The CBA - gone but not forgotten
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 11:04 am
I know right now that it's fashionable to kick the CBA like a dead dog.
Personally, I'd rather remember the league's successes.
That includes the dozens of former CBA players and coaches who became head coaches in the NBA - names like Phil Jackson, George Karl, Flip Saunders, Rick Carlisle, Bill Musselman, Eric Musselman, etc.
That includes the 600 times from 1978 to 2006 that the NBA called up CBA players to NBA rosters, and the ones that stayed - names like Mario Elie, Anthony Mason, John Starks, Chris Childs, Jamario Moon, Rafer Alston, Smush Parker, Charlie Criss, etc.
That includes successful decades-long runs in places where minor league sports had not previously thrived - including Yakima, Sioux Falls, Albany, Rockford, La Crosse, etc.
The times when CBA basketball received monster ratings on ESPN, when Bob Ley and Kevin Laughery called the CBA Game of the Week broadcasts.
Yeah, it's easy to throw the blame around about the CBA's demise. Blame Isiah Thomas. Blame the economy. Blame Joe Newman. Blame underfunded owners. Blame the NBA for cherry-picking the top teams for its D-League. Blame travel costs. Blame freezeouts. Blame this person. Blame that organization. Blame all you want.
Whatever the blame, realize this - the CBA made it through 63 seasons kicking and clawing and fighting its way through. It was given up for dead a year after its founding in 1946, when several teams bolted for the American Basketball League. It was given up for dead in 1961, when a new top-tier American Basketball League raided the available talent. It was given up for dead in 1967, when the new American Basketball Association cherry-picked whatever talent they could take. It was given up for dead in 1974 with a four-team season. It was given up for dead in 2001 after the Isiah Thomas debacle. It was given up for dead after the NBA cherry-picked its top teams in 2006.
But even throughout all that, the league survived - until it could do no more. Even when it had to go cap in hand to Joe Newman's ABA and try to work out an interleague deal so that there would be some sort of basketball played, the fact of the matter remained the same - the CBA tried, until it could do no more. Every time something happened to the league, it would have been so easy to shut down and box everything away. But that wasn't the nature of the CBA. It kept on fighting, kept on playing, kept on trying - until it could do no more.
Without the CBA, there would be no D-League. There would be no top coaches and players and officials who learned the tricks of the trade in Wichita Falls and Omaha and Lawton-Fort Sill and Lancaster and Gary and Anchorage.
And while everybody else is willing to kick the CBA, allow me a moment to acknowledge its successes. How many other sporting associations and leagues that started up after the post-World War II economic boom are still around today? Other than the CBA, you've got the NBA and that's it. Maybe the closest was the original International Hockey League, which died in the 1990's.
How many other North American-based minor league basketball circuits have lasted even fifteen years in the post-World War II era? The USBL, sure. But after that, the D-League is barely finishing its first decade, the PBL is starting its third season, and who knows what the ABA is up to. I suppose if you count the name changes for the Eastern Basketball Alliance, they should be up to ten years by now. All the other leagues - the 1999-2001 IBL, the IBA, the Western Basketball Association, the AABA, the MIdwest League, the GBA - all those leagues combined still wouldn't have outlasted the CBA.
So inbetween all the snide comments on OSC about failed franchises and questionable ownership, let's at least give the CBA credit for the successes they've achieved over the past 60+ seasons.
The CBA is gone. It won't be forgotten.
Personally, I'd rather remember the league's successes.
That includes the dozens of former CBA players and coaches who became head coaches in the NBA - names like Phil Jackson, George Karl, Flip Saunders, Rick Carlisle, Bill Musselman, Eric Musselman, etc.
That includes the 600 times from 1978 to 2006 that the NBA called up CBA players to NBA rosters, and the ones that stayed - names like Mario Elie, Anthony Mason, John Starks, Chris Childs, Jamario Moon, Rafer Alston, Smush Parker, Charlie Criss, etc.
That includes successful decades-long runs in places where minor league sports had not previously thrived - including Yakima, Sioux Falls, Albany, Rockford, La Crosse, etc.
The times when CBA basketball received monster ratings on ESPN, when Bob Ley and Kevin Laughery called the CBA Game of the Week broadcasts.
Yeah, it's easy to throw the blame around about the CBA's demise. Blame Isiah Thomas. Blame the economy. Blame Joe Newman. Blame underfunded owners. Blame the NBA for cherry-picking the top teams for its D-League. Blame travel costs. Blame freezeouts. Blame this person. Blame that organization. Blame all you want.
Whatever the blame, realize this - the CBA made it through 63 seasons kicking and clawing and fighting its way through. It was given up for dead a year after its founding in 1946, when several teams bolted for the American Basketball League. It was given up for dead in 1961, when a new top-tier American Basketball League raided the available talent. It was given up for dead in 1967, when the new American Basketball Association cherry-picked whatever talent they could take. It was given up for dead in 1974 with a four-team season. It was given up for dead in 2001 after the Isiah Thomas debacle. It was given up for dead after the NBA cherry-picked its top teams in 2006.
But even throughout all that, the league survived - until it could do no more. Even when it had to go cap in hand to Joe Newman's ABA and try to work out an interleague deal so that there would be some sort of basketball played, the fact of the matter remained the same - the CBA tried, until it could do no more. Every time something happened to the league, it would have been so easy to shut down and box everything away. But that wasn't the nature of the CBA. It kept on fighting, kept on playing, kept on trying - until it could do no more.
Without the CBA, there would be no D-League. There would be no top coaches and players and officials who learned the tricks of the trade in Wichita Falls and Omaha and Lawton-Fort Sill and Lancaster and Gary and Anchorage.
And while everybody else is willing to kick the CBA, allow me a moment to acknowledge its successes. How many other sporting associations and leagues that started up after the post-World War II economic boom are still around today? Other than the CBA, you've got the NBA and that's it. Maybe the closest was the original International Hockey League, which died in the 1990's.
How many other North American-based minor league basketball circuits have lasted even fifteen years in the post-World War II era? The USBL, sure. But after that, the D-League is barely finishing its first decade, the PBL is starting its third season, and who knows what the ABA is up to. I suppose if you count the name changes for the Eastern Basketball Alliance, they should be up to ten years by now. All the other leagues - the 1999-2001 IBL, the IBA, the Western Basketball Association, the AABA, the MIdwest League, the GBA - all those leagues combined still wouldn't have outlasted the CBA.
So inbetween all the snide comments on OSC about failed franchises and questionable ownership, let's at least give the CBA credit for the successes they've achieved over the past 60+ seasons.
The CBA is gone. It won't be forgotten.