The alternate history of the NBA (FBPB3)

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I've gotten back into Fast Break Pro Basketball 3 again, and decided to do a dynasty thread. The seasons play relatively quickly, so we'll see how far it can go. I'm going to start as a young 21 year old GM in 1946, just returning from the war.

Here are my settings I will use:

1. Start in 1946 with empty rosters and an initial draft (serpentine style).
2. Attributes will be on the 1-10 range, and scouting on.
3. Full finances. This means soft salary cap, Bird rights, mid and low exemptions, and balancing a budget with ticket prices, etc.
4. Historical model on. This means that stats should be reflective of the era.
5. Small randomization for incoming players. This will allow some variance for who becomes great.
6. The ABA and D-League will exist at the appropriate year.
7. All historical settings for finances, rules, schedules, etc.
8. All players enter the draft/league in their appropriate year.
9. Historical team movement.
10. CPU coach handles depth charts and game plans. I handle everything else.

In addition, I am going to blindly trust my scouts. For example, if during the draft, my scouts say Sam Bowie is much better than Michael Jordan, history will repeat itself again.

I'm going to be spending some of this thread talking about the older players, since I suspect most of us don't know much about 40's-50's era NBA. Hopefully we'll all learn some interesting things. Also, in the early era, there were a couple of different professional leagues. In real life, many of the teams from these leagues just merged with what would become the NBA. The game handles this situation as if they are expansion teams, so in this version of history, we will pretend they are brand new teams when they enter the game.

I haven't decided which team I should start with. If nobody has any preferences for a team for me to start with, I'll just pick a team at random. Only three of the eleven teams that existed in 1946 are still in the league. I'll be throwing stats and records up occasionally, but if there is anything you want to know about the season, just ask. The game does a pretty good job of record keeping, so I should be able to go back and find the data.

The first post will consist of the League Creation draft, since that will be time consuming. From then on, each post will be a season at a time.

[Umbrella]

By a random determination, I ended up as GM of...

1946-47 Providence Steamrollers

Allegedly, the owner of the Steamrollers owned an arena, and needed something to get people to come to said arena. So he paid the $10,000 entry fee to get into the new National Basketball Association.

The order of the initial draft was determined randomly, and somehow we ended up with the #1 pick. Granted, this means the last pick in even rounds, but I'm still pleased.

From here on out, you may see a symbol after a player along the lines of Y/G. This is referring to the player's current ability/future potential. These are rated by colors ranging from red (worst)-> orange -> yellow -> green -> blue. So Y/G refers to an average player (yellow) with potential to become good (green).

1.C Noble Jorgensen (O/Y) – Four big men to choose from, and none of them stood out. I chose Jorgenson because he is only 21, and he was the best rebounder of the lot. I couldn’t find much interesting about him, other than he and his brother were the first siblings to play as teammates in NBA history.

2.SG Jasper Cummings (R/R) – At this point, there is nothing but bad players left. I need someone to score, and my scouts had him rated the best shooter. I’m not sure he was a real person, as I can’t find anything on him.


3.PF Bob Doll – The best interior defender available. His nickname is Ichabod, and I have no idea why. Oh, and he committed suicide at age 40. This dynasty is not off to a feel good start.

4.PG Stan Stutz – Very good perimeter defender, and good ball skills. As a bonus, he went to Rhode Island, so a local boy should be popular with the fans. He later became an NBA ref.

5.SF John Harper – Mediocre scorer. At this point, mediocre may be good enough. No info found on him.

6.C Steven Mack – Maybe he can score. Nothing real impressive, but he is a seven footer. Another player with no info.

7.PF Ed Sadowski – Good rebounder. Average defender. The only moderately interesting thing I found on him is he once scored 29 points in a game in college after breaking his hand.

8.PG Osvaldo Porras – A point guard looking to score. I still don’t know where my points are going to come from, so I’ll give him a shot. No info found.

9.SG Justin Green – Another guy to see if he can score. No info found.

10. SF Matt Guokas – Decent all around defensive player. If this name sounds familiar, it is because his son was a long time player and coach in the NBA. Also, they were the first father-son combo to both win NBA championships. I hope this statistical oddity repeats itself. Also, he lost his leg in an car wreck, and became an announcer for the Philadelphia Eagles.

11.PF Hank Beenders – Rebounder and shot blocker. Born in the Netherlands, he became the first non-US player to play in the NBA finals.

12.SG Sheldon Rios – I’m throwing darts at this point. OK jump shot, I suppose. The only picture I could find was a rather nasty looking mug shot. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t of a basketball player in the 1940’s.

13.PG Adolph Hoefer – Pretty good defensive player. I’m sure having a guy named Adolph on my team immediately after WWII won’t cause any problems with the fans. And after doing some research on him, it turns out he went by Charlie. Smart move. The picture was found on a website talking about the shortest players in NBA history. He’s listed at 5’9”.

