List of defunct NBA teams

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The entrance of a concrete building behind a front lawn and a flag pole
The Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory was the home arena for the Sheboygan Redskins.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional men's basketball league, consisting of thirty teams in North America (twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada). The NBA was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).[1] It adopted the name National Basketball Association at the start of the 1949–50 season when it absorbed the National Basketball League (NBL).[1] The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball, which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) as the National Governing Body (NGB) for basketball in the country.[2] The league is considered to be one of the four major professional sports leagues of North America.[3]

There have been 15 defunct NBA franchises, of which nine played in only one NBA season. The Anderson Packers, the original Denver Nuggets, the Indianapolis Jets, the Sheboygan Red Skins, and the Waterloo Hawks had played in the NBL before joining the NBA (or BAA in the Jets' case),[4][5] while the original Baltimore Bullets had played in the American Basketball League before joining the BAA/NBA.[6] The Packers, Red Skins, and Waterloo Hawks left the NBA for the National Professional Basketball League, and are the only defunct teams to have ceased to exist in a league outside of the NBA.[7] The original Bullets were the last defunct team to leave the NBA, having folded during the 1954–55 season, and are the only defunct team to have won an NBA championship. The Chicago Stags, the Indianapolis Olympians, the Cleveland Rebels, the Packers, and the Red Skins qualified for the playoffs in every year they were active in the league.

In addition to the 15 defunct BAA/NBA teams that did play in the league, there were also eight teams that were initially planned to join the BAA/NBA at various stages of the league's existence that ultimately never came to pass for one reason or another, with six of them being charter or expansion franchises to the league in question and two teams that were planned to join from other professional basketball leagues.[8] Two franchises that were planned to be charter members for the BAA out in Buffalo and Indianapolis dropped out of the league almost immediately after their inaugural meeting was completed.[9][10] Four other teams that were planned to exist at various points in the NBA's history as expansion franchises (one for Pittsburgh by the 1961–62 NBA season, one for Baltimore by the 1963–64 NBA season, one for Houston by the 1970–71 NBA season,[11][12] and one for Toronto by the 1975–76 NBA season), but they never made it through as proper franchises in the NBA for one reason or another.[13] The seventh that was planned for the NBA, the Oshkosh All-Stars, were planned to move to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee All-Stars (potentially also merging operations with an independent team that was operating there called the Milwaukee Shooting Stars along the way there) for the 1949–50 NBA season following the official merger of the BAA and the older National Basketball League, which the All-Stars were a part of throughout their Oshkosh history, but the All-Stars reneged on their plans to move to Milwaukee and left the NBA by September 3, 1949 to play for the much smaller and more local-based Wisconsin State Basketball League instead, which affected the overall structure of that specific season for the NBA in the process.[14][15] The eighth and final team that was planned for the NBA, the Cleveland Pipers, had planned to jump from the second rendition of the American Basketball League after winning its only championship there and merge operations with the Kansas City Steers if they had been approved for entry into the NBA, but they were ultimately rejected and instead folded operations soon afterward.[16]

Among cities that have hosted defunct NBA franchises, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. all currently have an NBA team, while Providence, Anderson and Sheboygan are all close to an hour away from a market with an NBA franchise and Pittsburgh is two hours away from an NBA franchise. St. Louis and Buffalo would receive replacement franchises that would later relocate.

Defunct teams

[edit]
* Denotes team that won a championship
Team City Years active
in NBA 		Seasons
in NBA 		Win–loss
record 		Winning
percentage 		Playoff
appearances 		Reference
Anderson Packers[a] Anderson, Indiana 1949–1950 1 37–27 57.8% 1 [17]
Baltimore Bullets*[b] Baltimore, Maryland 1947–1954[e] 8 158–292 35.1% 3 [18]
Buffalo Buffalo, New York Never played 0 0–0 N/A 0 [19]
Chicago Stags Chicago, Illinois 1946–1950 4 145–92 61.2% 4 [20][21]
Cleveland Rebels Cleveland, Ohio 1946–1947 1 30–30 50.0% 1 [22]
Denver Nuggets[c] Denver, Colorado 1949–1950 1 11–51 17.7% 0 [23]
Detroit Falcons Detroit, Michigan 1946–1947 1 20–40 33.3% 0 [24]
Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana Never played 0 0–0 N/A 0 [19]
Indianapolis Jets 1948–1949 1 18–42 30.0% 0 [25]
Indianapolis Olympians 1949–1953 4 132–137 49.1% 4 [26]
Pittsburgh Ironmen Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1946–1947 1 15–45 25.0% 0 [27]
Providence Steamrollers Providence, Rhode Island 1946–1949 3 46–122 27.4% 0 [28]
Sheboygan Red Skins[g] Sheboygan, Wisconsin 1949–1950 1 22–40 35.5% 1 [29]
St. Louis Bombers St. Louis, Missouri 1946–1950 4 122–115 51.5% 3 [30]
Toronto Huskies Toronto, Ontario 1946–1947 1 22–38 36.7% 0 [31]
Washington Capitols[h] Washington, D.C. 1946–1951[f] 5 157–114 57.9% 4 [32]
Waterloo Hawks[d] Waterloo, Iowa 1949–1950 1 19–43 30.6% 0 [33]

