Basketball from a fans perspective
Who replaces them?
On the cusp of new college basketball season, we might begin to ponder. Coach K. at Duke is 71-years old, North Carolina’s Roy Williams is 68 and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse is 73 and he’s already indicated a date he intends to step down. John Calipari at Kentucky is only 59 but is dropping hints he might leave, whether he remains in place or moves to another location he too might be replaced. Bill Self is 55 but has given no indication he’s headed anywhere other than Allen Fieldhouse. There are others I probably overlooked however it wasn’t intentional, you get the point I hope. The replacements for all these coaches are out there, we don’t know their names, but they are there.
He was the first
In compiling historical data there are times the information is misplaced or overlooked, in some instances unclear. That is the case here, most reading this are not familiar with the name Reggie Harding. Harding was actually the first high school player to play in the NBA, he accomplished this feat in a circuitous manner. He graduated from Detroit’s Eastern High School in 1961, the following year the Pistons made the 7-foot 250-pound Harding a pick in the 4th round of the 1962 draft. In the sixth round the following season the Pistons again chose him after he’d played a year of semi-pro basketball.
In compiling historical data there are times the information is misplaced or overlooked, in some instances unclear. That is the case here, most reading this are not familiar with the name Reggie Harding. Harding was actually the first high school player to play in the NBA, he accomplished this feat in a circuitous manner. He graduated from Detroit’s Eastern High School in 1961, the following year the Pistons made the 7-foot 250-pound Harding a pick in the 4th round of the 1962 draft. In the sixth round the following season the Pistons again chose him after he’d played a year of semi-pro basketball.
This is
the point the story becomes a little murky, although his high school class was
yet to graduate college he began playing for the Pistons in 1963. The “street-life” would eventually consume
Harding and lead to his downfall.
NOTE: In those days the NBA draft
consumed more than the present day two rounds.
Harding would later play for the Bulls a CBA team and the ABA Pacers, by
this time drugs and alcohol ran his life rather than basketball. It was reported he carried a gun and would
threaten front office and fellow players.
If you
saw the movie “White Men can’t Jump” there is a scene straight out of Harding’s
life. Marques Johnson’s character
needing money went into a neighborhood store with ski mask and gun. The clerk behind the counter recognized the
6-foot 7-inch Raymond (Marques Johnson).
Harding standing 7 feet tall with ski mask and gun the clerk immediately
recognized him and refused to empty the cash register, he ran Harding out of
the store although he was unarmed. The
tragedy of Reggie Harding is there was so much promise which he failed to
capitalize on. 1972 would see Harding
shot dead at an intersection in Detroit, only 30 years old. The street and fast life were more important
to him than anything.
Did you know?
The team you follow might not be the first to represent the city. The first sentence might sound usual, allow a further explanation. Toronto had an NBA team long before the expansion Raptors existed? The Toronto Huskies were a founding member in the Basketball Association of America predecessor to today’s NBA. Not surprising the Huskie owner ran the NHL Maple Leafs, in the early days of the league a large percentage of this group-controlled NHL teams. The Huskies must have fallen on hard-times almost immediately, they lasted but a single (1946-47) season. Other than television and exhibition games Toronto would not know home NBA basketball until 1995 at the point the expansion Raptors were born.
The team you follow might not be the first to represent the city. The first sentence might sound usual, allow a further explanation. Toronto had an NBA team long before the expansion Raptors existed? The Toronto Huskies were a founding member in the Basketball Association of America predecessor to today’s NBA. Not surprising the Huskie owner ran the NHL Maple Leafs, in the early days of the league a large percentage of this group-controlled NHL teams. The Huskies must have fallen on hard-times almost immediately, they lasted but a single (1946-47) season. Other than television and exhibition games Toronto would not know home NBA basketball until 1995 at the point the expansion Raptors were born.
How about the Second City,
i.e. Chicago? Two NBA teams had Chicago
on the front of their jerseys prior to the 1966 birth of the Bulls. The Chicago Stags were also members of the
Basketball Association of America, the Stags formed in 1946 and lasted till
1950. There was no information available
to determine why the team went out of business.
The 1961-62 season witnessed the birth of the Chicago Packers, they
finished that first season 18-62. The
following season the team became the Zephyrs and year three saw the team move
to Baltimore.
Milwaukee witnessed NBA
basketball prior to the Bucks, the Tri-City Blackhawks moved to the city in
1951-52 and shorten the team name to Hawks.
In 1955-56 the team would move to St. Louis and NBA basketball was
absent in the city until 1968 when the expansion Bucks began play. Next up the Washington Capitals, no not the
NHL team that represents the city. The
first Capitals team was also a Basketball Association of America team, founded
in 1946 the Caps folded in 1951. The
team had two names who would later be elected to the Naismith Hall of
Fame. Bill Sharman and Red Auerbach,
Auerbach coached the Caps prior to his later storied career with the
Celtics. The nation’s capital would
remain without an NBA team until 1973 when the Bullets moved from Baltimore
first to Landover Maryland and later Washington D.C. This report only represents cities which lost
an NBA team but later gained another.
