Part-Owner, GM of Pro Hoops Team Lives a Sports Lovers’ Dream
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
By Art Nelson and Martin Wilbur
As a lifelong sports enthusiast, Mount Kisco resident Craig Sulema has taken his passion to a new level.
Shortly before the pandemic, Sulema became a part owner of the New York Hoop Dragons, a Long Island-based semiprofessional basketball team that completed its inaugural season last month in the reconstituted American Basketball Association.
Sulema, who played sports growing up through high school, had been quite active in Mount Kisco youth sports guiding his children, including coaching Little League baseball and youth basketball. He also served on the board of the Mount Kisco Little League and has worked as the athletic director of a summer camp program for the last 10 years.
But when his kids aged out of the local programs, there was a void. Then came an opportunity to get involved in the Hoop Dragons and also become its general manager.
“I wanted to say involved and be active, and a friend of mine, my partner, Perry Tischler, he got this franchise two years ago prior to COVID,” Sulema said. “I saw him and we were talking about it and I asked him if he was looking for some help, a partnership, and he thought it was a good idea.”
In addition to player personnel decisions, his responsibilities include facility coordination, game-day operations, live-streaming, marketing and social media promotion. He has enlisted the help of his adult children, Brett and Danielle, to work for the Hoop Dragons as assistant general manager and director of sales and marketing. Their home games are played in the gym of the Upper Room School in Dix Hills, Suffolk County.
The team and the league were on hold for more than a year and a half waiting out COVID-19, but when the league was ready to restart last fall, they had to build much of the franchise on the fly.
“We really built a team, our facility, our marketing in season,” Sulema said. “So even our player development, the team, the players that we ended (with), didn’t get solidified until halfway through the season.”
After a slow start, the Hoop Dragons won their last eight games, capturing the eighth seed in the Northeast region. They were eliminated in the first round by the top-seeded Steel City Yellow Jackets, but the first-year objectives were met.
“We set very modest goals for Year One,” Sulema said.
The league took the name of the old ABA, a competitor in the 1960s and ‘70s of the NBA. In 1976 it saw four of its franchises merge with the more established league.
While today it’s nowhere near the quality of the former ABA, Sulema said it’s the largest professional sports league in the world with more than 100 teams divided into seven regions. It uses the iconic red, white and blue ball that the likes of Julius Irving, Artis Gilmore and other hoops legends used back in the day.
Sulema said while it is unlikely that any of the league’s players will go on to the NBA or the teams’ minor league affiliates in the G League, nearly all are former college players and many have played or will compete professionally overseas.
The first-year Hoop Dragons was comprised of semi-pro players from the New York area ranging in age from 23 to 38 years old, Sulema said. They all work outside jobs and attend weekly practices to prepare for games that take place most weekends.
Now that Sulema has the initial season under the belt, he can look back with satisfaction and look forward to next fall.
“We’re excited to build upon our success from Year One,” he said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
