Last week NBA Commissioner David Stern decided he was going to look into putting an NBA franchise in Las Vegas, Nev. Now rewind to 29 years ago to when a certain young lawyer named David Stern helped orchestrate the exodus of Buffalo's franchise to San Diego.
Right now most of you are probably saying, "Wait, Buffalo had a basketball team?" and "There isn't a team in San Diego!"
Well yes, the Buffalo Braves came into the league in 1970 and within a few years had turned themselves into a playoff contender. Greats such as Bob McAdoo and Tiny Archibald ran the court in Memorial Auditorium before greedy owner Irv Levin purchased the team and abruptly moved them west after the 1978 season.
But where are they now?
After struggling to gain support for a few years in from San Diego. Voila! I now give you, the team with the most inept management in the game, the Los Angeles Clippers!
So Mr. Stern, I am reaching out to you, to do right by the city of Buffalo and give us a team too. There are so many reasons why it would work (please humor me and forget about the declining population, decreasing incomes and exorbitant tax rates in Buffalo for the rest of this column).
The franchise that may come to fruition in the City of Sin will undoubtedly be positioned in the Western Conference and have close rivals in the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns. By placing a team in the west, this will throw the league into a state of imbalance, having 16 teams in one conference and 15 in the other would cause scheduling chaos.
Buffalo, my friends is a simple answer to this problem. Situated between Cleveland and Toronto a team that made its home in the Queen City would be geographically suited for either the Atlantic or Central divisions of the Eastern Conference.
Secondly, we have an arena. Unlike Las Vegas which will need to create a building for its team to play in, Buffalo has an adequate facility, perfectly sized for NBA crowds in the form of the HSBC Arena.
Splitting time with the Sabres wouldn't be a problem as many teams share facilities with an NHL franchise. The Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks all manage to split arena time with a hockey club.
The issue of the arena brings me to another point. While Buffalo has a little bit of trouble selling out football games, the city has shown in the past few years that it has no trouble selling out hockey games. With basketball and hockey hosting the same size crowds I truly believe that we could field adequate attendance for a team.
Western New York is a big college basketball area. We have fans that follow Buffalo, Niagara, Canisius and St. Bonaventure, as well as a little further away a real national powerhouse in Syracuse. All of these squads receive support from the local population and that just goes to prove that the game is extremely popular in the region. Not many areas can say that they can support five Division I teams.
Despite all this evidence, the NBA seems obsessed with the slot machines, the black jack tables, and the roulette wheels that Las Vegas can provide.
Wait a second! We have that too! Casinos are springing up around here like dandelions in May! If the gambling doesn't scare the NBA, then why not go full force with it, two teams, in two cities that endorse legalized gaming activity.
David Stern, you helped to rob us of our franchise back in the '70s and I am appealing to you now, bring it back! The reasons are there. The city is built for a professional basketball team. Just open your eyes and see it.
We love our teams in Buffalo, we support them with some of the most passionate fans in the world and a basketball team would not fail here. So Mr. Stern, if you're so willing to roll the dice on Vegas, why not give Buffalo a chance? Or are you not that Brave?
