Discogod

I think it's a safe bet that the Heat would have gone with "Florida" over "Miami" had they been the only team in that state. I'm still of the belief that the only reason the NBA expanded by 4 teams instead of 2 was to prevent existing teams relocating to either Minneapolis or Miami. They were always top of the list when relocation seemed on the cards in the 80s.

JerseyJosh, the Nets moved a few times - they started as the New Jersey Americans, moved to New York after a season and became the Nets and then moved back to Jersey in 1977. Other than that, there's only really the time they almost changed their name to the Swamp Dragons:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/15155466/once-nets-seriously-considered-becoming-swamp-dragons

4 hours ago, kimball said:

 

I'm in that same boat.

 

There's some golden info in "In the Hornets' Nest" chronicling the Charlotte Hornets' first season. Before being awarded a team David Stern directed George Shinn to a couple of troubled franchises including the Jazz and the Clippers among other teams. 

 

I remember reading rumors of the Jazz and Nuggets merging, the group that bought the Kings to move them to Sacramento almost bought the Pacers in 1982 and the Kings almost moving to Dallas or Minneapolis back in the late 70s.

 

I love all that 'What If' history.

 

OH ... and then there was the NBA Expansion team awarded to Toronto in 1975, but there wasn't a group that could come up with the franchise fee so expansion was cancelled.

Funnily enough, I bought that book a couple of weeks ago. I'm just waiting for it to arrive (currently chugging through Terry Pluto's "Tall Tales").

Half the teams in the league had relocation threats in the 70s & 80s. The ABA kicked a lot of the established teams square in the nuts, and a lot of them found it hard to keep going. Combine that with escalating salaries, half-empty arenas and a negligible TV deal and it was a recipe for disaster. It wasn't until Stern became the Commissioner that the league found some stability (and of course Jordan, Magic & Bird didn't hurt). A lot of people have no idea how unsteady the NBA was back then, and how close it came to losing a good chunk of teams.

This is a pretty good article about the late 80s expansion:

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-19/sports/sp-2064_1_expansion-team

Been doing some digging myself - after he sold the Cavs, Stepien bought a CBA expansion team in Toronto and named them the Tornados. They played 2-and-a-bit seasons from 1983-85, and their logo was very similar to that proposed Towers logo:

Incredible find! I love anything like that related to the late 70s/early 80s NBA, when it seemed like teams were going to relocate, merge or just go out of business every week.

I wish I could find an article I had from c.1982 which detailed the NBA's tentative plans around that time - amongst other things, it had the Nuggets & Jazz merging, Spurs moving to Miami and Cleveland, Indiana & Kansas City folding outright!

4 hours ago, kimball said:

 

Lakers maybe. But, his Dallas stint tops all of them ...

 

Nah, I got you all beat - here's Rodman during his 3-game stint with the Brighton Bears in 2006:

1 hour ago, chrispw12 said:

 

With him being in the headlines Charles Oakley as a Washington Wizard

Some more Oak:

With the Raptors:

His early days as MJ's enforcer in Chicago:

I couldn't find any pics from his 7-game stint with Houston though...

Looks like the same font, just with the colours reversed, which has the effect of making the numbers & letters look thinner. The teal may be a little lighter too, although that might be the lighting throwing it off - I remember back in the early 90s, depending on the lighting at the various arenas, the Hornets unis looked anything from green to light royal.

Can't believe with how long I've been following the team and how much historical info I have that this is the first time I've seen that uni.

18 hours ago, kimball said:

 

It kinda reminds of when Ahmad Rashad played a preseason game with the 76ers as part of a promotional thing for Inside Stuff. 

 

 

Or when Mark Curry played a preseason game for the Warriors for the TV show "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" (complete with Sir Charles in the wrong Suns uni!)?

Some more Alex English in the wrong uni...

After the Bucks, had a stint with Indiana:

Finished his career with a 1-year stop in Dallas:

During his 2 1/2 minutes with the Celtics during the '86 preseason:

And a case of right team, wrong uni:

25 minutes ago, kimball said:

 

Fascinating. 

 

And, aren't those the Pistons' silver jerseys too?

Yeah, the metallic ones they only wore for 1981-82.

5 hours ago, SabresRule7361 said:

 

At the beginning of this clip- Dominique Wilkins NOT in the Pacman Atlanta Hawks jersey (His first dunk was in the early 80s uni)

Good catch! The Hawks only wore that uni for the opening game of the '83 season, switching to the Pac-Man unis for the next game against Boston (no idea why they wore the old unis for a game, maybe the new ones weren't ready yet?).

On 9/21/2016 at 9:03 AM, johnnysama said:

A while back, I touched on the Orlando Magic's inagural season (1989-90) being the only times they met "striped" New Jersey Nets; the same can be said of the old Indiana Pacers before their uniforms were overhauled by Flo-Jo the following season; I have no game pics of those meetings.

Also, the powder blue Kings unis were in their last year in '89-90. Plus that was also the first year for the Timberwolves, too.

I see your Scottie Pippen, and I raise you... Dennis Rodman in his short stint for the BBL's Brighton Bears:

On 5/9/2016 at 5:02 PM, LEWJ said:

Here's Mark Price as a Warrior.

