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50-650: EPBL may refer to: École Privée Belge de Lubumbashi Continental Basketball Association , also known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League and the Eastern Professional Basketball League Empire Professional Baseball League Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

100-413: A no foul-out rule and a change in the way league standings were determined. Under the "7-Point System", seven points were awarded each game: three points for winning a game and one point for every quarter a team won. As a result, a winning team would wind up with four to seven points in the standings, while a losing team could collect from zero to three points. This made for at least some fan interest even in

150-529: A randomly selected fan could hit one shot from the far foul line, 69.75 feet (21.26 m). No one won the insured prize, but the shot attracted national media coverage in Sports Illustrated , The New York Times , and The Sporting News . In 1984, the CBA signed a cable television contract with BET with 10 CBA games televised on a tape delay. For national media attention, the league created

200-548: A second 10-day contract. After the second 10-day contract, the team had to either return the player to his CBA team or sign him for the balance of the NBA regular season. The CBA teams, in turn, received compensation for each 10-day contract. By 1980, the CBA had become the official development league of the NBA. CBA teams had exclusive rights to players released by their NBA affiliated teams. NBA teams could sign players from any CBA team. By 1986, 54 former CBA players were playing in

250-586: A three-point line, the Eastern League added a three-point line for its 1964–65 season. Although three-point shots during the 1960s were few and far between, the Eastern League developed several scorers who used the three-point shot to their advantage. For the 1970–71 season, the league rebranded itself the Eastern Basketball Association, operating as a professional Northeastern regional league and as an unofficial feeder system to

300-513: Is unclear whether he would have abandoned these plans had he been granted the NBA franchise. In reality, Saperstein and Cohen each secretly made arrangements with local promoters in the other cities to finance those teams so there would be an eight-team league. Saperstein placed the Los Angeles Jets to take on the transplanted Lakers. He got Bill Sharman as coach and signed former NBA players Larry Friend and George Yardley to give

350-747: The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League , and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association , was a men's professional basketball minor league in the United States from 1946 to 2009. The Continental Basketball Association was founded on April 23, 1946, under its previous name, the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League. It went on to bill itself as

400-859: The Hazleton Mountaineers had three African-American players on their roster during the season – Bill Brown, Zack Clayton and John Isaacs . Isaacs previously played with an all-black touring squad (the Washington Bears), while Brown and Clayton were alumni of the Harlem Globetrotters . During the 1955–56 season, the Hazleton Hawks Eastern League team was the first integrated professional league franchise with an all-black starting lineup: Tom Hemans, Jesse Arnelle , Fletcher Johnson, Sherman White and Floyd Lane. The all-black Dayton Rens competed in

450-711: The New York Knicks defeated the Allentown Jets 131–102 at Allentown; and a contest in April 1961, in which the Boston Celtics also played an exhibition contest against Allentown (defeating the Eastern Leaguers soundly). The Eastern League became a haven for players who wanted to play professionally, but were barred from the NBA because of academic restrictions. Even though Ray Scott had left

500-752: The "CBA Sportscaster Contest" to select a color commentator for its BET telecasts. With tryouts nationwide, the promotion was featured on the NBC Nightly News , Entertainment Tonight , Sports Illustrated and other media. The contest was won by a NJ high school basketball coach, Bill Lange, who later coached the Philadelphia Spirit minor league team in the United States Basketball League. After two tape-delayed seasons on BET, CBA games moved to ESPN , with 13 games televised live. ESPN sportscaster Bob Ley did

550-675: The "World's Oldest Professional Basketball League", since its founding pre-dated the founding of the National Basketball Association by two months. The league fielded six franchises, five of which were in Pennsylvania : Allentown , Hazleton , Lancaster , Reading , and Wilkes-Barre . A sixth team, Binghamton , was located in New York , but moved to Pottsville in Pennsylvania mid-season. In 1948,

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600-474: The 1948–49 National Basketball League. During the early years of the CBA, when it was known as the EPBL, the league's relationship with the NBA was frosty at best. The NBA sent several players to the Eastern League for extra playing time, and for several seasons two Eastern League teams played the opening game of a New Year's Eve doubleheader at Madison Square Garden (with the NBA playing the nightcap game). Although

650-604: The 1960s, many NBA teams had unofficial quotas on the number of black players on their teams. Many players joined other professional leagues, including the EPBL. The league was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the Northeastern United States , and featuring the best players who could not make many NBA teams because of the quotas. Following the lead of the American Basketball League (1961–1962) in adding

