumann, where he was a tricaptain as a fifth-year senior in 2006. After receiving his MBA from Missouri Baptist University, he became a JV coach and assistant varsity coach at Haverford School from 2012-2014.
Dales has been a trainer for FiDonce Basketball in Philadelphia since 2016, a developmental program co-founded by former Chester High guard Eric Evans, brother of former NBA Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans.
From 2013 through 2015, Dales was a head coach of the 16-and-under and
17-and-under Philly Pride AAU teams in national tournaments. In 2007, he was a support-staff member of the USA Pan American Games team, which was coached by Wright.
“That was a great experience,” he said. “I was kind of like a manager. I would pick up players at the airport, or help out at practice wherever they needed me. It was a great experience, being around some great talent, guys who went on to have great NBA careers. Wesley Matthews was on that team. Joey Dorsey. Kyle Weaver, who went to Washington State.
“Jay would get into them when he needed to. But he treated them like men. He is very charismatic. He gets the best out of men. You can see that in winning two national championships. He is doing something right.”
In addition to Sam Rines Sr., Sam Rines Jr., Wright and others, Dales said he benefited from playing for Brian Nugent, his coach at Neumann in the early portion of his career.
“I learned a lot from him,” he said. “And after I was playing, my coaching really took off. I went from high school, to development, to AAU. And so I have been in a lot of aspects of basketball.”
Dales first came to Boyd’s attention at Neumann, while she was leading the dance team.
“He has great experience,” Boyd said. “Number one, he played basketball. He was a good player, starting lineup, at Neumann. Number two, he has experience in player development and in AAU. He coached varsity and JV at the Haverford School.
“I am very excited to have him as our coach.” So is Ridley.
“I wanted to find someone who has played, but who also has coached,” he said. “Somebody who had experience at different levels, who also has worked with different age brackets of players.”
As when he hired Boyd as general manager, Ridley’s choice of Dales appears as much steeped in business as in basketball.
Though Boyd will have some basketball-side influence, Ridley made it clear that he trusts his own eye for sports talent and that the business side of the Desperados will benefit most from the general manager’s life-skills expertise.
Dales has an MBA from Missouri Baptist University and a sports management degree from Neumann, more indications that Ridley is aware of the value of strong business and marketing commitments for his operation.
“I’m just using proven business models,” Ridley said. “I’m a business person, a finance person. I help people build their businesses and structure their businesses and I’m big about processes and systems. So if you’ve got a good process and a good system, follow it. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel.
“I’m going to take everything that I know works
“That’s always the goal, to win games and to hold that trophy at the end of the year. But I am also a realist. I understand it takes time sometimes and that sometimes, it clicks right away. It’s just a matter of finding the right guys with talent and putting them together and then coaching them.”
— Delco Desperados coach Leon Dales III
and I will be a copycat. The greatest form of flattery is plagiarism.”
Dales expects to run a tryout camp later this month and is committed to a deep presence of Delco-connected players on his roster. His basketball connections to Eric Evans aside, he does not expect to sign Tyreke Evans, who has been serving a ban from the NBA for violating the terms of its drug-abuse program. Evans is eligible for NBA reinstatement in 2021. Dales said Evans would be immediately eligible in the ABA.
“It’s always a possibility,” Dales said. “But I don’t know. I don’t have contact with Tyreke Evans.”
Ridley assures the ABA will begin its season on Nov. 7. The Desperados may play at the Collingdale Community Center, but he continues to scout larger venues in Delaware County.
“I’m just setting the table,” Ridley said. “There is no doubt in my mind that if we do this right, we will be successful. My motto is, ‘I want to be the Chick-FilA of the ABA.’ I don’t care what everybody else is doing. I am going to follow a plan that is going to work.”
Dales has his plan, too, and will borrow from Rines, Nugent, Wright and more to make the Desperados successful.
“I would love to win in the first year,” he said. “That’s always the goal, to win games and to hold that trophy at the end of the year. But I am also a realist. I understand it takes time sometimes and that sometimes, it clicks right away. It’s just a matter of finding the right guys with talent and putting them together and then coaching them.
“Hopefully, I can do a great job and win some games.”