Terence Dill’s hopes of fulfilling his dream of playing professional basketball are in the balance because of financial constraints.

Plying his trade in the American Basketball Association (ABA) with expansion team Montgomery Blackhawks, Dill is finding difficulty in raising funds to help his pursuit of breaking into the top tier of the sport.

While he plays for the Blackhawks, it is his responsibility to pay for housing and other expenses, which is creating a huge burden on the small forward.

The former co-owner of the Buffalo Warriors of the Premier Basketball League has extended his sponsorship to local shores, although his advances have fallen on deaf ears.

“I’m in dire need of a sponsor for a total of $6,000 for the total season,” Dill said. “I needed $1,000 by the end of this week because even though I’m playing at the pro level, it’s like a stepping stone to the paying jobs like NBA Developmental League.

“I have reached out to many organisations back home, but not one response. Bermuda Gas claims that they only said they were sponsoring the event I played in at home, not me, but I don’t recall that.

“I’ve tried many times with the Bermuda Basketball Association, even the government ministries.

“Not one person has written back, and I’ve been writing to them for months now.

“It’s the player’s responsibility to pay for that [housing]. and of course because of where I was previously playing, I wasn’t being paid there either, so the savings is running low and now I’m pretty much out.

Added to the stress that is burdening the Bermudian, his team selected him to go to tryouts for the European leagues, which will increase his total cost to more than $6,000. The ABA franchise selected four members of the existing squad to attend tryouts with the hope of being scouted and picked to play either in Europe or in the United States.

“The team I’m with right now want to send me to a tryout in January for the European leagues and possibly the NBA, but I have to put something down this week Thursday.

“The rest of it will help with my room and board for the duration of the season.”

Dill is not eligible to represent the club in upcoming matches until he has his financial situation sorted out.

“What makes it worse, I’m on the back burner until I do, so I may not play in this weekend’s game,” he said. “I stay at the coaches’ [house] like two times a week, but if I go to the tryouts, they pay for the board.

“I really don’t know how [to get funds] at this point. The cost helps with my room and the two camps they want to send me to.

“They selected the top four players on the team to go, and I’m one of them.

“I’m ready to quit, but every time I’m ready to quit I keep thinking something is going to come and that’s when I was hit with the alley-oop to play in front of scouts.”