700-466: The 1979–80 NBA season, the NBA used the CBA to test an innovation as part of the basket, the breakaway rim , in the 1980–81 CBA season. Three designs were chosen to be used in games, being chosen from ten prototype designs. Several college basketball players were asked to try to break the rims before being introduced in the CBA. When force was placed upon the spring-loaded rim, it would be pulled down, then spring safely back in place. The NBA and CBA adopted

750-614: The 2000–01 season. Before the 2000–01 season, the CBA signed a television contract with BET to broadcast up to 18 games, including the CBA All-Star Game, although the CBA folded midway through the season. Several of its teams briefly joined the now-defunct International Basketball League . Highlights of Thomas's ownership of the CBA included: In fall 2001, CBA and IBL teams merged with the International Basketball Association and purchased

800-528: The 57 pick in the 1986 CBA draft; in the 1994 CBA draft Mexican soccer player Jorge Campos was drafted by the Mexico Aztecas , despite his ineligibility. In 1997, Lamar Odom , then a highly recruited high school prospect, was given the opportunity to enter the CBA draft and choose the team he wanted to play for, reversing the traditional drafting process; Odom, however, decided not to hire an agent and opted to play in college. The commissioners of

850-713: The AAU National Championship the year before. In a game against the Hawaii Chiefs , Steinbrenner sold player Grady McCollum to the Chiefs at halftime. McLendon chafed at Steinbrenner's interference and quit in midseason, following the team's return from playing in Hawaii. Steinbrenner immediately named Sharman, from the recently defunct Jets, as his coach, and the Pipers went on to win the only ABL title in

900-550: The ABL sued to block the move, and as a result Steinbrenner had a team and no league. Instead of returning to the ABL, Steinbrenner folded his tent. This chicanery masked a series of other ABL moves. The Hawaii Chiefs drew well, but other teams felt the cost of air travel was prohibitive, resulting in scheduling that saw the Eastern teams playing all of their games in Hawaii within a 5-6 day period and vice versa. After that first season,

950-513: The CBA were: American Basketball League (1961%E2%80%931962) The league was formed when Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein was not awarded the Los Angeles National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise he felt he had been promised in return for his years of supporting the NBA with doubleheader games featuring his highly popular Trotters. When Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short

1000-505: The CBA. From 1978 through 1986, CBA commissioner Jim Drucker created several new rules to raise fan interest, which were then adopted by the league: The CBA established a draft in 1985, following the NBA's decision to reduce its draft from 10 rounds to 7. This allowed the CBA teams to have a wider selection of players: the selection criteria were the same as the NBA draft. As with the NBA draft, players had to renounce their college eligibility if they wanted to declare early. While initially

1050-514: The Chiefs relocated to Long Beach, California . The San Francisco Saints escaped head-to-head competition with the newly relocated San Francisco Warriors by heading to Oakland. Paul Cohen, who secretly owned the Pittsburgh team as well as officially owning the Tapers, moved the Tapers again from New York, where they had been an NABL powerhouse for years, to Philadelphia , where he hoped to fill

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1100-599: The Eastern League a year before) were now in ABA uniforms. The ABA continued to siphon off NBA and Eastern League players, leaving the Eastern League with only six teams in 1972 and four teams in 1975. Only the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976 kept the Eastern League alive, as an influx of players from defunct ABA teams joined the league. In 1979, the NBA signed four players from the newly renamed CBA. The CBA, receiving no compensation from

1150-500: The NBA and ABA . The CBA's first commissioner was Harry Rudolph, father of NBA referee Mendy Rudolph . Steve A. Kauffman , currently a basketball agent, succeeded Rudolph as commissioner in 1975. Kauffman executed a plan to bring the Anchorage Northern Knights into the league beginning with the 1977–78 season. Kauffman kept the league name because he felt having a team in the Eastern League from Alaska might get

1200-463: The NBA for these signings, sued the NBA. The suit was settled and in exchange for the right to sign any CBA player at any time, the NBA paid the CBA $ 115,000; it also paid the CBA $ 80,000 to develop NBA referees in the CBA. During this time, the NBA created the "10-day-contract", where an NBA team could sign a CBA player for 10 days, at the pro rata NBA minimum salary (as per the NBA's collective bargaining agreement ). The NBA team could re-sign him to

1250-403: The NBA played exhibition games with the Eastern League during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the exhibition games ceased in 1954 when the Eastern League signed several college basketball players involved in point-shaving gambling scandals during their college years, including Jack Molinas , Sherman White , Floyd Layne , and Al Roth . The Eastern League also signed 7-foot center Bill Spivey ,

1300-571: The NBA, including Phil Jackson (Albany Patroons), Bill Musselman ( Tampa Bay Thrillers ), Eric Musselman (Rapid City Thrillers), Flip Saunders (LaCrosse Catbirds) and George Karl (Montana Golden Nuggets). In 2001, the NBA formed its own minor league, the National Basketball Development League (the NBDL or "D-League"). At the end of the 2005–2006 season, three current and one expansion CBA franchises jumped to

