Sea Bears send Allen packing Resistance to playing within system one reason for CEBL MVP being given his walking papers By: Ken Wiebe Posted: 5:49 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 17, 2024 Last Modified: 6:08 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 17, 2024 Updates

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Ultimately, Mike Taylor felt he had no other choice.

This was one of those situations where the numbers didn’t come close to telling the full story. That’s why the head coach and general manager of the Winnipeg Sea Bears made the choice to release star guard Teddy Allen on Monday morning.

Make no mistake, this decision to release the reigning CEBL Most Valuable Player wasn’t made overnight and it wasn’t strictly related to on-court performance.

After a series of recent heartfelt conversations between Taylor and Allen failed to gain any traction, plus other discussions between the player and team president Jason Smith and also with majority owner David Asper, the Sea Bears reached the point of no return and acted accordingly.

“This is not a surprise to arrive at this point, if there has been no positive response from his side,” Taylor said during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Sport Manitoba building. “The organization stands for team work, hard work and stands for the blue-collar work ethic of Winnipeg and unfortunately, Teddy, at times recently, has been outside of that. All of the efforts we’ve had to bring him back in and reached a (breaking) point, so here we are. We are prioritizing our team and our organization as we move forward.”

Taylor spoke for nearly 10 minutes and while he remained composed through the question and answer period, it was impossible for him to hide his disappointment.

Although Taylor didn’t want to get into specifics about any off-court incidents or personal conduct, there were several outbursts that transpired on the court during games, including arguments with members of the coaching staff and teammates.

During Sunday’s loss to the Edmonton Stingers, Allen got into it verbally with Sea Bears centre Byron Mullens.

“I don’t want to get into the details of the specific breaking point, but that’s a byproduct of it all,” said Taylor. “We have a player who is positioned as a go-to player, as a leader for our team on the court, playing individually and outside of the system. We, as a coaching staff, have spent tireless hours trying to get him — through video, through meetings, through situations to try to score within the system, to play defence and all of these details.

“So while the stat lines look fantastic, it was really difficult for the rest of our team to function. Over the last few games, we’ve seen internal unrest. The team was unsettled after some of the behaviours.”

Taylor was not confident Allen, who was averaging more than 28 points per game, could get things turned around here.

“He has been a very big distraction,” said Taylor. “There was the incident in Niagara and in the past 10 days, we’ve had several circumstances arise. We don’t want to get into those details. He’s been fined by the league, he’s been fined by our team internally. I can assure you, personally I have spent so much time trying to help Teddy.

“His teammates and our whole organization has done everything on multiple levels to get him back within the team, within the structure and within the system. Unfortunately, here we are today.”

Allen quickly become a fan favourite as professional basketball returned to Winnipeg and was affectionately known as Teddy Buckets.

“The organization stands for team work, hard work and stands for the blue-collar work ethic of Winnipeg and unfortunately, Teddy, at times recently, has been outside of that”–Sea Bears GM Mike Taylor

“It’s obviously extremely difficult to lose a player of Teddy’s calibre,” said Smith. “But one player is not bigger than the team and this was a decision we had to make to move forward in a positive way and to maintain the values we want to grow into as an organization.”

Taylor was invested in making it work with Allen, noting he went out of his way to help him find a job playing overseas after his MVP performance with the Sea Bears last summer.

“Teddy came here last year with something to prove and I managed Teddy by letting Teddy be Teddy,” said Taylor. “He was within the system and he was within the structure of the team off the floor (for) all of last season.”

Allen returned for a second season and things started off well, with the Sea Bears getting off to a 3-1 start.

The Sea Bears have lost four consecutive games, sit in a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference with a record of 3-5 and things were deteriorating quickly.

“I was very encouraged after the Scarborough game, with his scoring output and teamwork,” said Taylor. “But over the last several games, it’s kind of moved in the opposite direction, not only on the court but off the court as well.

“The fact that he kind of crossed the line on the court several times and in several ways, I hope that Teddy can look at this as a turning point and a wakeup call.”

What was Allen’s reactions to the news?

“I don’t know if he really understood where he was, despite some of the conversations,” said Taylor. “Last week, I defined some minimum standards for him. Trying to help him and clearly define it. Obviously, he was not happy. It’s not easy to hear. Nobody likes to go through those circumstances, so I can understand the frustration.”

There’s still half a season left to be played and the Sea Bears are hoping to get things turned around.

Doing so without a talented player such as Allen figures to be challenging, but the belief is there could be an addition by subtraction element to Monday’s move.

“We have a unified front with the players that we’re going to be better together moving forward,” said Taylor, noting they have a spot open to sign another American as soon as possible. “We have some guys that we’re in contact with. We’ll look at the market, we’ll work our network and try to find a guy who can come in and fit. But we have a lot of confidence and belief in the players that we have here. One of the issues we ran into with Teddy is that it became so individualistic and he dominated so many of the offensive possessions outside of the system, that it became hard for our other players to really be productive.

“We hope that we see a real response, a real team effort with better ball movement, a better commitment to defend and we make ourselves better by just teamwork.”

The Sea Bears are back in action on Wednesday against the Vancouver Bandits as a five-game homestand continues at Canada Life Centre.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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