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r/nba
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A subreddit dedicated to NBA news and discussion.
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r/NBA_Draft
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A hub for the hardcore NBA Draft enthusiast. The home of hype and hope. Where logical evaluation and substance generate discussion, rather than conventional stereotypes and uninspiring cliches. Analysis, articles, highlight videos, news & updates, information, rumors, interesting stats, podcasts, etc.
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r/VintageNBA
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Discussions about vintage NBA (loosely defined as pre-2000). Learn, share, debate.
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r/lakers
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The home of the 17x NBA World Champions, your Los Angeles Lakers. Stop F5-ing, go outside and touch grass.
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Reddit's home for anything and everything related to the NBA 2K series. Developer-supported and community-run. Check out our 2K23 Wiki for FAQs, Locker Codes & more. Post not showing up? Let us know in modmail if it's been more than 30 minutes.
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The community for the 17-time NBA Champion Boston Celtics!
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A subreddit for Miami Heat fans from all around the world! 🏆🏆🏆
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Subreddit about the NBA team Dallas Mavericks.
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Houston Rockets NBA Houston Basketball
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r/denvernuggets
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The #1 Denver Nuggets Community
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All things for your Brooklyn Nets #BrooklynTogether NETSWORLD
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r/Basketball
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r/Basketball is a community of hoops fans to chat about playing and watching the game. All leagues are open for discussion including NBA, WNBA, NCAA, G-League, EuroLeague, as well as FIBA events. Keep it clean!
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r/suns
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Official Subreddit of your Phoenix Suns!
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We are a r/NBA2K community dedicated to finding MyCAREER and MyTEAM teammates. Post not showing up? Let us know in modmail if it's been more than 30 minutes.
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r/ripcity
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A place for fans of the NBA basketball team, The Portland Trail Blazers
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r/NBA_Highlights
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A subreddit to watch and post single-play NBA Highlights. Filter by new to view the live highlight feed. Updates every hour. Join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/KJDsu5ccTy
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A community for Milwaukee Bucks discussion, news and deer friends!
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A community dedicated to the best NBA team to ever step onto a basketball court.
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all things daily fantasy sports
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Home of the 3x NBA Champion Detroit Pistons
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NBA Betting Forum, NBA Picks & Sportsbook Discussion
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**Wizards Basketball** The source for everything Washington Wizards related: links, news, photos, videos, news, and discussion.
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Your home for College Basketball on the internet. Forever.
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A positive place to celebrate how great the NBA is among friends.
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Minnesota’s best (and only) NBA team. Back-to-Back Play-in champs.
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r/nbaNews is A subreddit dedicated to High Quality NBA News & Discussion
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Subreddit for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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Posted by20 hours ago

April 25, 1950. Newspapers across the country printed a release by the UPI from the day before that began, "Denver, Sheboygan, and Waterloo were expelled from the National Basketball Association today."

The Nuggets had been around since 1928, but had been amateur for 20 years and professional for only the last two. They were founded by a Piggly-Wiggly regional manager to entertain his son, who loved sports but had become wheelchair-bound as a result of Potts disease. As amateurs, they were national champions three times and runners-up six. As pros, they lost a lot.

In 1948-49, the most interesting thing about the Denver Nuggets was the presence of Mo Udall, who almost became President a couple decades later.

In 1949-50, it was probably the 0-15 start to the season. Or the other three double-digit losing streaks. Or the fact that they only paid their players half their contractually guaranteed salaries.

The NBA was at a weird crossroads in which they knew they either had to split into a major/minor league system, expand and split into a baseball style AL/NL setup, or contract. When the best of the small-market teams, the Anderson Packers, ceased operations in the middle of the Finals—in part so that their owner could spend his free time riding trains—it suddenly became far easier for the league to decide on contraction. St. Louis quit on their own terms, but Denver, Sheboygan, and Waterloo were kicked out by unanimous vote from the other owners. Babe Kimbrough, president of the Indianapolis Olympians, initially abstained, until Commissioner Podoloff threatened to kick him out too if he didn't go along with it.

The three expelled teams started up a new league called the NPBL. The fact that you've never heard of it probably says how successful it was; they shut down before their first season even ended. But during that summer, they posed the NBA a real, existential threat. Waterloo poached the #1 pick from the Celtics. 16 starters (including Boston's leading scorer) and loads of prospects followed. Then it all dramatically fell apart.

Professional basketball came back to Denver via the ABA. In 1974, Carl Scheer changed the new franchise's name to the Nuggets to honor the original team. Two years later, they made the ABA Finals with the Denver Post's Frank Haraway among those covering the team, 48 years after his dad created them for him.

Now, they're one game away from their first major basketball championship since before WWII, a time when Denver basketball was led by a duo comprising "America's best center" and a guard who, when he "took charge... the pyrotechnics started." A certain Rev. Dr. James Naismith called them "the greatest team I have ever seen."


The above is a combination of my own personal research, interviews I've personally conducted with two members of the team, and a wide range of articles between 1937-1976 from The Denver Post as well as various newspapers across the Midwest, with topical inspiration from excerpts of the books The Golden Age of Amateur Basketball: The AAU Tournament, 1921-1968 by Adolph H. Grundman, Pioneers of the Hardwood: Indiana and the Birth of Professional Basketball by Todd Gould, and Ball Hawks: The Arrival and Departure of the NBA in Iowa by Tim Harwood.

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Posted by20 hours ago
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Posted by17 hours ago
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