Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). more...

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Home arenas

Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (1970-1978)

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Franchise history

The Clippers began in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves. They were one of three franchises that joined the NBA in the 1970-71 season, the others were the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Buffalo years (1970-78)

The Braves, in their eight seasons in Buffalo, played their home games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, sharing the arena with another new franchise, the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League, who also debuted in 1970. The team's first head coach was Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes, the franchise's first star players were Bob Kauffman and Don May, who were acquired in the expansion draft. As typical of first-year expansion teams, the Braves finished with a 22-60 record, seven games ahead of expansion-mate Cleveland, who finished their season at 15-67. Kauffman, who averaged 4.3 points per game the previous year with the Chicago Bulls, led Buffalo in scoring with 20.4 points per game and earned a spot on the 1971 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team.

The Braves repeated their 22-60 season in the following 1971-72 season, but did make good acquisitions that would make the club better. Buffalo drafted center Elmore Smith from Kentucky State University, and local favorite Randy Smith, from Buffalo State College. Schayes was replaced one game into the season with John McCarty as the team's head coach. The team didn't do much better in the 1972-73 season, as they went 21-61 under new head coach, Dr. Jack Ramsay. The Braves' big move of that season was the drafting for forward/center Bob McAdoo, from North Carolina. The team finally made their first playoff appearance in 1973-74, where they faced the Boston Celtics and lost in six games in the first round.

In 1974-75 Bob McAdoo was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, averaging 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 80.5 percent from the free-throw line. The Braves made a trip to the playoffs in the 1974-75 season and again during the 1975-76 season, which would be one of their last in Buffalo.

In the summer of 1976, the team's founding owner Paul Snyder initially sold 50 percent of the franchise to businessman John Y. Brown, Jr., who had previously owned the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. Brown later acquired the remaining portion from Synder sometime in the 1976-77 season. Brown, in turn, sold a percentage of the team to another businessman, Harry Mangurian, who later went on to own a portion of the Boston Celtics in the 1980s. However, a provision in the transaction stipulated that if Brown sold the contract of any Braves player, then the money would go to Synder and the purchase price would be reduced. This subsequently occurred when the Braves sent McAdoo to the New York Knicks for players and cash midway through the 1976-77 season.

Read more at Wikipedia.org