14. C Nicholas Crauin – 7’2”. That’s all I’ve got on him.

15.SF Darrell Walker – Picked purely for the symmetry of having 3 players at each position.

This is the inaugural lineup for the Providence Steamrollers. Will championships follow?

[Umbrella]

1946-47 Providence Steamrollers (part 2)

I struggled to find enough warm bodies to complete the draft, so I don’t see any reason to look at the remaining players in free agency. I set the average ticket price to $0.61, which is 10 cents below league average. The boys went through training camp to try and kick their nicotine habits, and it was time for the preseason to start.

Head Coach Burt Turner, who was inexplicably hired before I was, decided to start out with a lineup of C Jorgensen, PF Doll, SF Cummings, SG Stutz, and PG Porras. We do pretty well in the preseason, going 5-1. Once the games count though, we don’t do so well. Eight of our first 13 games are on the road, and we start out 6-7. Joregensen immediately shows why he was picked #1 overall, winning player of the month for November.

In early December, Pittsburgh offers C Irv Rothenberg (R/Y) for Doll. They look pretty similar to me, but Rothenberg has higher upside, according to the scouts. We would pick up about another $4K in salary, but we are $11K under the cap still, so I agree to the trade. I couldn’t find much info on Rothenberg (including no pictures), but he is listed prominently on websites about great Jewish athletes. In retrospect, this turned out very poorly, as on the very first Christmas Day game, Rothenberg blows out his MCL, ending his season. The irony of a Jewish athlete blowing out his knee on Christmas is not lost on me. Sadowski steps into the starting lineup, and we enter 1947 with a record of 12-10.

The team plays well after the calendar changes. We go into All-Star weekend at 20-14. For some reason, Joregensen, who is leading the league in rebounding, and is 6^th in scoring, was not selected to play in the All-Star game. He broke his finger in the game before the break, so I’m wondering if the injury somehow affected how the All-Stars are chosen. The Steamrollers do have representation though. Porras gets selected, with his impressive 26.3 PPG. We go into the home stretch of the season at 32-22, which is currently good enough for 3^rd place in the East. This is important, as the top three teams make the playoffs. New York is 8.5 games clear of second, and it’s Toronto, Providence, and Washington battling for the other two spots. Oh, and Porras continues his impressive play, winning Player of the Month for March. We stumble down the stretch a little, losing a couple of home games to bottom feeders, and losing Sadowski, possibly for the season, with a knee injury. Harper steps into the starting lineup at power forward. A home win over the rival Celtics on the next to last game of the season clinches a playoff spot.

We finish the season 35-25, in third place, 11 games out of first. Jorgenson (18.7/18.5/1.2) is named all NBA first team, Porras (26.3/5.3/2.1) named second team, and Cummings (15.2/5.4/1.6) named third team. Porras leads the team in scoring (3^rd in the NBA), Jorgensen in rebounding (2^nd), Hoefer in assists (5^th), Stutz in steals (2^nd), and nobody on our team was any good at blocking shots. In other league news, PG Freddie Scolari of the Knicks was named MVP, C Grady Lewis of the St. Louis Bombers won Defensive Player of the Year, and C Mike Harrison from the Detroit Falcons was Sixth Man of the Year. Dallas Johnson from the Toronto Huskies won Coach of the Year, Richard Nye of the Cleveland Rebels won GM of the year.

We get the Toronto Huskies in the first round of the playoffs. We win game 1 in Toronto 113-103, in a game which we were never really threatened. Toronto returns the favor in game 2, winning 109-98. We come home for game 3 and treat the fans to a 122-107 victory. Unfortunately, we cannot close out the series in game 4, losing 122-112. It didn’t help that Cummings went an abysmal 3-22 that game. Game 5 in Toronto didn’t bring much drama. The Huskies jumped out to a big first quarter lead, and cruised the rest of the way to a 105-93 victory. Cleveland beat New York in the finals 4-2 to win the inaugural NBA championship.

We ended up averaging 4,604 per game. For an arena that only holds 5,300, I am very pleased. The fans showed good support for the team. We also turned a profit of $47,888.

Going into next season, I think we are in good shape. We could use some improvement defensively, but other than that, we were above average in about every statistic. Hopefully a healthy Rothenberg will help from that front.

[Umbrella]

1947-48 Providence Steam Rollers

During the offseason, four teams folded. Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, and defending champion Cleveland all dropped out. The league added the Baltimore Bullets as an expansion team, leaving the final total number of teams at eight. Baltimore also hired Toronto’s ex- head coach

There was quite a bit of talent in the dispersal draft, since two of these teams were playoff teams. We had the seventh pick. Unfortunately, only six of the picks were not R/R. I decided to take the best defensive player. There were two who were about equal according to my scouts, our old friend Bob Doll, and Roger Jorgenson. Yes, that is Noble’s older brother. The chance to make NBA history, and the fact that Roger has a slightly lower contract, leads me to take Jorgensen the Elder.

