The Providence Steamrollers were a Basketball Association of America team based in Providence, Rhode Island . As of 2024, the Steamrollers were the last professional sports franchise from one of the Big Four leagues to be based in Rhode Island .
7-496: The Steamrollers were one of the original eleven NBA franchises (when the league was called the Basketball Association of America). The franchise posted an all-time record of 46–122 (.274) before folding after three seasons. The Steamrollers still hold the dubious NBA record for the fewest games won in a season with six, in the 1947–48 season , paired with 42 losses. However, the 2011–2012 Charlotte Bobcats hold
14-602: Is considered the second NBA season. Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Toronto folded before the season started, leaving the BAA with only seven teams. (All cities except Pittsburgh would get new NBA teams in future years.) The Baltimore Bullets were brought into the league from the American Basketball League to provide a more convenient number, eight. There were no byes. Western and Eastern champions St. Louis and Philadelphia immediately played
21-735: The Baltimore Bullets winning the BAA Championship, beating the Philadelphia Warriors in 6 games in the BAA Finals . Although not celebrated at the time, this season was historic, with Wataru Misaka of the New York Knicks becoming the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball. The NBA recognizes the three BAA seasons as part of its own history so the 1947–48 BAA season
28-691: The NBA. Chernov asked the courts to allow the Steamrollers return to the NBA and to grant them to first overall draft pick in the 1980 draft. Ultimately, the court ruled in the NBA's favor and the short-lived attempt to resurrect the Providence Steamrollers failed. 1947-48 NBA season The 1947–48 BAA season was the second season of the Basketball Association of America . The 1948 BAA Playoffs ended with
35-544: The game to the Knicks 89–75 in what would become an annual tradition for the NBA. In 1980 entrepreneur Robert "Skip" Chernov attempted to bring the Steamrollers back to the NBA. Chernov had purchased the rights to the Steamroller's from Lou Pieri's estate and believed that the NBA bylaws at the time would allow him to resurrect the franchise. The NBA led by Chief Counsel David Stern disagreed, but Chernov, undeterred, sued
42-663: The only teams from the Basketball Association of America side of the BAA- NBL merger in what's now known as the NBA to not join in on the merger and survive as a team. Nine days later, seven of the Steamrollers' players would be bought out and play for the Boston Celtics instead. The Steamrollers took on the New York Knicks on Christmas Day in 1947 in the first Christmas Day game in NBA history. The Steamrollers lost
49-482: The record for the lowest winning percentage in NBA history, with .106, the result of a 7–59 record. During that 1947–48 season, the Steamrollers' coach Nat Hickey activated himself as a player for two games, the second of which was two days before his 46th birthday, setting a still-standing record as the oldest player in NBA history. On August 3, 1949, the Steamrollers would join the Indianapolis Jets as
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