zeebneeb wrote:I have a question, with two parts. First, I consider myself a history buff when it comes to the NBA, obviously not as in depth as yourself, but one thing that has always seemed nebulous to me, are the exact dates of each teams founding.
As it stands;
Kings-1923
Pistons-1937
Warriors-1946
Sixers-1946
Knicks-1946
Hawks-1946
Celtics-1946
Lakers-1947
Is this actually accurate? I know the Kings Lakers, and Pistons didn't join the NBA until 1948, and a few others until 49'.
In a follow up, how fragile was the league in terms of ownership back then? I know some of these teams moved once or more. Now its a big deal when a pro team moves cities, but how was that treated back then?
I'll work backwards because the earliest ones are the ones of which it's not quite as clear.
The Lakers were indeed created in 1947 as a member of the NBL, one year before joining the BAA. They were technically not founded as a franchise at this time, as the owners bought the franchise slot from the Detroit Gems team that had existed in the NBL the previous season rather than applying for an expansion team, but literally zero assets of the Detroit Gems were ever utilized as Lakers property, so it would be a little dumb to consider the Gems as being part of the Lakers' existence in any meaningful way.
The Celtics were indeed founded in 1946 as a member of the BAA. This is an open and shut case, they were a founding member of the league with no prior existence of the sort, aside from purchasing the rights to use the name "Celtics" from a former owner of the New York-based Original Celtics from the 1920s.
The Hawks were indeed founded in 1946 as a member of the NBL, later joining the NBA through the BAA-NBL merger in 1949. They were the Buffalo Bisons at the point of founding but relocated and rebranded in the middle of their first season to become the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. They were the first majority-white team in history to begin their existence as an integrated organization, with Pop Gates one of their key players in their first season.
The Knicks were indeed founded in 1946 as a member of the BAA. Like the Celtics an open and shut case. This was the only one of the BAA franchises in which there was an argument over who would operate the city's franchise, as two different potential owners wanted to run the team that would become the Knicks. The guy who lost and ended up not ever playing a role in the league was actually the person who first conceptualized the BAA in the first place.
The Philadelphia 76ers, at the time the Syracuse Nationals, were indeed created in 1946 as a member of the NBL, like the Hawks not joining the NBA until the 1949 merger. Like the Lakers, they purchased the franchise spot of a team already in existence, the Cleveland Transfers, but did not use any of their assets, so similarly it would take quite a stretch to count the Transfers as part of their history.
The Warriors were indeed founded in 1946 as a member of the BAA. Like the other BAA teams, founding team, open and shut case. Their manager-coach (and later manager-coach-owner) had run a previous team in Philadelphia since 1917-18, the all-Jewish Philadelphia Sphas, which was somewhat of a spiritual forerunner but had no connection to the team in any material sense.
The Pistons, at the time the Fort Wayne Zollners, were probably started in 1937. I haven't seen any primary sources of the team existing until 1938, but Zollner himself said 1937, and I see no reason not to believe him. That was as an amateur team operated within the confines of his company and playing local games against other industrial teams in the area. They began to operate as a serious organization in 1939, became semi-professional in 1940, and then became fully professional in 1941 when they joined the NBL. In a purely technical sense, they then became semi-professional again during wartime because players could dodge the draft by signing a highly inflated contract to work for Zollner's company and then "volunteer" to play basketball, sometimes without ever actually doing any job for him other than basketball. They joined the BAA in 1948 at the same time as the Lakers.
The Kings were not created in 1923. When exactly they were created, though, is a matter of debate. The semi-pro Eber Brothers team of Rochester NY was organized on Dec 6, 1928. It's often considered the case that the Ebers became the Rochester Seagrams in 1936, but both teams operated simultaneously during the 1935-36 season, so that clearly cannot be true in a technical sense. Most of the Ebers players joined the Seagrams when the Ebers discontinued, though, so the lines blur a little. It then becomes a lot weirder when the Ebers picked up part of Seagram's sponsorship in 1942-43 and the team became known interchangeably as either the Seagrams or the Eber-Seagrams. Then the Ebers pulled their sponsorship again the next year and some basketball higher-ups didn't want them to return to the Seagrams name because of the explicit support of alcohol consumption inherent to the name, so beginning in 1943, they played as simply the Rochester Pros. There's an argument to be made that was also a separate organization, because it also happened to be when they officially went from semi-professional to professional, but I personally would disagree with that assessment. Then in 1945 they became the Royals and joined the NBL, and in 1948 made the switch to the BAA like the Lakers and Zollners (Pistons) did. So the answer's either 1928, 1935, 1936, or 1943. I'd personally say 1935.