buffaloEx-Pat

Braves

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Short but Still Sweet

The NBA lived in Buffalo for a few special years. The Braves were born the same year as the Sabres. In 1970 when the two winter major leagues expanded to Buffalo, the Niagara Frontier was the 25th largest SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area) in the United States with nearly 1.3 million people. Buffalo was one of the largest cities in the nation, at the time, that didn't have NHL or NBA teams.

Thirty eight years later, it seems hard to believe the two teams had such different fates. For everything the Sabres franshise has been through, they are still at home and perhaps more secure than ever. In contrast, their expansion twin didn't make it past adolescence. But in a few short years, the Braves had a great run, which is why some of us haven't gotten over their departure.

By their fourth year, under Coach Jack Ramsay, the Braves made the playoffs and in their fifth year they posted their best record ever (49-33) and with the Knicks and the Celtics, were the class of the Eastern Conference that year and the next. Even the expansion year was memorable in its own way. We grew to love a motley crew of over the hill greats such as Emmet Bryant, Walt Hazard, & Herm Gilliam, unlikely overachievers such as Bob Kaufman and Don May, and the lanky big man from Princeton, John Hummer. This hastily assembled team gave it their all for Coach Dolph Schayes every game and every once in a while surprised the giants, such as one particular game in season one in which the Braves came back from a seven point defecit to the Lakers with a minute seven on the clock, and won.

  

In their short run the Braves managed to place four players and a coach in the NBA Hall of Fame:Tiny Archibald, Adrian Dantley, Moses Malone, McAdoo (also a league MVP) and Dr. Jack Ramsay (above). Other players who were the class of the league: Ernie DiGregorio (above), Randy Smith (All Star Game MVP) (top), Jim McMillain, Tom McMillen, Elmore Smith.

Randy Smith, Dead at Age 60, on 6/4/09

A Personal Tribute by jwh at Bleacher Report

Hear John Howell's tribute and commentary on Smith and Buffalo's track record of achieving potential on WBFO (NPR). 

Can we still buy Braves gear?

Yes! New Era has a Braves cap available on their website only. We were offering links for a while but the sites come and go quickly, due primarily to changes in availability, or temporary pages on sites such as e-Bay that are deleted when the merchandise is sold.

We suggest you Google search for Braves gear. There is usually a nice selection available. We have a McAdoo jersey and a Braves baseball style cap available if anyone is interested. $25 plus shipping for either, or $50 and free shipping for both. Order

Can't we honor McAdoo?

Create a Team Shrine at the HSBC?

Bob McAdoo, NBA MVP

Somewhere out there in the Buffalo blogosphere I saw an interesting note. It was in reference to a proposed Raptors exhibition game to be played at the HSBC. It talked about how the Braves had a significant following in Toronto and the Niagara Peninsula. It also talked about Buffalo's apparent ambivalence about the NBA, and the travesty that one of the greatest athletes to ever wear a Buffalo uniform has no venue in which to be honored. The suggestion was, that if the Raptors were to play a game in the HSBC, we should invite some of the legendary Braves, including McAdoo for a ceremony, and hang his jersey from the rafters.

The Braves World site (above) advocates for a Clippers/Raptors exhibition game in HSBC with the Clippers wearing Braves throwback Jerseys (the Clippers own rights to the Braves name, logos and gear) and use that as an event to celebrate Mac and the Braves in General, perhaps hanging a Braves team banner in the Arena.

We think those are excellent ideas, but it shouldn't depend on Toronto's whimsy. We could have a ceremony during a college basketball game or even between periods of a Sabres or Bandits game. Mac should be honored. The jersey should be hung. The team banner should be hung. Are you with me on this?

How can we organize to get this done?

The Aud is down, and with it our last physical connection to the Braves. check John Howell's visit to the scene of the crime.

More about the Braves' addiction, sports as religion and the overall ex-pat experience. See Confessions of an ExPat.

Fantastic New Coffee Table Book

BUFFALO, HOME OF THE BRAVES

by Tim Wendel, SunBear Press.

Book Signing & Sale at New Era Cap Company

160 N. Delaware Ave., May 30th 11AM-1PM.

Braves Websites

There are also, surprisingly, several good sites dedicated to the Braves, including the official Braves site-- a page at the Clippers site.

A few other sites show up on Google as well. These are our favorites. (Some of these may disappear without notice.)

Keep the Braves Alive Website  The site seems to be dedicated to the task of keeping the Braves memory alive.From the site, this passage:

In an Aud far, far away. In jerseys that time forgot. The Buffalo Braves played some of the most
inspired basketball the NBA has ever known. From their  humble beginning as an expansion team to their peak as one of the premier playoff teams of the Eastern Conference, they remain etched in our hearts as the team that made the Seventies a decade to remember for Buffalo sports.  
 

Buffalo Braves Retro Home Page

Sportscylopedia

Braves World includes some interesting posts about the braves, a farewell to the Aud and comparsions of the Braves' demise to the Bills, with the common Toronto theme.

Braves Statistics

Buffalo Nation

The Clippers--

They Left Their Glory in the Snow back in Buffalo.

But... for some of us the Clippers are still the Braves? Do they still deserve our loyalty?

If not the Clippers,

who do you root for?

If you're an expat living in an NBA town, we absolve you of any residual loyalty to teams other than your new home team, but if you don't have your own team, or still feel some loyalty to the spirit of the Braves in some form or team or other... who do you choose?

image courtesy of John Boutet, Bflo Sports Museum

The Raptors?  Is Toronto close enough to home for NBA puprposes, sort of like the NFL in reverse)? See The Case for the Raptors.

Someone else?  No one?  What do you think?

Let us know.

A Series of Articles in Bleacher Report about bringing the Braves back home!

link to SunBear Press web page for the Braves Book