Going For the Gold
Minor league ballers are filling up Summer Olympic roster spots and making their presence known at the Athens Games.

08.19.04 - Already making tremendous strides in developing talent for the NBA after just three seasons, the National Basketball Development League is also making its presence felt at the 2004 Summer Olympic basketball venue in Athens, Greece.

Former Huntsville Flight guard Rick Apodaca is seeing the Games from a player's perspective as a member of Team Puerto Rico.

Apodaca played in 25 games for the Flight last season, averaging 25.6 minutes, 10.7 points and 1.5 rebounds before nagging injuries cut his season short. He played briefly in the Puerto Rico National Team's to a 92-73 upset victory over the United States.

Former Mobile Revelers coach Sam Vincent is taking in the Games from the sidelines, serving as head coach for the Nigerian women's team, which lost to 2000 silver-medalist Australia, 85-73, over the weekend.

Vincent is joined on the bench by Roanoke Dazzle athletic trainer Janece Risty, who also served as trainer when the Revelers won the 2003 NBDL Championship.

Operating from a slightly different angle is NBDL official Jose Carrion, who is serving as a referee at the games.

Although the NBDL has had six officials get the call to the NBA, Carrion is obviously the first NBDL official to represent the league at the Olympics.

CBA's Impact

Three former Continental Basketball Association players are also representing their respective countries in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

C.J. Bruton and his Australian National Team lost to Greece 76-54 on Sunday, while Elias "Larry" Ayuso and Sharif Fajardo played pivotal roles in Puerto Rico's upset of Team USA.

Ayuso, a 6-3, 200-pound guard from the University of Southern California, played in 25 games for the Grand Rapids Hoops during the 2002-03 season, averaging 22.3 points, 3.1 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per contest.

Named to the American Conference All-Star Team, Ayuso posted 10 points, six rebounds and four assists in the 2003 CBA All-Star Classic, in 25 minutes of action.

In Sunday's win over the U.S., he led Puerto Rico in minutes played (34), and scored 15 points, grabbed three rebounds, and dished out one assist.

Fajardo, a 6-9, 240-pound forward, played three seasons in the CBA with the La Crosse Bobcats in 1999-2000, and the Idaho Stampede in 2000-01 and 2002-03.

Undrafted out of the University of Texas-El Paso, he held CBA career averages of 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in 79 games played. He also added 114 assists, 53 blocked shots and 51 steals.

In his first Olympic contest, he scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in 20 minutes of action.

Bruton, who was a sixth-round draft pick of the Quad City Thunder in the 1997 CBA Draft, played in 19 games for the Sioux Falls Skyforce during the 2000-01 season, averaging 5.9 points and 2.4 assists per game.

The 6-2, 190-pound guard from Indian Hills Community College scored three points in 19 minutes of action in Australia's loss to Greece on Sunday.