As you should know by now, the Braves are America’s oldest professional sports franchise, pre-dating the National League by several years.
Today’s question has two parts:
1. What is the oldest current professional basketball franchise?
2. What is the oldest current NBA team?
The existence of question 2 should make obvious the answer the question 1.
I always thought Cincinnati had the first professional baseball team. Do the Reds not count since they were the Red Legs when they started out?
I’ll guess the Knicks are #2.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, ceased play after a couple of years. Harry Wright, their manager, wound up organizing another club in Boston, taking the Red Stockings name with him. A later Cincinnati club took that name back (Wright’s team is generally called the Red Caps after the NL started play in 1876) but the Reds didn’t start play until 1882. The only teams from 1876 still around are the Braves and Cubs.
Nope, Kyle.
Kyle, I think you are right. I also believe the Knicks are the answer to #2.
DANG IT!
#1 The Harlem Globetrotters
#2 Philadelphia 76ers
Maxwn is right on #1, wrong on #2, though the Sixers (like the Knicks) do predate the NBA.
Ok second guess…oldest current NBA team is the Boston Celtics.
Celtics?
Nope. You’d think it was the Celtics or Knicks, but it’s not.
The Knicks and Celtics (who are the same age) are by far the teams longest in operation in their current cities.
Golden State Warriors
Nope. Same age as the Knicks and Celtics, year older than the Sixers (who were in Syracuse when the Warriors were in Philly).
Pistons.
Yeah, I’m guessing Pistons.
Yes, it’s the Pistons. They began play in 1941 as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. (Like Japanese baseball teams, most clubs of that period had owner/sponsors who might put their names on the club).
The NBA was formed in 1949 from the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America. The NBA doesn’t like to talk about the NBL, but it was the older league and more of its teams survived; of the eight teams (out of 15 in 1949) that survived, five were from the NBL.
Team (Now) First Season League
Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (Pistons) 1941 NBL
Rochester Royals (Kings) 1945 NBL
New York Knickerbockers (Knicks) 1946 BAA
Philadelphia Warriors (Warriors) 1946 BAA
Boston Celtics (Celtics) 1946 BAA
Syracuse Nationals (Sixers) 1946 NBL
Detroit Gems (Lakers) 1946 NBL
Tri-Cities Blackhawks (Hawks) 1946 NBL
The Gems went 4-40 in their one season, then moved to Minneapolis to become the Lakers. The Blackhawks were actually formed during the 1946 season out of the ruins of Buffalo, which folded after 13 games.
I am guessing that the Pistons survived the war because their players had day jobs in a war industry. They were the dominant team during the war years, finishing with the best record in the NBL four years in a row, winning two playoff titles, and taking the national tournament (most teams weren’t in a formal league then) in Chicago three times from 1944-46. But they didn’t win an NBA title until 1989. I am reading about the early years of professional basketball right now, as you might guess.
My first NBA game: 1/27/74 @ The Omni. I was 10.
It was the CBS Sunday Game of the Week & the Knicks obliterated the Hawks, 111-89. I remember Earl Monroe dribbling through and around the Hawks like they were the Washington Generals. He made guys like Jim Washington look like cinema props.
And now the Pistons greatest player has turned the Knicks into the Washington Generals!
The BA top 100 just came out the Braves only have four, Salty, Elvis, Lerew, and James. I love the quote by Delmon Young about James. A future MVP can probably tell you more than any scout can.
Throw Chuck James into the rotation right now and he is already better than HoRo.
Oh, Mac. You know full well the Knicks were the Generals before Isiah took over.