League Notes

XBA: The six-team X-treme Basketball Association (XBA) was unveiled yesterday, and the Carolinas-based league will play from June 1 to mid-August. The teams are the Queen City (Charlotte) Slamm, Myrtle Beach Ballers, Triangle (Raleigh-Durham) Sun Rays, Tar River (Rocky Mount) Jammers, Wilmington Wave Rockers and Greensboro Hoopers. In Charlotte, Cliff Mehrtens notes each roster will include mostly local and regional players, including ACC alumni. Tickets will be $5-8 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 5/1).

ATP: SI's L. Jon Wertheim writes the ATP's on-court product "has never been better," as the players, "more athletic than ever, lace the ball with unprecedented power and accuracy." But, "herein lies the problem facing the men's game. With no overbearing dads, no world-beating siblings raised in Compton, no sharp-tongued divas and no Anna factor, the ATP is judged as being more boring than a test pattern. ... So long as the women have a monopoly on melodrama, they will be prime-time fare while the men are relegated to the infomercial hours." ATP player Andy Roddick: "I'm not saying we're cool with it, but it seems like being a good player isn't enough anymore. I guess it's our challenge to be more entertaining" (SI, 5/6 issue).