Category: Continental Basketball Association

The Albuquerque Silvers were a short-lived Continental Basketball Association team that landed abruptly in this New Mexico city during the winter of 1983. The team moved to the Albuquerque Civic Center in midseason after the club’s original owners stopped paying their bills in Las Vegas and gave up the keys to the team. New local owner Pat McKernan, the president of the Albuquerque Dukes minor league baseball team, immediately hired controversial former University of New Mexico coach Norm Ellenberger to coach the team. Under Ellenberger, the Silver posted the worst record in the CBA in both 1983-84 and 1984-85 before disbanding after two-and-a-half seasons.