See also

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Notes

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References

[edit]
General
  • "Team Index". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
Specific
  1. ^ a b Goldaper, Sam (April 17, 2006). "Nov. 1, 1946: New York vs. Toronto — The First Game". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
  2. ^ "Inside USA Basketball". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  3. ^ Pennington, Bill (April 4, 2003). "Drugs; Anti-Doping Executive Plans to Prod Pro Leagues". The New York Times. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
  4. ^ Hugunin, Marc. & Thornley, Stew. (2006). Minnesota hoops: basketball in the North Star State. Minnesota Historical Society. p. 87. ISBN 0-87351-574-9.
  5. ^ Bodenhamer, David J. & Barrows, Robert Graham. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Indiana University Press. p. 306. ISBN 0-253-31222-1.
  6. ^ Popper, Steve (February 14, 2004). "Pro Basketball; Rambis Is Underwhelmed by Coaching Record". The New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  7. ^ Gould, Todd (1998). Pioneers of the hardwood: Indiana and the birth of professional basketball. Indiana University Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-253-21199-9.
  8. ^ Bradley, Robert (1999). The Compendium of Professional Basketball. Xaler Press. ISBN 0-9644774-3-2., p. 26
  9. ^ Bradley, Robert. "BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA LEAGUE MINUTES 1946-1949". APBR. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  10. ^ Rosen, Charley (2009). The First Tip-Off: The Incredible Story of the Birth of the NBA. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. ISBN 0-07-148785-9., pp. 25–35
  11. ^ "N.B.A. Adds Cleveland, Houston, Buffalo, Portland, Ore.," The New York Times, Saturday, February 7, 1970. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  12. ^ "Houston, New Team in N.B.A., Folds While It's Still on Paper," The New York Times, Saturday, March 21, 1970. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  13. ^ Bradley, Robert (1999). The Compendium of Professional Basketball. Xaler Press. ISBN 0-9644774-3-2., p. 41
  14. ^ https://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2022/03/1949-50-oshkosh-all-stars-wsbl.html
  15. ^ Nelson, Murry R. (2009). The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-4006-1., pp. 223–224
  16. ^ Livingston, Bill (2015). George Steinbrenner’s Pipe Dream: The ABL Champion Cleveland Pipers. Black Squirrel Books. ISBN 978-1-60635-261-8., pp. 187–200
  17. ^ "Anderson Packers". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on May 11, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  18. ^ "Baltimore Bullets". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  19. ^ a b Bradley, Robert. "BAA League Minutes". APBR. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
  20. ^ Ballantini, Brett (April 17, 2006). "Stag Party: Six decades ago, the Chicago Stags ruled the Windy City hardwood". NBA.com/Bulls. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  21. ^ "Chicago Stags". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  22. ^ "Cleveland Rebels". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  23. ^ "Denver Nuggets". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  24. ^ "Detroit Falcons". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  25. ^ "Indianapolis Jets". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  26. ^ "Indianapolis Olympians". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  27. ^ "Pittsburgh Ironmen". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  28. ^ "Providence Steamrollers". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  29. ^ "Sheboygan Red Skins". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  30. ^ "St. Louis Bombers". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  31. ^ "Toronto Huskies". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  32. ^ "Washington Capitols". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  33. ^ "Waterloo Hawks". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  34. ^ "1954–55 Standings". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
  35. ^ "1950–51 Standings". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on March 16, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2010.