Category: Basketball

Fifty years ago today, the Golden State Warriors completed a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets to claim the NBA championship – their first since moving to Northern California (from Philadelphia).

The Warriors finished 48-34 in the regular season before beating the Seattle SuperSonics (four games to two), Chicago Bulls (four games to three) and Washington.

But while the champagne was still dripping from their uniforms, another professional basketball team challenged the NBA kings to a world championship showdown.

The Kentucky Colonels, champions of the American Basketball Association, wanted a series to determine the sport’s true champion. The Louisville-based club logged a 58-36 mark in the ABA regular season before topping the New York Nets, 108-99, to win the Eastern Division tiebreaker game.

The Colonels then bulldozed the Memphis Sounds in the first round of the playoffs, Spirits of St. Louis in the Eastern Conference Finals and Indiana Pacers in the ABA Finals.

They won all three series four games to one.

On the day Golden State raised its trophy, ABA Commissioner Dave DeBusschere sent a telegram to Warriors president Franklin Mieuli, NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy and commissioner-elect Larry O’Brien.

“The television networks would like to put on a world championship series between the two leagues,” read the cable. “A three to five-game series would provide an additional $1 million in revenue for the teams, the leagues and the players. Baseball has its World Series and football has its Super Bowl between the leagues. Professional basketball should have some method to determine the true world champions. We stand ready to prove who has the best team in professional basketball.”

Colonels owners John Y. Brown and his wife, Ellie Brown, had no immediate comment, but Kentucky assistant manager David Vance was all for the NBA vs. ABA challenge.

“We could play the series if they would play it,” he told Associated Press. “There’s no way they can claim to be world champions without beating all of the known world.”

The ABA was hardly punching above its weight when it made the offer. It had completed its eighth season and was already playing – and beating – NBA in exhibition games and talking about a champion vs. champion battle.

In fact, it held a 31-17 edge over the senior circuit in preseason action and was 16-7 in exhibitions played in advance of the 1974-75 campaign.

The Colonels finished 3-2 in their interleague exhibition slate, including wins over the Bullets and Bulls. And as for Kentucky’s credentials, they were coached by Hubie Brown and featured Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel and Louie Dampier – all four future Hall of Famers.

There had been merger talks for several years, so a roundball world series made perfect sense.

Well, it made perfect sense for the ABA.

The NBA had nothing to gain by such a matchup, and a day after DeBusschere sent the telegram Kennedy shot down the idea.

“The NBA, as usual with these annual challenges, rejects the 1975 proposal – period,” he said.

Thus, we’ll never know if the Colonels could’ve topped the Warriors. And sadly, we never got to find out how that franchise would’ve fared in the NBA.

After struggling with attendance during their early years (there was talk of moving the franchise to Cincinnati), the Colonels starting doing big box office business in the 1970s.

Average crowds for the 1970-71 season were 7,375, followed by 8,811 (1971-72), 7,113 (1972-73), 8,201 (1973-74), 8,727 (1974-75) and 6,935 (1975-76). By any standard of measure, they were one of the ABA’s strongest franchises.

There was a merger ahead of the 1976-77 season (it was completed on June 17, 1976), but it didn’t include Kentucky. That seemed odd, considering how crazy for basketball the Bluegrass State is. The NBA accepted the Nets, Pacers, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, but the Spirits and Colonels were left out.

The omission of Kentucky is worth a whole ‘nother story (and maybe I’ll get to that another time).  Officially, John Brown declined to pay the $4.5 million entry fee to the NBA, which was treating the arrival of former ABA teams as expansion. Ultimately, Brown agreed to fold the franchise in exchange for $3 million, and its players were placed in a dispersal draft.

Anyway, I like to think the Colonels would’ve beaten the Warriors in the million dollar matchup.

As a guy who grew to love the game because of the ABA, how could I think otherwise?

As someone who firmly believes there’s no such thing as too much basketball, I embrace the sport wherever and whenever it’s played.

Domestically, the NBA, WNBA, G League and men’s and women’s college basketball get most of my attention, but I also follow the EuroLeague (Alba Berlin is my favored club) and the Basketball Africa League (I cheer for the Rivers Hoopers out of Nigeria).

So, when the NBA and FIBA held a joint news conference late last month about the plan for a new pro hoops league in Europe, it quickly got my attention.

“The European basketball community is proud of its seven-decade history of international club competitions and the elite talent it develops,” said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis. “Yet, given the sport’s popularity and the success of national team competitions, there is untapped potential in European club basketball.  A new league in Europe would combine the NBA’s business acumen with the international expertise of FIBA to attract new basketball fans and investors alike, maximize club benefits, and establish synergies for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Added NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “The NBA and FIBA are uniquely positioned to build on the rich tradition of European basketball. We look forward to collaborating with FIBA to explore the creation of a new league for fans across the continent.”

Nothing is set in stone, of course, and plans sometimes never get beyond the drawing board. But the fact that Silver and Zagklis have gone public with their attentions means they’re quite serious.

According to an NBA news release, potential investors and teams were contacted more than a year ago to gauge the feasibility of the NBA Europe League (or whatever it might be called).

The new organization would be “ … integrated into the current European basketball landscape, with teams also participating in their respective national leagues. In addition to permanent teams, the league would offer clubs a merit-based pathway to qualification through the European basketball ecosystem.”

BasketNews reports that Real Madrid is the top target among EuroLeague franchises, while England wants to join the party with a new club based in Manchester.

