New Anaheim hoops team has area ties

The number of Newport Beach residents with ownership stakes in professional teams tripled on Tuesday as the National Basketball Assn. Development League announced the addition of an expansion team in Anaheim for the 2006-07 season.

The new team’s ownership group includes Newport Beach residents Roy Englebrecht and John Younesi. Also involved are Thomas and Louise Jones ? who will be the franchise’s majority owners ? Jan Yoss and Gino Kwok.

“This ownership group possesses the talent and experience to ensure a successful basketball product both on and off the floor,” NBA Development League President Phil Evans said in a press release. “We are excited to continue to move the D-League forward by tapping into their knowledge and enthusiasm.

“Assets you seek when deciding to grow a league are local ownership groups with both business and basketball acumen, a receptive market and favorable arena deals. Anaheim meets that criteria and then some.”

Both Englebrecht and Younesi have longstanding ties to professional sports in Southern California.

Englebrecht runs a boxing promotions company with minority partner Oscar De La Hoya that has held regular bouts at the Irvine Marriott for more than 20 years. He recently held a three-day seminar on promoting bouts for aspiring fight promoters.

The Anaheim D-League team won’t be Englebrecht’s first foray into team ownership. He is part of the ownership group for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes minor league baseball team ? the Class A affiliate of the Anaheim Angels, and was involved with the now-defunct Anaheim Piranhas of the Arena Football League.

Younesi is partnered with Yoss and Kwok in the law firm of Younesi & Yoss, LLC, which has offices in Costa Mesa and Los Angeles. He also has connections to the NBA, as the president of the Southern California Summer Pro League, one of three summer leagues for NBA teams and prospective free agents and a popular stop for already-established pros during the summer.

“Having been involved with the development of players through the NBA Sumer League, I know how integral a local D-League team will be to the careers of young players,” Younesi said in a press release. “The D-League is the future of basketball for developing players.”

Now in its fifth season, the D-League has eight teams in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico and North Carolina. The league recently announced the addition of four teams from the Continental Basketball Assn. for next season.

The Anaheim team will be the second D-League team on the West Coast, joining the Bakersfield Jam, which is coming over from the Continental Basketball Assn. The team will play its 25-game home schedule at the Anaheim Convention Center, the site of the Big West Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournament.

The team’s five-year lease agreement allows for the City of Anaheim to terminate the lease if an NBA team moves to nearby Anaheim Arena, the home venue for the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Teams in the league are affiliated with NBA franchises, which provide some of the players ? 29 so far this season. The remaining spots on each team’s 10-player roster are filled with free agents. All players are eligible to be called up by NBA teams during the course of the season.

Anaheim’s team will be affiliated with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Since its inception, 44 players have gone from D-League teams to the NBA, including 12 this season. Among the more well-known graduates are Devin Brown (a member of San Antonio’s NBA Championship team in 2005) and Rafer Alston (a starter for the Houston Rockets).

Also, former UC Irvine basketball standout Bob Thornton coached the now-defunct Huntsville Flight in the inaugural 2001-02 season.dpt.12-dleague-BPhotoInfoLI1PSCE320060412ixl1menc(LA)Roy Englebrecht