Category: Western Basketball Association

Las Vegas Dealers Western Basketball Association

Las Vegas Dealers

The Las Vegas Dealers were one of seven founding teams in the Western Basketball Association in 1978. The Dealers proved to be the league’s shakiest franchise and barely made it through the season. Dealers founders James Speed and his wife Sylvia came to the ownership suite through unusual – and sad – circumstances. 6′ 7″ James Speed was a prized recruit for the University of Iowa basketball program in 1970. Before he ever took the floor for the Hawkeyes, complications from routine medical procedures left him permanently blind in both eyes. Speed later used part of his $750,000 malpractice judgment to buy the Dealers.

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Utah Prospectors Western Basketball Association

Utah Prospectors

The Utah Prospectors were a One-Year Wonder in the minor league Western Basketball Association that played at the Salt Palace during the winter of 1978-79. The team was sometimes abbreviated simply as the “Pros”. The Pros were displaced when the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City to become the Utah Jazz in the spring of 1979.

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Montana Sky Western Basketball Association

Montana Sky

The Montana Sky were a pro basketball outfit in the short-lived Western Basketball Association. Great Falls radio station owner Al Donohoe co-owned the club with African-American country music star Charley Pride. Donohue was one of the first station owners to play Pride’s records in the 1960’s. Prominent players included 34-year old Cazzie Russell, the NBA’s #1 overall draft pick in 1966 and a member of the New York Knicks’ 1970 championship team. Read more…

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Fresno Stars Western Basketball Association

Fresno Stars

The Fresno Stars were a minor league hoops outfit that played at Selland Arena during the winter of 1978-79. Like all seven teams in the fledgling Western Basketball Association, the Stars lasted just a single season before closing their doors. The Stars competed against teams from Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Washington.

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1978-79 Reno Bighorns Program from the Western Basketball Association

Reno Bighorns (1978-1979)

The original Reno Bighorns were a minor league basketball team that played in the Western Basketball Association during the winter of 1978-79. Though it existed for just one year, the WBA was arguably the best minor pro league in North America that winter. The circuit featured numerous former ABA and NBA players and coaches. To extent the Bighorns were known at the time, it was largely for a bar brawl involvinghard-living New York Yankees manager Billy Martin that happened at the team’s very first game.

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