I alluded to being a supporter of Alba Berlin, and it appears they’ll be locked in to EuroLeague. BasketNews hinted that the proposed league covets a Berlin club, but would likely introduce a fresh one.

“It’s preliminary, maybe 12 permanent spots and four that would be in a position to play on yearly basis, but that’s subject to change,” Silver said during the presser – without ever mentioning EuroLeague. “We have ongoing discussion with existing clubs, some of them are huge global brands and we recognize that there’s a tremendous depth of interest.”

EuroLeague’s 13 shareholders are meeting on Monday in Barcelona to discuss the league’s future and how an NBA-sponsored competitor might impact it. Currently it features 18 clubs with an eye on expanding to 20 as early as next season.

As you might expect, EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejūnas thinks Europe is best represented by his operation.

“We have a strong league. We have a great plan. We have a vision as to where we want to go and what we want to do,” Motiejūnas said to Spanish broadcaster Movistar+. “Of course, we don’t need another league. We don’t need a savior. We keep saying that we have the best league in Europe. I think we have the best fanbase on which the league is built. We have great franchises like Real Madrid. We have new names like Paris coming in as a new market. Clearly, we feel strong.” 

In a perfect world, I’d love to see EuroLeague and the new venture come to some sort of arrangement where they can peacefully coexist. As exciting as it is to see the NBA expand its footprint further, EuroLeague’s roots date back to 1957 and as Motiejūnas says, it’s already strong.

But a perfect world this most certainly is not. Chances are there will be some major upheaval in European hoops if Silver and Zagklis partner up. take on the old guard and filch some of its biggest names.

Thus, I find myself hoping EuroLeague can hold the line while, at the same time, feeling excited about more big-time professional roundball.

Stay tuned …

On this day in 1969, West Chester State College – under the umbrella of the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women – won the first national championship in women’s basketball.

The Golden Rams defeated Western Carolina, 65-39, in front of 2,000 fans in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with Pat Ferguson scoring a game-high 20 points. The competition was organized by West Chester coach and assistant professor of health and physical education Carol Eckman, now known as the “mother of  the collegiate women’s basketball national championship.”

Humble beginnings?

Quite.

The game barely rated more than a few lines in newspapers, with the Philadelphia Inquirer burying a six-paragraph report (under the headline West Chester Wins Title In Girls’ Tourney) on page 12 of its sports section.

But while all sports evolve to varying degrees, what women’s roundball fans saw then and what they see now are wildly different games altogether.

West Chester claimed the crown by playing six-on-six basketball, a style that featured three forwards and three guards. But get this – only forwards were allowed to shoot the ball and had to stay in the frontcourt while the guards stayed in the backcourt. In other words, forwards played only offense while guards played strictly defense.

Yet while Title IX (passed in 1972) was a catalyst for making women’s basketball more like the men’s game – five-on-five, full court, shot clock, etc. – the NCAA didn’t sponsor a women’s national championship game until 1982. Up to that point, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (which grew from the CIAW) coordinated events before dissolving in 1983.

The NCAA voted to sponsor a women’s hoops championship in January, 1981, at its 75^th annual convention (surviving a legal challenge from the AIAW), and the inaugural NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament field was announced on March 6, 1982. Louisiana Tech was named the top seed in the 32-team bracket.

The first tourney game was held on March 12, 1982, when Penn State hosted Clemson. The homestanding Nittany Lions won big, 96-75, with a crowd of 2,553 witnessing history.

Louisiana Tech, which claimed the AIAW title the previous season, went on to win the championship thanks to a 76-62 conquest of Cheyney State (current LSU coach Kim Mulkey was a member of the Lady Techsters and made the All-Tournament Team), and women’s hoops has only grown from there.

And I’m glad, because I’m a big fan and have been for years.

Aside from the fact that I enjoy the sport in general, women’s basketball – especially elite women’s basketball – has always impressed me due to the fundamental aspect of it. While the men’s game is often played above the rim, the women rely more on sharp shooting and defense. If you want to learn about how the game is supposed to be played from a technique standpoint, a good women’s matchup is the best teaching tool.

In fact, when I look back on my sports writing career, some of my favorite moments involved covering women’s basketball. During the decade I worked in South Carolina, one of my beats was Anderson University, a Division II school.

The Trojans were a perennial powerhouse and regulars in the annual DII regionals. Man, they were fun to watch, playing aggressive “D” while launching – and landing – bombs from beyond the arc.

And I also got to write about the University of South Carolina, just as Dawn Staley was building a dynasty in Columbia.

Watching the Gamecocks play meant at times I was watching near perfection.

So, I’m thrilled at how far the game has come. Not only do many NCAA teams play before packed houses, but they feature incredible athletes.

The leading candidate for Player of the Year this season is JuJu Watkins, who averaged 24.6 points per game for Southern Cal during the 2024-25 regular season. She’ll lead her team against UNC Greensboro today.

Other members of the Associated Press First Team All-American team are Paige Bueckers, UConn; Lauren Betts, UCLA; Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame; and Madison Booker, Texas.

All of them, by the way, are playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Hidalgo had 24 points in the Fighting Irish’s 106-54 romp over Stephen F. Austin on Friday, while Betts tallied 14 points to lead the Bruins to a decisive 84-46 victory over Southern in oprning round play.

If you’re a fan of college basketball, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. You’ll see some blowouts to go along with a few startling upsets, and learn to appreciate teams you hadn’t even thought about until now.

And thanks to pioneers like Carol Eckman, the Big Dance is coed.