Las Vegas Silver Streaks

World Basketball League (1988-1990)

Background

The Las Vegas Silver Streaks were a three-year entry in the World Basketball League (1988-1992).  The Streaks won the first championship of the WBL on September 9, 1988, defeating the Chicago Express 102-95 in the title game.

The WBL was a minor league by design. It also featured an unusual gimmick – all players had to be 6′ 4″ or shorter. It was a high scoring, fast breaking league designed to showcase guards. The league played a summer time schedule, allowing its players to seek employment year-round, going overseas or playing in the Continental Basketball Association during the fall and winter.

The Team

The WBL, in short (ha ha), was made for guys like Jamie Waller, the great scoring star of the Silver Streaks.  Waller was a 6′ 4″ 215-pound guard out of Virginia Union, drafted in the 2nd round of the NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets in 1987.  Waller’s NBA career lasted just 91 minutes during the 1987-88 season. But in the WBL he was a legend. He led the league in scoring during all three seasons the Silver Streaks played from 1988 to 1990, and for a fourth time in 1991.

Other notables on the Silver Streaks included a trio of former UNLV stars: Freddie Banks, Anthony Jones and Mark Wade. The Streaks played their home games at UNLV’s home court, the Thomas & Mack Center.

Controlling stakes in WBL franchises were typically owned by the league itself, with minority interests sold off to investors, when they could be found.  During the Silver Streaks’ first two seasons, an ownership interest was held by Alberta businessman Bill Yuill. Yuill was (and is) a long-time investor in junior hockey.  By early 1990, Yuill was out. The WBL sold a 40% stake in the team to California pay-per-view entrepreneur Rick Kulis for $200,000.

Demise

The Silver Streaks closed up shop after a third and final season in 1990.  The WBL shipped the carcass of the franchise, along with key players such as Waller, to Nashville, Tennessee in 1991 for a single season as the Nashville Stars.

The Stars folded quietly at the end of 1991.  The World Basketball League shut down in August 1992 in the middle of its fifth season in the wake of an embezzlement scandal involving league founder Mickey Monus.  It turned out that Monus pumped upwards of $10 million in funds stolen from his Phar-Mor discount pharmacy chain into operations of the money-losing WBL.

Downloads

5-20-1989 Silver Streaks @ Worcester Counts Press Notes

Links

World Basketball League Media Guides

World Basketball League Programs

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