BY KERRY EGGERS
The Portland Tribune, Jun 22, 2009, Updated Jun 23, 2009
Eight years after his retirement from the NBA (can it really be that long?), A.C. Green is keeping busy.

The former Benson Tech and Oregon State standout lives with his wife of seven years, Veronique, in Los Angeles. No children, yet.

“Hopefully,” says Green, 45. “Next Father’s Day, you never know.”

Green has partnered with a multi-level marketing company called Financial Destinations Inc., a New Hampshire-based firm that offers access to lawyers, doctors and accountants, working as a concierge service.

“It’s Google search, 411 directory and On-Star all in one,” he says.

Green continues to operate his A.C. Green Youth Foundation, which has promoted character, leadership, abstinence and Christian values for nearly two decades.

Now there is a new venture for the man who spent 17 seasons in the NBA trenches and set an all-time record of 1,192 consecutive games played from November 1986 to April 2001.

Green has attached his name to 3BA International, a professional 3-on-3 league that will debut July 2010.

This isn’t the 3-on-3 game you’ve played at noontime at the Y – the halfcourt, winners’-outs-to-11-points version. It’s a fullcourt game – albeit on a shorter court 72-by-50 feet — at breakneck pace, with an 18-second shot clock and four 11-minutes quarters.

“It’s pretty entertaining,” says Green, a power forward who helped the Los Angeles Lakers win back-to-back NBA titles in 1987 and ‘88.

The 3BA’s president and CEO, Larry Claunch, is a businessman from Walla Walla, Wash., who envisions an eight-team league next season, with each team playing 20 games from July to October.

Want to own a 3BA franchise? One is yours for $2 million.

Claunch will serve as owner of a franchise located in Seattle. Green has invested in ownership in the Portland franchise to the tune of $1 million. He is seeking local minority ownership for the other 50 percent of the club.

Negotiations are in the advanced stages, Claunch says, for franchises in Spokane, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver and Boston.

The idea for the league was born in 2006, the brainchild of Seattle’s Kevin LuBahn, a “basketball junkie,” says Green, who wanted to try a new twist to an old American game.

There was a nine-city experimental tour that year to expose the game. Last year, teams from Seattle and Portland played a series of five games in Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, Seattle and Portland.

In the contest at the Rose Garden, nobody got cheated if they were looking for an active scoreboard. Seattle beat a team dominated by ex-OSU players 171-159. David Lucas found time to score 49 points on 23-of-39 shooting.

Green was turned on to 3BA by another ex-Beaver, Lamar Hurd, and coached the Portland team in the five games last year. Green will coach in exhibitions on Sept. 12 at Seattle and Oct. 6 at Washington, D.C.

“It’s a crazy game, kind of a basketball version of Arena football,” Green says. “Fewer guys, smaller court, but really intense. Each team has six players, but you can play only three at a time.”

Green says last year’s exhibitions drew crowds of between 1,000 and 4,000. He’s not sure if the Rose Garden will be the venue for the Portland franchise, but Claunch says he’d like it to be.

“We’re going to keep ticket prices reasonable so it can be a family event,” Green says. “In this economy, it’s going to be a great alternative to the NBA.”

Claunch says 3BA will run tryout combines to attract talent for the league.

“College seniors will be our main source, but we’ll have some guys on their way to the NBDL, and probably some ex-NBA players,” he says. “Shawn Kemp played in the game in Seattle last year. It’ll be a high level of competition.”

I’m not sure what to make of 3BA. I didn’t see last year’s Rose Garden exhibition, but I can only hope there is more defense played than in the And 1 “Streetball” series, which holds very little interest to the serious basketball fan.

Portland has become America’s favorite resting spot for failed minor-league pro franchises over the years. The $2 million franchise ownership tag seems awfully pricey for a team with six players and a league playing only 20 regular-season games, but a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, right?

Maybe Green and Claunch have hit on something. It could be that 3BA will be a welcome addition to the city’s sports scene, filling in the gap between the NBA draft and October training camp.

Bring it on, baby.

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