Western Basketball Association (1978-1979)
Tombstone
Born: 1978 – WBA founding franchise
Folded: August 15, 1979
First Game: November 12, 1978 (W 111-108 @ Montana Sky)
Last Game: March 22, 1979 (L 94-93 vs. Tucson Gunners)
WBA Championships: None
Arena
Selland Arena (6,500)
Opened: 1966
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owners: Leonard DeFendis, Vince Palmo, Beverly Eilefson, Irby Iness & Dr. Peck Lau
Best Seller
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Fresno Stars Western Basketball Association Logo T-Shirt
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Background
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.
The Stars finished in fourth place in the WBA with a 25-23 record. 5′ 11″ point guard Del Beshore earned First Team All-WBA honors and a resulting roster spot with the Chicago Bulls for the 1979-80 season. Power forward Major Jones also leveraged his time with Fresno to an NBA career, Jones went on to play six seasons with the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons from 1979 to 1985.
Demise
At the end of the 1978-79 season the WBA sought to merge with the East Coast-based Continental Basketball Association to form the nationwide United Basketball Association. Those plans came to naught when all seven WBA franchises folded during the summer of 1979. Leonard DeFendis, a local insurance agency owner served as chairman of the Stars’ five-person ownership group. DeFendis cited a financial loss of $239,000 in press accounts at the time the team shut down.
Minor league basketball returned to Fresno and Selland Arena in 1988 with the arrival of the Fresno Flames of the World Basketball League. Like the Stars before them, the Flames folded after only one season of play.
Trivia
Stars head coach Bucky Buckwalter earned The Sporting News‘ NBA Executive-of-the-Year honors in 1991 while serving as Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Portland Trail Blazers.
In Memoriam
Stars general manager Lex Connelly perished alongside his wife Shirley when their single-engine plane crashed in Oregon on April 5, 1984. Connelly was 58 years old.
Links
“Taking a Gamble on the Future“, Curry Kirkpatrick, Sports Illustrated, February 12, 1979
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