Remembering the 2015 Game 7 Brawl
It was called a "black eye not just for the league, but for basketball" and remains the most notorious incident in the NBL Canada history, when the 2015 NBL Canada finals between the Halifax Rainmen and the Windsor Express were decided in a way no one wanted them to, and will also never be forgotten.
The Road to Game 7
Both teams had reached the finals after topping their respective divisions. The Halifax Rainmen then dropped only two games en route to the final under the stewardship of Josep Claros, who had been named Coach of the Year during the post-season.
Meanwhile the Windsor Express, while finishing with the best record of any team in the season, were taken to game seven by the Brampton A's in the Central Division finals, but overcame their fellow Ontarians and set up a meeting in the finals with their biggest season rivals.
When the finals finally got underway, the Rainmen struggled in game one and lost to Windsor 113-104, but they recovered and won the next two games to take the lead in the best-of-seven series. Windsor evened things out with a close win in game four, after which Halifax regained the advantage with a 34-point home win in game five.
Windsor came back from twelve down at half time in game six to win 119-112, setting up what would be a fateful final showdown for the title at Windsor's home arena, the WFCU Centre.
The events of April 30th, 2015
Game 7 was due to be played in Windsor at 7pm on April 30th. The Rainmen were said to have informed Express personnel that they would arrive at the arena in Windsor for warm ups at 1pm in the afternoon ahead of the game.
However, approximately two hours before the arranged time, members of the Express organisation found the Rainmen had already arrived at the WFCU Centre and, without notifying anyone, had begun training on the court ahead of the home team.
According to reports, members of the Express confronted the Rainmen both on the court and in the locker room and asked them to leave, which they refused. It was, according to Forrest Fisher of the Rainmen, in the locker room when the argument escalated.
Express head coach Bill Jones tackled Halifax centre Liam McMorrow, who was then hit with a chair by Windsor guard Tony Bennett. More chairs were thrown, according to those who were there, as were punches and harsh words were exchanged. Local police were called out to break up the brawl, but when they arrived the fighting had stopped and the Rainmen had left.
Picture: Nick Brancaccio
There had been accusations of roughness between the teams throughout the finals: two Halifax players were out for Game 7 with concussions, while Cliff Clinkscales had suffered broken ribs at the hands of Windsor. It would seem here that the tension and competitiveness between the two boiled over in the locker room that morning.
Still shaken from the earlier altercation, the Rainmen decided to board the team bus and head for the airport instead of returning to the WFCU Centre. Despite team owner Andre Levingston and league executive Vito Frijia trying to convince them to stay and play, they refused.
The game was officially called off forty minutes before the scheduled tip-off, citing "safety concerns" from the Rainmen. The Rainmen's decision not to play was counted as a forfeit, and the Express were declared winners and 2015 NBLC Champions.
The Investigation
The teams avoided criminal charges, but the league was not so forgiving. Dave Magley, then serving as head coach of the Brampton A's, was appointed to lead an investigation into the brawl - at the end of which, the blame was attributed largely to the Rainmen and their management.
Levingston claimed that the decision to arrive at the WFCU early had been made by coach Claros without the consent of him or anyone on the team's executive board, and he criticised the leadership of and the decisions made by the coach in and around the incident.
Claros and his assistant Pedro Monteiro were both handed lifetime bans from the NBL Canada. Eleven others on the Rainmen received suspensions and fines, while Jones and Bennett were the only ones on the Express who saw the same punishments. Jones was barred from coaching in the league for the whole of the following season, though he returned to the job of Express head coach in 2016.
Dartis Willis, owner of the Express, publicly criticised the investigation and made clear his belief that Jones was unfairly targeted, saying his suspension was personally motivated by Magley as an effort to weaken one of Brampton's biggest Central Division opponents.
The Aftermath
When the Rainmen players returned to Halifax, they found their pay had been stopped and some had been evicted from their living arrangements. This, though, was just going to be the tip of the team's financial issues.
Handed down big fines from the team as a result of the brawl, the Rainmen franchise found themselves in serious debt and Levingston declared the team bankrupt on July 6th. The following month a group of investors, led by Don Mills, began the formation of a new team in Halifax, which became the Hurricanes. Levingston was not allowed to be a part of the new team ownership.
There were concerns as the 2015-16 season started to roll around about whether the league itself could move past this sorry affair, or whether it had tarnished its reputation too soon. The new season, however, went by without major incident, and the reborn Halifax Hurricanes captured the championship in their first year under their new identity.
In the same season, Tony Bennett, Cliff Clinkscales and Tyrone Watson's suspensions were lifted and they returned to active duty. Joey Haywood, also suspended, re-joined Halifax at a later date.
Four years later, the league is still going strong and continues to attract big name players and to be one of the biggest advocates for basketball in the country. Through focusing on basketball and by improving organisation and transparency in the league, the NBLC has
That it interrupted most important game of the season and brought the finals to an end in such a dramatic and unexpected way added significance and longevity of the brawl. While it remains a painful moment in NBL Canada history, on-court altercations are not uncommon in a place where emotions run high, and should be remembered as a warning from history so as to never happen again.
