In Theatres: The Minor League Mecca (2018)

While there is still some uncertainty over whether or not the Albany Patroons will return to the North American Premier Basketball League in 2019, a documentary chronicling the team's glory years made its premiere tonight at the Palace Theatre. The joint wasn't jam-packed. The event was a fund raiser for the Siena College athletic program and the YMCA & YWCA.

In the 80's, the Washington Avenue Armory was the place to be as Albany's first pro basketball team entered the Continental Basketball Association in 1982. Former NY Knick Dean Meminger was the first coach, but didn't finish the season. Team founder and president Jim Coyne, at the time also Albany County Executive, made a coaching change in midseason with the Patroons struggling, as any expansion team would. Coyne dismissed Meminger, and hired another former Knick.

Thus began the rise of the Zen Master, Phil Jackson. The Patroons made the playoffs, only to fall short vs. Puerto Rico, then won their first title the next year. Jackson left in 1986 for the NBA's Chicago Bulls, and, well, you know the rest of that story. The late Bill Musselman, whose Tampa Bay Thrillers ousted the Patroons and ended Jackson's CBA coaching career, took over in 1987, and took the Patroons back to the CBA title. Albany dominated in the regular season with a 48-6 record, and Musselman followed Jackson to the NBA, landing in Minnesota with the expansion Timberwolves.

George Karl had two tours of duty in Albany, and it's the second one in 1990, christening the then-Knickerbocker Arena (now Times-Union Center) with a 50-6 record (season expanded to 56 games with some expansion teams added, but falling short of a 3rd CBA title, that people still talk about today. Karl spent a year in Spain in between, then went to the NBA.

The fans erupted in cheers when Karl appeared on the screen, as well as a number of fan favorite players such as Lowes Moore, Mario Elie, and Derrick Rowland, who coached the most recent incarnation of the Patroons. There are some funny ancedotes mixed in.

However, the film ends with the fall of Coyne, and no mention of the fact that the team was sold, other than a passing glance at a headline. Coyne's political career came to a crashing end amid accusations of bribery in relation to the development of the downtown arena.

Unfortunately, there is no trailer to insert, nor classic game footage from those halcyon days of the 80's. You'll just have to take my word for it, at least until you buy the book, and wait for the film to be released on DVD, as it inevitably will.

Rating: A-.