Starting a new basketball team, much less a second one in central Ohio, wasn’t something that was on Stephen G. Fabyan’s radar. A minister from Grove City, Fabyan’s sports background lies in coaching football, not basketball.
So when three former players he’d known for years reached out to see if he had interest in owning a professional basketball team, his answer was simple.
“I flat-out told them no,” Fabyan said.
Undeterred, they convinced Fabyan to at least make a phone call to David Magley, president of The Basketball League. One rung below the NBA’s G League on the American basketball pyramid, the league was considering adding a second team to the region as a rival to compete with the Columbus Wizards starting in the 2026 season. As someone who also describes himself as an investor, Fabyan came away from the call intrigued about not just the league but its stated goals of fielding community-based teams that give back to where they play.
That tugged at his heart, Fabyan said, and after TBL representatives came to town for a visit he decided to invest. The result is the Grove City Whitetails, one of six expansion teams slated to join the league this spring.
“I have lived all over Columbus, but I am from Grove City,” he said. “I get to bring it home, which is important to me. Obviously we want to win, but that’s not my motive for what I’m doing. I want to bring integrity into an arena that doesn’t always have it. I want to treat people with respect.”
Fabyan said his Wizards counterparts have been supportive as the Whitetails have come together. Wizards president Casey Gillespie has shared multiple weekly phone calls with Fabyan, he said, and the two frequent the same gym.
In a Sept. 9 post to Instagram announcing the Whitetails, the Wizards’ team president publicly expressed his support for the creation of his crosstown rival.
“I am very excited to see the game continue to grow in our city,” Gillespie wrote. “Competition only makes us all stronger, and when one team wins the whole city wins. Looking forward to working together to reshape and elevate the standard of professional basketball!”
While the Wizards will be mostly based in Westerville and play home games at Otterbein, the Whitetails will play at Central Crossing High School. Both teams are in the process of finalizing rosters for their inaugural TBL seasons, with the Whitetails holding an open tryout session Oct. 19 on their home court.
The league features three teams in Indiana: the Kokomo BobKats, the Lebanon Leprechauns and the Logansport Iron Horses.
“I think we can follow that same format,” Fabyan said. “On the court we’re going to compete competitively and talk trash, I’m sure, but off the court it’s a good partnership between the two of us. I think we can impact the city more together than we can by ourselves.
“I love it. I think we’ll feed off of each other.”
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Grove City Whitetails bring second The Basketball League team to central Ohio
Reporting by Adam Jardy, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
