After some random searching for a pair of Cross Color jeans and British Knights basketball shoes late one night, I came across something that I would never have thought to find ever on Ebay. Check out what got Can Ball Ray thinking about opening up a PO Box to hide this potential addition to his jersey collection from his wife ...
Item #1 - An IBA Winnipeg Cyclone jersey
Check out what I found right here! A blast from the past you might say. It is a basketball jersey with the embroidered logo of the now defunct Winnipeg Cyclone of the International Basketball Association.
All I can say to this find was HOLY CRAP!!! This was like finding a Picasso at a garage sale for me.
The Winnipeg Cyclone were a team that played in the IBA from the 1995-96 through the 2001-01 seasons. There is very little info to go on now and after an exhaustive 15 minute search of the vast, all knowing internet all I could come up with that was tangible was this link to an Wiki page on the league.
The really cool thing about the team is that in it's short history, it had managed to have a player named the league MVP (Andrell Hoard, twice, in 97-98 and 98-99 even though he was a co-winner) and the Coach of the Year (Darryl Dawkins also a co-winner in 98-99. Yes, Chocolate Thunder himself). I don't know if they ever made it to the league championships but I don't know that they were one of three teams to last the entire life of the IBA before it merged with the CBA and IBL in 2001 to form the new CBA. The Cyclone didn't play into the following CBA years unfortunately.
With a pretty good history and some notable players to have suited up, including Hoop Dreams' own Arthur Agee and former Raptor Garth Joseph, so this is a jersey that is worth the money it's asking for. That is unless I snatch it up first.