March 31, 1968. The last time an NBA game was played in St. Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis Hawks trailed their playoff series three games to one against the San Francisco Warriors. They took the floor at the Keil Auditorium, the old building at 1401 Clark Avenue before being demolished in 1992. The Hawks were looking to stave off elimination. They had just gone 56-29 in the regular season, which was the best record in the Western Conference.
But the Warriors narrowly edged the Hawks in three of the first four games of the series, and the Hawks had their backs against the wall. Behind 28 points from Bill Bridges and 26 from Lou Hudson, St. Louis would defeat San Francisco 129-103 to force a game 6. They would lose that game however, and then relocate to Atlanta the following season, meaning that game 5 win would be the last NBA game played in St. Louis.
To this day, the Hawks remain in Atlanta. The franchise has only won one championship in their history, coming back in 1958, when the team was in St. Louis. The legendary Bob Pettit averaged 29.3 PPG and 17.0 RPG in the Finals to help the Hawks take down the Bob Cousy and Bill Russell led Boston Celtics in six games. To this day, the championship banner remains in the rafters at the home of the Atlanta Hawks, Philipps Arena.
Photo from St. Louis Hawks Wikipedia page.
Let’s jump to the present day. Recently, it has surfaced that an NBA executive told a current NBA prospect that it is “only a matter of time” until Kansas City gets an NBA team. He told them Seattle is likely up next for NBA expansion and Kansas City will follow soon after. Now, I’m not here to bash Kansas City, but to make the point that our city of St. Louis should present an incredibly attractive environment for an NBA team, whether it be expansion or relocation.
St. Louis has an incredibly rich basketball history, whether you know it or not. St. Louis had an NBA for 13 seasons with the Hawks, where they finished as a top two team in their division in 10 of their 13 seasons here. And as you just read two paragraphs ago, they won the only championship in Hawks history right here in the Lou.
The Hawks did leave town for Atlanta after the 1967-68 season, but St. Louis did get a team in the newly founded American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1974. That would be the Spirits of St. Louis. They would remain there for just two seasons, until several ABA teams went bankrupt and then four ABA teams joined the NBA and the ABA would cease after the 1975-76 season. Ever since, there has been no professional basketball in St. Louis. But that does not mean St. Louis has not left their mark on the basketball world, because they have left quite the impression.
The city of St. Louis has produced a plethora of quality NBA players throughout the years. Just to name some names, there is former 8th overall pick Larry Hughes (CBC), NBA champion Ed Macauley (SLUH), and former NBA champion and two-time all-star David Lee (Chaminade). But recently, St. Louis has been cranking out NBA players. Bradley Beal, who was a McDonalds All-American coming out of Chaminade in 2011 and spent one season at the University of Florida, was taken third overall by the Washington Wizards in the 2012 NBA Draft. Beal has averaged over 22 points per game in each of his last two seasons and was an All-Star for the first time in his career during the 2017-18 season.
Another notable St. Louisan is Chaminade product Jayson Tatum. Tatum is just two years removed from high school and is currently battling it out for the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Tatum attended Duke University for one year and was then selected third overall by the Celtics in the 2017 NBA Draft. Tatum is also a finalist for NBA Rookie of the Year, as he averaged 13.9 PPG and 5.0 RPG during the regular season. Tatum is currently putting together an impressive playoff run as well, averaging 18.1 PPG/4.2 RPG/2.9 APG. Both Tatum and Beal have expressed their thoughts on St. Louis getting an NBA team, potentially over Kansas City:
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Others included that are currently in the league from St. Louis are Patrick McCaw, who attended CBC and then UNLV and is currently in his second season with the Golden State Warriors. He won the NBA Championship with the Warriors last year and could potentially win another win this year. Otto Porter Jr. was born in St. Louis and later moved and attended Scott County Central High School in Sikeston, MO. Porter attended Georgetown University for two years, and even won Big East Player of the Year his sophomore year. He was then taken third overall by the Wizards in 2013, just one year after Beal at the same spot. Porter averaged a career high in points and rebounds this past season, with 14.7 PPG and 6.4 RPG.
Finally, Ben McLemore attended Wellston High School in St. Louis before the school shut down in 2010. He then went and played at the University of Kansas for one season, where he averaged almost 16 PPG and 5.2 APG. McLemore was taken seventh overall by the Sacramento Kings in 2013 and is currently a member of the Memphis Grizzlies.
There is no doubt St. Louis could sustain an NBA franchise. When it comes down to it, St. Louis is a sports city. They love their sports. The St. Louis Cardinals have been top two in the MLB in attendance since 2013. The St. Louis Blues are consistently in the top half of the NHL in attendance as well. They had the 12th best attendance in the league this past season and did not even reach the playoffs. They averaged nearly 18,400 fans in attendance per game. 18,400 in NBA attendance would be good for 13th in the league.
People outside of St. Louis like to poke fun at the Lou, particularly with the now Los Angeles Rams leaving town. But for one, the entire relocation process was rigged. Two, the city constantly supported the Rams, even the stretch where the Rams went 15-65, the worst record over five consecutive seasons in NFL history. And three, the people of St. Louis support good sports, as proven with the attendance with the Cards and Blues; the Rams had even sold out every home game from their arrival in 1995 up until the team had an 0-8 start during the 2007 season. This city supports well ran sports. We are not just a two-sport city.
The basketball market in St. Louis is far bigger than anyone outside the city, or even some of those in the city itself may think. The NBA is arguably the most popular sports league worldwide and the following in St. Louis is massive. St. Louis has filled entire college arenas for local high school games. This city loves basketball. An NBA team would not have much rivaled competition locally either, as the only basketball outside of high school that can be seen is the SLU Billikens. There is nearly three million people in or near this city and an NBA team in St. Louis could easily average 20,000+ in attendance on average.
Snippet of the crowd during a CBC vs. Chaminade basketball game at Lindenwood University back in 2015. Photo courtesy of the Cadet Student Network.
To clarify, this article is not to say that this is going to happen anytime soon. The purpose is to make known to others that St. Louis is a sleeper in the NBA expansion/relocation discussion. It should be made known that basketball interest in our city is sky high. Kansas City may present a nice market, but they do not have the illustrious history of basketball that St. Louis does. If the people of St. Louis made a strong push for an NBA team, this could become a possibility in the future. Anything is possible.
