- July 16, 2026
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There are no stands in this arena. Spectator seating is restricted to court-level folding chairs numbering no more than 50, loosely arranged on three sides of the gym.
In lieu of a jumbotron, wall-mounted scoreboards sit behind the hoops on opposite ends. The shot clock runs on a widescreen monitor placed next to the scorer’s table.
Concessions are available at a kitchen window, and, at a glance, hanging pots and pans are seen. Even the restrooms are in plain sight, and a short walk from the entrance.
GraceLife Sarasota offers a basketball court absent of glitz and glam. The Sarasota Lions call it home at this time of year — “The Lion’s Den.”
The minor professional basketball team is 1-2 this season in the Sunbelt Basketball Association following a 73-66 loss to the Southwest Florida Blazers on Sunday. After tryouts and preseason, they’re still learning how to compete together.
“With semi-pro, people come and go. That’s the biggest (challenge),” said coach Kobe Johnson. “The most important part is getting pieces that work together, and that’s what we’re working out right now.”
A church gym serves as a humble backdrop to what some Lions hope will become their path to the pros. It’s a place where they can, as the SBA’s motto claims, “elevate their game.”
The league was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in Sarasota. It comprises seven teams across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Indiana, operating at a level below the G League.
Sarasota jumped ship from The Basketball League after four seasons there as the Gulf Coast Lions to become a member of the SBA for its inaugural season. In 2024, the Lions won the league title, but fell to the Memphis Blues in last year’s championship.
Their organization is all about awarding competitive chances to aspiring pros, or second chances to those who fell short on their first run at professional basketball.
For those players getting older or whose skills are fading, it may very well be their last chance.
“It’s a good opportunity for them to understand,” Johnson said. “Half of these guys, with the NBA, that window is closing. For most guys, it’s closed.”
The Lions’ roster has never looked the same from year to year. Even from the beginning of this season to the end — late June to early August — there will be changes in personnel.
Players don’t always stick around, and neither do coaches. This is Johnson’s first season in the driver’s seat after playing for the team two years ago.
Jason Jackson, a 6-foot-3 guard, is new in every sense of the word. Sunday was his first game with Sarasota thanks to his brother, Willie Jackson, who convinced him to join in.
He grew up in Sarasota. From 2019-23, he played for Riverview High boys basketball, averaging a team-high 20.2 points per game as a senior. He even reached the NCAA Division I level by playing for Georgia State in 2024-25 as a freshman.
For this past season, Jason Jackson transferred to Howard College — a junior college in Big Spring, Texas — and wound up winning the NJCAA Div. I national championship. The rising junior even played alongside Terry Copeland, the NJCAA Div. I National Player of the Year.
Sunday was his first taste of the Lions and how the SBA runs the show. He soon learned referees’ whistles are not so frequently blown.
“Physicality is close to the same,” Jackson said. “But it’s just a different mental stage when you’re not getting certain calls and you want certain calls. It’s mainly about not getting frustrated and keeping cool.”
The SBA uses rules outlined by FIBA, the governing body for international basketball. Those differ from the NBA rulebook, which most players in the U.S. are accustomed to using.
Quarters are 10 minutes long instead of 12. Players are disqualified on their fifth personal foul instead of their sixth.
Court dimensions are 91.86 by 49.21 feet, but in the NBA, they’re 94 by 50 feet. The 3-point line, too, is different — 22.15 feet from the center of the basket instead of 23.75 feet.
“It’s more aggressive than regular basketball,” Johnson said. “Half the stuff that people (are) getting away with, you wouldn’t get away with in NBA rules. So it’s more so them adjusting to that international ‘ball.”
That adjustment helps prepare the Lions for what the game will be like should they go overseas. Four or five of them, Johnson said, have aspirations to compete internationally.
Ruslan Pateev has actually done it. The 7-foot-0 center played professionally from 2013-22, and most recently as team captain for BC Khimki in Moscow, Russia.
He was born there, but came over to Florida to play high school basketball for Montverde Academy. That launched him into a Div. I collegiate career with Arizona State from 2009-13.
These days, the 36-year-old coaches in the Sarasota-Bradenton area, with the Lions providing an outlet for him to still play the game he built his career around.
Younger counterparts like 2025 Braden River High graduate Deven Womack and 2023 Southeast High graduate Aaron Barton — a pair of guards — make for a team of guys at different points in their respective careers.
“It’s usually a pretty fun team,” Johnson said. “You see a lot of highlights as far as a lot of dunks. We’ve got a lot of people that can actually jump.”
Each of them gets to play organized, semi-professional basketball with the Lions. Playing in the SBA, they hope, will jumpstart their journey to the pros.
GraceLife Sarasota isn’t the most glamorous backdrop, but it’s where these pro hopefuls can hoop.