 

This leads me to a question...

There are plenty of pictures of Price in the Warriors yellow and blue set, but this is the only one I could find of him in this jersey. He only played one season with Golden State (96-97). Did they wear two different uniform sets that year?

That's from the 1997-98 preseason, he played a couple of games with the Warriors (in the new unis) before being traded to the Magic.

Bonus points for being in San Jose.

When was this? The card is from the '97-'98 season, the same year the Warriors debuted those jerseys, but according to the mothership, Charlotte last wore those purple jerseys in '95-'96. Hmm...

This photo should have been taken from the '97-'98 preseason.

Yeah, the mothership's wrong (again). The Hornets wore the purple alts up until 1996-97, and that exhibition game vs. the Warriors on Oct. 10 1997 was the last time those alts were ever worn, since the Hornets changed unis that season.

It's also a rare case of a team wearing new unis in the preseason, as typically teams will wait until the regular season starts to debut the new threads.

Luol Deng.

In response to the question of players who did a photo shoot with their new team, but never played a game with them, here's my submission from 5 years ago:

Here's one that most people don't remember...

Portland picked up Moses Malone in the ABA dispersal draft, and traded him away before the '76-'77 season started. Just about as bad as picking Bowie over Jordan, IMHO. Enough ranting, here's a pic...

Picture is for bid on eBay.

He did play in the preseason for Portland - in fact, he played so well Jack Ramsey wanted to keep him, but by that point the Blazers had already agreed to trade him to Buffalo. Here's Moses from one of the 2 games he played for the Braves:

From Getty:

BOSTON - 1997: Marty Conlan #30 of the Boston Celtics drives to the basket against Buck Williams #52 of the New York Knicks during a game played in 1997 at the Fleet Center in Boston' date=' Massachusetts.[/quote']

DIRECT LINK: (http://www.gettyimag...rty conlan 1997)

Looks like the Celtics were wearing the '46-'69 Home Jersey (Throwback Night), based on the description on Getty Images it was a game played in 1997. The date the image was created was on Jan 1st 1997 if that helps in anyway...

The game in question was played January 10, 1997.

Lots of teams used throwback unis to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NBA - at the time, a big deal was made about how it was the first time the NBA was using throwback uniforms, although teams had been doing it for one-off games going back to 1992 (I have a full list of games if anyone wants it).

http://www.ebay.com/...=item484ceeb085

Never seen or heard of this prototype from the Suns.

That's 'cause it's not legit - it's a custom jersey based off a design on this page: http://www.nba.com/suns/00634541.html

That particular seller is notorious for making custom jerseys and passing them off as either game-worn or "prototypes"...

Dominique with the Spurs, Tim's number too...

I see your 'Nique Spurs pic, and raise you:

'Nique in a Magic uni, during his final comeback in '99.

And for good measure, because I always thought he looked weird wearing this particular Hawks uni:

First bootleg jersey I saw was around 1994 - red Houston Rockets #34. One of my best friends bought it on holiday in Spain and wore it every practice our first year of high school basketball. It was actually pretty good quality compared to the authentics I had at the time - heavy mesh, sewn-on names & numbers, no manufacturer's tags or anything. I ended up buying it off him a few years later (then giving it back to him as a gag gift even later still).

There also used to be a stall in Birmingham's Rag Market that sold a load of dodgy US sports gear, mostly hockey & football. This'd have been around the same time, '94-'96. There was actually a sports shop that specialized in stuff from the US leagues just outside from where this stall was (the only place around to get authentic & pro-cut NBA jerseys back then), so it was easy enough to compare the real with the fake.

Sorry for the poor quality image, but here's Nuggets legend Alex English playing for the Celtics:

From the movie "Amazing Grace & Chuck". English actually played in an exhibition game for the Celtics in order to get the footage for the movie - couldn't imagine the NBA letting something like that happen nowadays...

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=290707303750&index=18&nav=SEARCH&nid=87139830095

How about this?

Is it a toddler size? That star is HUGE.

I don't know I couldn't find a size anywhere.

Could be legit, I have a Sand-Knit home version of that jersey and the star's freakin' enormous, much bigger than it looked on the actual unis.

Hi Guys; I was hoping somebody could help me out with an early 90s NBA jersey...

Back in the early to mid 90;s, Starter NBA jerseys were a huge trend in Australia (and the satin jackets, to a lesser extent). Was Starter a legitimate manufacturer of the lower end NBA jerseys? I know that Champion were making the screen printed jerseys in the mid-90s. Here is an image of something I'm watching on ebay, does it look legit?

Cheers

Starter didn't start making NBA unis until the late 90's - I think it was 1998. That Hornets jersey is a definate fake - it looks like it was made based on a vague description of an actual jersey...

Thanks for the clarification. Its a damn shame, I too have been looking for late 85-93 kings throwbacks. Mainly Wayman Tisdale, Richmond, Theus, and Hurley.

Same here. I have 93-94 home & road Richmond jerseys, but I want the powder blues...

@Redsox44 - there were also Heat & Bucks soul swingmen. The 81-82 Bucks jerseys are damn near impossible to find - I've seen maybe 3 or 4 on ebay in the last 5 years.