At a press conference Thursday, the American Basketball Association announced that a new team will be coming to Salt Lake City — the Salt Lake Dream.
"Our mission statement is to provide value and quality to our fans, sponsors and community, while being highly successful, and competitive, on and off the basketball court," said owner Kenny Wamsley. "My personal vision is to bring in local talent from colleges, high schools and people in this community to play on our team."
Wamsley said that he chose the name Dream to represent the American dream.
Utah's last ABA team, the Snowbears, abruptly discontinued operations in the middle of the playoffs in March 2005.
The Dream also signed their head coach and first player on Thursday.
Scott Fields was introduced as head coach. Fields has coached overseas for the past nine years. Most recently, he was coaching a professional team in Lebanon. In his career as a head coach, he has a .766 winning percentage.
"For me to have the opportunity to be here and spearhead this with Tony and Kenny, I'm truly excited about it," Fields said. "We're going to get some young athletes in here that will put on a show for everybody . . .
"We're going to play an entertaining style of basketball. We'll get up and down the court. We'll fast break. We'll be a high-scoring team but also play a lot of good man-to-man defense."
Tony Farmer, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward, was the first player to ink a deal with the Dream. Aside from playing for the Dream, Farmer also has his hand in management with the team.
Farmer played college ball at the University of Nebraska and has spent time with the Heat, Hornets and Warriors of the NBA. He's also played in the CBA, France and Italy. He scored a career-best 19 points twice while playing with the Warriors in 1999. He's recently been playing in Tijuana, with former NBA star Dennis Rodman.
Farmer, a former player for the Snowbears, is excited to play in Utah once again.
"One thing we've looked at is to have this team be more of a family and community-based team," he said. "Personally, I feel that's the best way to be successful in this market . . . What we're doing is real; we're not chasing a dream, but we're daring to dream."
Open tryouts for the team will be held on Feb. 24 and 25. For more information about the tryouts, contact coach Fields at 801-859-6793, Jason Hansen at 801-824-2297, or go to SaltLakeDream.com.