Bloomington Flex
| Founded | 2011 |
|---|---|
| League | Midwest Professional Basketball Association |
| Team history | Central Illinois Drive (2011–2012) Bloomington Flex (2012–present) |
| Based in | Bloomington, Illinois |
| Colors | Navy blue, sky blue, gold, white |
| Owner(s) | Scott Henderson |
| Head coach | Carlnel Wiley, Jr. |
| Championships | 2 (2012 and 2013) |
| Division titles | 3 (2012, 2013, 2014) |
The Bloomington Flex are a professional minor league basketball team based in Bloomington, Illinois. The Flex last played in the Midwest Professional Basketball Association (MPBA) in 2015.
Formed in 2011 as the Central Illinois Drive, they were a member of the Premier Basketball League (PBL) for three seasons.
The Flex played the 2012 PBL season as the expansion Central Illinois Drive. The Drive finished the 2012 regular season 18-1 and swept the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers in the first round of the PBL playoffs. On April 14, 2012, the Drive completed a two-game sweep of the defending PBL champions, the Rochester RazorSharks, at U.S Cellular Coliseum in the PBL Finals to win the 2012 PBL Championship.
Despite their success, Drive owner Jim Morris decided he no longer wanted to own the team after just one season of play. Scott Henderson, the Executive Vice President of the Drive, wanted to take over the team, but he and Morris could not come to an agreement about the use of name and logo for the Drive. Henderson and his management team then decided to reboot the entire operation. On December 1, 2012, Henderson announced the new franchise as the Bloomington Flex.
The Flex logo, uniform prototype and colors were announced at a news conference on January 18, 2013.
Prior to the start of the 2013 season, the PBL merged with the Independent Basketball Association (IBA), to create the IBA-PBL.
The Flex opened the 2013 season on March 15 against the Sauk Valley Predators, losing on the road 100-94. The Flex then dropped their home opener on March 29 to the Gary Splash, spoiling their championship banner-raising ceremony. But the team regrouped and went on to win ten of its next twelve regular-season games.
As the season wore on, the owners of the PBL's franchises became increasingly unhappy with either playoff structure suggested by Barry Bradford, the IBA-PBL commissioner who owns the IBA's Kankakee County Soldiers franchise and who had served as the IBA commissioner before the leagues merged. The PBL teams were also displeased about instances of IBA teams failing to appear for scheduled games against PBL teams over the final two weeks of the season. And so with less than two weeks left in the regular season, on May 24, 2013, the four top former PBL teams (Bloomington, Rochester, Indiana Diesels and Sauk Valley) broke away from the IBA to re-establish the PBL and hold a four-team playoff, identical to the PBL's 2012 format.
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