The Chicago Rockers basketball team was a minor league outfit that tried to carve out an affordable family entertainment niche during the peak of Jordan-era Chicago Bulls dynasty in the mid-90’s. The Rockers were part of the Continental Basketball Association, the official development league of the NBA at the time. The team played at the UIC Pavilion on the West Side of Chicago. Read more…
The Michigan Mayhem were a ramshackle minor league hoops outfit based out of Muskegon’s L.C. Walker Arena for two winter seasons between 2004 and 2006. The team played in the Continental Basketball Association, the former Official Developmental League of the NBA. But by the time the Mayhem joined the CBA in 2004, the league was on its last legs, having been pushed aside by the NBA’s own in-house minor league system, the National Basketball Development League (known today as the “G-League”). Former NBA players Sam Mack and Roy Tarpley both played for the Mayhem near the end of their careers.
The Volcanos were a minor league basketball outfit that played one Continental Basketball Association season during the winter of 1979-80, splitting games between Honolulu and Hilo. The team conducted a highly public but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to lure Wilt Chamberlain out of retirement. Following the 1979-80 season, the Volcanos moved to Billings, Montana, playing three more CBA campaigns before folding in 1983.
The Montana Golden Nuggets were a stellar minor league basketball team that played out of Great Falls, Montana during the early 1980’s. The Nuggets lasted three seasons in the Continental Basketball Association, the top minor league in North America at the time. Ex-San Antonio Spurs guard George Karl coached the Golden Nuggets for their entire existence. He led the team to the 1981 and 1983 CBA championship series and was named the league’s Coach-of-the-Year in both of those seasons.
Columbus Horizon owner Eli Jacobson was a glutton for punishment. The insurance man spent nearly a decade as an investor in the Continental Basketball Association – an eternity by CBA conventions. He owned teams in Pensacola, Columbus and Shreveport between the mid-80’s and mid-90’s. Jacobson’s teams were consistently terrible. Hen enjoyed two winning seasons out of ten and finished in last place five times. Jacobson stayed in Columbus, Ohio for the longest stretch of his CBA adventure – five seasons and four last place finishes between 1989 and 1994.
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