1350-562: The NBA. In 1987 the CBA announced that teams were allowed to sign players banned for drug use by the NBA. Mitchell Wiggins , who was suspended by the NBA for cocaine use, was one of the first players signed in the CBA under the new rule that was implemented in conjunction with the NBA and NBA Players Association . During the 1993–94 season, the NBA–CBA affiliate relationship was replaced by an annual draft of NBA players. The draft gave CBA teams exclusive negotiating rights with NBA players in

1400-541: The NBDL. During the 2006–07 season no players were called up from the CBA to the NBA, ending a streak of over 30 seasons of at least one call-up per year. That soon led to the beginning of the end for the CBA. The CBA followed largely the same basketball rules as the NBA and most other professional leagues. Sometimes rules adopted by the CBA on an experimental basis later became permanent in that league and were adopted by other levels of basketball as well; others remained unique to

1450-573: The University of Portland two months after his matriculation, the NBA could not sign Scott to a contract until Scott's class graduated. The EPBL, however, could sign him and Scott played 77 games for the Allentown Jets before later joining the NBA's Detroit Pistons . By the 1967–68 season, the Eastern League lost many of its players when the upstart American Basketball Association formed. Players such as Lavern "Jelly" Tart, Willie Somerset , Art Heyman and Walt Simon (all of whom were all-stars in

1500-531: The assets of the defunct CBA (including its name, logo and records) from the bankruptcy trustee and resumed operations as the CBA, assuming the former league's identity and history. The league obtained eight new franchises (for a total of ten) for the 2006 season. The Atlanta Krunk Wolverines and Vancouver Dragons deferred their participation until the 2007–2008 season and the Utah Eagles folded on January 25, 2007. The CBA's 2007–08 season began with 10 franchises,

1550-419: The centerfold of their game program, each identified with a unique serial number, and attempt to throw it through the moon roof of a new Ford Thunderbird parked at mid-court. Four fans were successful and a tie-breaker determined the winner who drove home with the new $ 17,000 car. In August 1999, the CBA's teams were purchased by an investment group led by former NBA star Isiah Thomas . The group bought all of

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1600-593: The draft was limited to players who were not drafted in the NBA, this later changed, and on several occasions players were drafted by both the NBA and the CBA. Some examples include Nick Van Exel (1993, Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA and Rapid City Thrillers of the CBA), Dontonio Wingfield (1994, Seattle SuperSonics and Rapid City Thrillers), Stephen Jackson (1997, Phoenix Suns and La Crosse Bobcats ), and Jason Hart (2000, Milwaukee Bucks and Idaho Stampede ). CBA franchises usually selected players who had

1650-423: The event of their release from an NBA roster. The CBA team owned exclusive rights to the draftee in perpetuity. During the 1980s and 1990s, the NBA's relationship with the CBA grew to the point where dozens of former CBA stars found their way onto NBA rosters, including Tim Legler (Omaha Racers), Mario Elie (Albany Patroons), and John Starks (Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets). The CBA also sent qualified coaches to

1700-476: The former University of Kentucky standout who was accused of point-shaving; although Spivey was acquitted of all charges, the NBA still banned him from the league for life. After a few seasons, however, the NBA and EPBL resumed exhibition games in the 1950s (including a 1956 matchup in which the NBA's Syracuse Nationals lost to the EPBL's Wilkes-Barre Barons at Wilkes-Barre's home court). Other EPBL-NBA exhibition matchups include an October 1959 contest in which

1750-674: The greatest number of teams to start a CBA season since the 2000–01 season. In addition to six returning franchises the CBA added three expansion teams – the Oklahoma Cavalry , the Rio Grande Valley Silverados and East Kentucky Miners ; the Atlanta Krunk joined the league after sitting out the 2006–07 season. The 2008–2009 season began with only four teams, instead of the expected five. The Pittsburgh Xplosion folded under unclear circumstances, and

1800-492: The higher chance to sign for them instead of signing overseas or in the NBA, even though some teams used their picks in the later rounds to select players who were likely to be drafted in the NBA, in the event these players were cut in the preseason. Some teams also used their picks for publicity: for example, Cheryl Miller , a female player who played for USC in college, was selected by the Rockford Lightning with

1850-497: The individually owned franchises of the CBA, in a $ 10 million acquisition. Over the course of the next 18 months, Thomas was faced with a plethora of business troubles, losing the league's partnership with the NBA and ultimately abandoning the league into a blind trust that left teams unable to meet payroll or pay bills. The combined-ownership plan was unsuccessful and, by 2001, the CBA had declared bankruptcy and ceased operations; it folded on February 8, 2001, without managing to complete

