Canadian Hoops League Extends Invite to ‘Tier-3′ NBA Players

Europe and Asia aren’t the only options for locked out NBA players; Canada is a lot closer, and has a new league that’s willing to pay them (not a lot, mind you) for play during the labor impasse. From the Chronicle Herald: “Canada’s new professional hoops circuit hopes that another league’s burden could turn into its bonanza. The National Basketball League of Canada issued a release Tuesday inviting National Basketball Association players to hop the border and bring their high-flying acts to Canada if the NBA season is interrupted by a work stoppage. ‘We’re definitely realistic in what we’ve decided to do,’ Halifax Rainmen owner Andre Levingston, interim president of the NBL, which plans to begin play in the fall, said Tuesday. ‘We don’t think we’re gonna be able to land no LeBron James or Kobe Bryant because those guys will be fine (financially) during a lockout and I’m sure have their own regimen that keeps them in shape. But NBA guys need a basketball game and we definitely think we can lure the Tier 3 type players, the guys that maybe make the NBA minimum (salary), that would be interested in this opportunity.'”