In this space one week ago, we talked about how Toronto almost inherited the San Francisco Giants in a potential relocation deal that collapsed two years before the Ontario capital was instead granted a Major League Baseball expansion franchise that turned into the American League’s Blue Jays in 1977.
Today, we’re shifting to the hard court. Hoops. Basketball.
On two separate occasions Toronto, prior to becoming home to the NBA Raptors in 1995, almost landed existing big-league basketball teams. First, the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) and, later, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Here’s a brief look:
BUFFALO BRAVES
The Braves entered the NBA as an expansion club in 1970, sharing facilities with the NHL Sabres at the aging Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. The Braves were third in line for home dates at ‘The Aud,’ behind the Sabres and even local college teams. Not surprisingly, flagging attendance would become a factor in the NBA team’s eventual demise in Buffalo.
As a result, the Braves entered into an agreement with then Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard to play a handful of their home games at Maple Leaf Gardens, starting in 1971 and continuing on into the 1974-75 NBA campaign. From there, it was perhaps only natural that rumours would start circulating, suggesting that Leaf ownership was interested in buying the Braves and moving them, full-time, to Toronto.
An agreement was never reached, however, and the Braves did indeed leave Buffalo, for good, relocating all the way to the sunny shores of San Diego to become the Clippers in 1978. (NOTE: Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984.)
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Fast forward to 1983. The NBA Cleveland Cavaliers are owned by millionaire businessman Ted Stepien. The Cavs are struggling on the court and drawing flies at remote Richfield Coliseum.
Built in 1974, Richfield Coliseum was located halfway between Cleveland and Akron. That was a problem, with the arena being so far away from downtown Cleveland, making it all but inaccessible to fans lacking automobiles. Combined with the team’s ineptitude, which included just 15 wins in the entire 1982-83 regular season, the Cavs appeared to be on the way out of Ohio.
And, Toronto was Stepien’s preferred landing spot. He’d even come up with a nickname, Toronto Towers, and a logo. Everything was in place for Toronto to join the NBA.
Or, was it? Turns out it wasn’t.
Enter the Gund brothers, George and Gordon. They eventually cobbled together a multi-million-dollar deal to buy the Cavs, along with Stepien’s lucrative advertising business, and keep the club in Cleveland. Years later, a new downtown arena was built in Cleveland and Richfield Coliseum was demolished in 1999.
Toronto, which had been home to the Huskies in Year 1 of the NBA’s forerunner, the Basketball Association of America in 1946, would welcome the expansion Raptors in 1995. Since then, the Raps have won an NBA title (2019) and seven divisional banners.
The Braves and Cavaliers got new owners, and new homes, and — after twice being left at the altar — Toronto finally got its own NBA team.
HERE AND THERE … Blue Jays fans will no doubt take small consolation from the fact that the last five World Series Game 7’s have been won by the road team. In fact, on the 41 occasions the World Series has gone to Game 7, the visiting club has won 21 times. The New York Yankees (12) have appeared in the most World Series Game 7’s while the St. Louis Cardinals, with eight, have the most wins. In the NHL, the road team has won the last three Stanley Cup finals that went to Game 7. In the last five NBA Finals that went to Game 7, the home team won four.
(PAUL SVOBODA)