1900-413: The late stages of games that were otherwise blowouts; the trailing team could still get a standings point by winning the final quarter, especially if the team that was leading chose to rest some or all of its starters. The league used this method to calculate division standings from its implementation in 1983 until the league's end in 2009. After Darryl Dawkins shattered two basketball backboards during

1950-582: The league additional notice and recognition. The establishment of the Anchorage franchise garnered national media attention, including a feature story in Sports Illustrated . Kauffman served as commissioner until 1978, when his deputy commissioner, Jim Drucker , took the reins. Drucker's eight-season reign was the longest in the league's history. Drucker, son of NBA referee Norm Drucker , continued as commissioner until 1986. As commissioner,

2000-601: The league featured the "Easy Street Shootout". In that shootout, 14 contestants, one from each CBA city, were selected and the person making the longest shot won a $ 1,000,000 zero-coupon bond . The winner was Don Mattingly of the Evansville Thunder , unrelated to the New York Yankee baseball player . After the league's 1985 All-Star Game in Casper, Wyoming , the CBA invited fans to make a paper airplane from

2050-473: The league scheduled games against American Basketball Association (ABA) teams for the first month of the season in an attempt to stay solvent. The maneuver was not enough. On February 2, 2009, the league announced a halt to operations, turning a scheduled series between the Albany Patroons and Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry into the league-championship series. During the 1946–47 Eastern League season,

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2100-517: The league was renamed the Continental Basketball Association in 1978, eventually leading to expansion across the country. During Drucker's term, the league expanded from 8 to 14 teams, landed its first national TV contracts and saw franchise values increase from $ 5,000 to $ 500,000, an aggregate increase in equity value from $ 24,000 to $ 7 million. The league instituted novel rule changes including sudden-death overtime,

2150-620: The league was renamed the Eastern Professional Basketball League, and additional franchises were added in three additional Pennsylvania cities, Williamsport , Scranton , and Sunbury , three New Jersey cities, Trenton , Camden , and Asbury Park , three in Connecticut , New Haven , Hartford , Bridgeport , and in Wilmington, Delaware , and Springfield, Massachusetts . From the 1950s through

2200-595: The league's brief history. Steinbrenner signed All-American Jerry Lucas to a contract worth $ 40,000. With the Lucas signing, Steinbrenner had a secret deal with NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff . The Pipers would merge with the Kansas City Steers and join the NBA. A schedule was printed for the 1963–64 NBA season with the Pipers playing the New York Knicks in the first game. The gambit worked, but

2250-486: The most resilient design among the three for the 1981–82 season. Also during this time, the CBA created a series of halftime promotions. The most successful was the "1 Million Dollar CBA Supershot". In an era where the typical basketball halftime promotion, even in NCAA Division I and the NBA, featured a winning prize worth less than $ 100, the CBA's Supershot, created in 1983, offered a grand prize of $ 1 million if

2300-561: The play-by-play and former NBA player and coach Kevin Loughery provided color commentary. Drucker left as Commissioner, and his TV production company, Global Sports, produced the ESPN telecasts. In 1985, the CBA followed with the "Ton-of-Money Free Throw", which featured a prize of 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of pennies ($ 5,000) if a randomly selected fan could make just one free throw. Two of fourteen contestants were successful. The next year,

2350-758: The team instant credibility. The idea backfired; the Jets did not last the season. In Cleveland, Steinbrenner's coach was John McLendon , who became the first African-American coach of a major pro basketball team. He was hired by Pipers' general manager, Mike Cleary, later the Executive Director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. McLendon had several of his star players from Tennessee State such as John Barnhill and Ben Warley , plus several former Akron Wingfoots , such as Johnny Cox and Jimmy Darrow , who had won

2400-531: The title EPBL . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=EPBL&oldid=1018810998 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association ( CBA ), originally known as

2450-537: The void of the move of the Warriors (with Wilt Chamberlain ) from Philadelphia to San Francisco. The radical changes, combined with uneven attendance (although some teams, such as the Kansas City Steers , drew well), and no fresh capital from new owners, caused Saperstein and Cohen to decide to throw in the towel with the close of 1962 on December 31. The league that pioneered the three-point shot and

2500-464: Was permitted to move the Lakers to Los Angeles, Saperstein reacted by convincing National Alliance of Basketball Leagues (NABL) team owner Paul Cohen (Tuck Tapers) and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Champion Cleveland Pipers owner George Steinbrenner to take the top NABL and AAU teams and players and form a rival league. Saperstein had been secretly planning the new league since 1959 but it

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