Syracuse Nationals Became the Philadelphia 76ers

The Syracuse Nationals were one of the first and most important teams in NBA history. During their first fourteen years, they had eleven winning seasons, including making the NBA Finals and winning a title, as well as their owner creating an innovation that likely saved the NBA. Ever, but the problem was, as the NBA grew, Syracuse did not. They needed a bigger city to be financially stable, and just so happens, a city called Philadelphia was in need of a new basketball team, and they moved to Philadelphia on May twenty second, nineteen sixty three, and became the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, one of the most iconic franchises in NBA history. Join us today as we dive from this small city uprising to the big city dreams that later came, and how this changed the NBA forever it go. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge as we dive into the history of the Syracuse Nationals. So back in the nineteen forties, the NBA actually hadn't started yet. There was actually a few other leagues that started, but the NBL was the biggest League at the time, and the Syracuse Nationals paid a fee to join by Danny Baysnoni, who was an Italian immigrant, and he paid five thousand dollars to bring professional basketball to Upstate New York and they would mainly play teams on the East Coast and in the Midwest, and they would finish twenty one and twenty three in their first season, but that would be good enough to make the playoffs, though they wanted to be better, so they hired Hal Serve as a player coach in nineteen forty eight, and they brought in rookie Dolph Shays, who become a league legend would bring a defense nacity to the team that would be their hallmark throughout his time there, leading them to three NBA finals as well as a championship in nineteen fifty five. And Dolph Shays would be a cornerstone for the team as he would average over eighteen points and twelve rebounds over his career, being a twelve time All Star and would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Now, during this time in the late forties and early fifties in the NBA, it was a very slow and hard time for the NBA, they were slowly growing, which was bad. They needed to grow faster, and play was suffering because at this point there was no shot cluck and so teams that weren't as good, if they ever got a lead, they would hold onto the ball, similar to the movie Hoosiers in their last game, hold onto the ball as long as they could so they would eliminate the chance of the other team scoring in coming back. Now, this was frustrating for fans and made it less fun to watch, because we want to see them score, we want to see action. And so did the owner, Danny of the Syracuse Nationals, and he actually took notes and compiled all these stats and it looked like the exciting games where there was lots of scoring, teams were scoring within twenty four seconds on average. So he introduced a plan and offered a twenty four second shot clock, and this got approved in the nineteen fifty four to fifty five season, and this one improvement increased scoring by fourteen points per game, created a more exciting, quicker and athletic game, and brought more fans and single handedly saved the NBA at the time and is one of the most important innovations. So without the Syracuse Nationals and Danny Boissoni joining, who knows where the NBA would be today. Now. During the first fourteen seasons of the Nationals, they were actually extremely competitive, posting winning records eleven times, and in nineteen fifty five they would face off against the Boston Celtics, who often ended their playoff run in the East because the Boston Celtics were great during the fifties and sixties, but they were able to pass them in nineteen fifty five and head on to face the Fort Wayne Pistons and on April tenth, nineteen fifty five, win a one point game seven victory in the most dramatic way on their home court to win their first and only title, the championship. And they set the tone with their defensive power and physical play, and they had the support of the community around them, and this success actually brought national attention to this small town and this one championship is still celebrated in Syracuse to this day. The problem was the nineteen sixties came along, which brought along a lot of changes not only in the world but in basketball. Because with all these changes going on, the game was changing. It was becoming more physical, and superstar talent was taking over. We saw the likes of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain really taking over the game and setting the pace for the league. And it showed even more that larger venues in bigger towns were being more successful because a lot of these smaller cities that first started, like Syracuse, were struggling. They would fill up their small stadiums, but it wasn't enough for them to be financially viable. Back then, TV rights and TV money wasn't what it is today, which is the major revenue for the league. Instead, it was mainly ticket sales, and you needed to sell more tickets for every single game. The problem was if you were in a small city, you couldn't build or even fill a large stadium like Madison Square Garden or the Boston Garden. You just couldn't compete with those large scale markets, and so a lot of them eventually moved or fizzled out. And the league was also looking to expand as well, going to the West coast and not just being an East Coast to league, and so there were major relocations in the early sixties. In nineteen sixty, the Minnesota Lake went on to move to Los Angeles, making it the first time the NBA was by coastal. Then in nineteen sixty two, the Philadelphia Warriors followed them, sending them to San Francisco and leaving a major city in Philadelphia also without a team. So in nineteen sixty three, with money struggles going on for the Syracuse Nationals, they could no longer stay in Syracuse. The population of Syracuse just was not enough. Just to give you an idea of the teams in the league at that time, there was in the cities. There was the Boston Celtics, the New York Knicks, San Francisco Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Cincinnati Royals, the Detroit Pistons, the Saint Louis Hawks, and the Chicago Packers, all of which had more than double the population of Syracuse. At the time, they were too small and didn't have the capital to continue and sustain. Now, in today's day and age, with TV rights, they'd probably be okay, But instead what had to happen is they actually sold the team to I've cost Off in Ike, Richmond after their final playoff lost on March twenty sixth, nineteen sixty three, the last time an NBA game was played in the city, mark the end of the Syracuse Nationals in the last game they would play, and the new owners planned to move the team to Philadelphia, who had been without a team since the Warriors left for San Francisco just a year earlier. This symbolized an NBA shift, and this gave them a more lucrative option and they could sell more tickets and become more financially viable now. The previous moves, such as the Philadelphia Warriors and the Minnesota Lakers actually kept their name, but since they had new owners, the new owners actually wanted to change the team when they changed to Philadelphia. Although the Nationals would have worked in Philadelphia as it was known as a hugely national town, they chose to take a fan vote with over four thousand entries submitted, and they would change their name to the seventy six Ers in honor of the signing of the Declaration in seventeen seventy six, so going from a national name to another their national name, but this name would become iconic in Philadelphia and Dolph Shares would actually continue to be with the team and serve as the very first head coach in Philadelphia, providing continuity with the team in fans and players. But it would be a couple years later that would really change the game for the seventy six ers when they brought back to Philadelphia Wilt Chamberlain, who had played with them when they were with the Warriors, and this brought a star studded player to their team that could compete with the Boston Celtics, who were a powerhouse at the time with Bill Russell, and it led to them winning another championship in nineteen seventy five as Wilt Chamberlain finally beat Bill Russell, and despite Philadelphia having the Warriors a year before, they don't continue to have those times with the Warriors. Instead, they used the championships and the stats from the Syracuse Nationals, so they won one championship in fifty five, one shortly after they moved in sixty seven, and another in nineteen eighty three, giving them three championships, which is actually top ten in NBA history, and if it wasn't for the Celtics dominance in the fifties and sixties, likely they would have had even more, as Syracuse could have won more and even the seventy six ers could have won more, but the seventy six ers to this day actually honor the Nats by wearing an alternative form every now and then that features the Nets name on their chest to show where they came from. So we don't ever forget the historic Nationals legacy is seen in every NBA game with the shot clock and news at twenty four seconds. I want to thank you for listening to today's daily sports history. If you like this, please share it with a friend. Word of mouth is the best way that we can continue to grow here and continue to grow our community, and the more we grow, the more sports history I can bring you Now, I'll see you on the next episode.