Why is the team called Curtis J. Phillips?
Originally the team couldn't agree upon or come up with a name thus for their first season together they were called Too Legit To Quit. Since that name didn't catch on, in their second season together they were known as Olympiakos and in their third season together they changed their name to Kevin Frost. However once again none of the players seemed to care about the team name. However that changed in the Fall of 2009 as team general manager Daniel Sondreal decided to name the team after his Uncle Curtis, Curtis J. Phillips. Upon hearing the news, the real Curtis J. Phillips sponsored the team by purchasing them reversible uniforms and for the first time in over a year, the team finally had a legit name to stand by and with that they forged themselves a true identity in the Lawrence, Kansas basketball community.
As for why Sondreal chose to name the team after his Uncle Curtis, "Well I have always liked naming teams after friends or people as I like honoring them and that I feel a person's name often comes across as being a bit bolder and more profound than your traditional teams named after animals, groups of people, or businesses. Thus I chose his name as not only did it sound right but that the man behind it was someone that would truly enjoy having a team named after him as he loves the game more than anybody I know."
Who is Curtis J. Phillips?
First and foremost in regards to Curtis J. Phillips Basketball, Curtis John Phillips is the uncle of team general manager and player Daniel Sondreal. Secondly and most notably, Curtis J. Phillips is a well known basketball enthusiast, writer, promoter, and coach throughout North America and most prominently in Canada. From his playing days playing for some of Canada's top men's amateur teams, to his reporting of the sport in the journalistic mediums of print, television, and radio, to traveling the USA playing pickup games like Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, to coaching and promoting the game to Canada's youth, to the three basketball related tattoos upon his body, to losing a bet to Larry Bird and beating a few players on the Vancouver Grizzlies in a game of H-O-R-S-E, to organizing and promoting countless and countless of basketball related events, to being a walking encyclopedia of basketball knowledge, and so on and so on, Curtis J. Phillips' passion for the game is unparalleled.
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