I needed to expose 2 players to the expansion draft. Mack didn’t play much last year, so he was the first choice. However, the other guys who didn’t play much (Guokas, Beenders, Rios, Hoefer, Crauin, and Walker) were not re-signed, and left for free agency. This means I have to expose someone who contributed, and in all likelihood will lose him to Baltimore. I have a few big men, so sorry Mrs. Jorgensen. Your dream of watching both your boys as teammates will not come to pass, as I am exposing Roger to the draft. Of course Roger was the first player taken.

For the rookie draft, we have the seventh pick. Nobody in the draft is a big difference maker. Philadelphia picked PF Carl Braun as the #1 pick. At our pick, there were a couple of guys I was trying to decide between. In the end, I think we need a little help at SF, so I took 24 year old Gene Vance (R/O). Vance is a legend at the University of Illinois, and even became their AD later in his life.


The pickings were very slim in the second round. I decided to try and get a good defensive big man, and 25 year old C Dick Holub (R/R) fit the bill. At lot of these rookies are a little older, since many of the fought during the war before resuming their college careers. Holub only played one year of professional ball in real life, and became a long time coach at Farleigh Dickenson.


Going into free agency, I only had 11 players under contract, so I think I want to pick up one or two more. Every single player was R/R, so I just wanted a little depth at the minimum salary level. Hoefer was our leading assist player last year, so I tried to see if he wanted to return for the minimum. Nobody else was interested in him, so he re-signed with us for a one year deal at $611. None of my other ex-players were signed by anyone. We’re actually one of only two teams under the cap right now, so hopefully we can be a player in next year’s free agency period. I raise the average ticket price by a whopping penny, which is still below league average by a dime.

Rothenberg is still not available once training camp hits, so we will be starting the season without him. Jorgensen improved to Y/Y after camp, which should be one of the best in the league. During preseason, Baltimore offered to trade me Roger Jorgensen back for Holub. Jorgensen is a better player, and I can afford the larger cap hit, so Mrs. Jorgensen’s dream becomes a reality again. We go 2-4 in the preseason, which I hope isn’t a sign of our season to come.

As the season starts, Rothenberg is almost ready to return. We start the season with a lineup of C N. Jorgensen, PF Vance, SF Cummings, SG Stutz, and PG Porras. Rothenberg returns mid-November, but can’t crack the starting lineup. We lost Hoefer for a couple of months just before Thanksgiving with a concussion. I also signed Porras to a 1 year extension. He has certainly earned it, and completely exceeded any expectations I had of him.

We finished November at 3-4, which isn’t great, but I think we can improve. I was correct, and we played better in December, heading into the new year with a 10-6 record, tied for first with the much improved Warriors. We entered the All-Star break at 16-9, but were still a game back of Philadelphia, with New York and Boston both lurking. Porras, Vance, and N. Jorgensen were all named All-Stars, with Vance and Jorgensen both starters.

Our good play continued, and finished February at 19-12, which was good enough to get a game ahead of Philadelphia. All four teams in the East were still alive though. N. Jorgensen won Player of the Month for February. March was uneventful, and we were at 24-16, still in first by two games over defending conference champ New York. Jorgensen won his second straight Player of the Month award, and is a contender to win MVP. We clinched the conference with three games remaining, to win our first trophy. We ended the season on a high note, winning our last 6 games to finish 30-18, 5 games in front of Philadelphia. This gives us home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The awards poured in. Jorgensen (18.9/16.7/1.2) won MVP, and he and Vance (14.0/8.1/0.3) were both named first team All NBA. Porras (23.5/5.7/2.4) was named second team All NBA. Vance obviously was All Rookie first team. Stutz made the All Defensive first team. And finally, the league recognized how serious Rothenberg’s injury was, as he was awarded the Most Improved Player. Across the league, C Red Rocha (BOS) won Rookie of the Year, C Grady Lewis (STL) won Defensive Player of the Year, PF Chuck Gilmur (BOS) won Sixth Man of the Year, Leandro Scarlett (WAS) won Coach of the Year, and Dannie Simpkins (CHI) won GM of the year. I’m not sure how he won it over me, since they only finished 24-24. However, they were awful last year, so maybe that came into it.

Porras led the team in scoring again with 23.5 PPG (4th) and assists with 2.4 (3rd), Jorgensen led the league in rebounding at 16.7 RPG, Stutz led the league in steals with 2.3 SPG, and Rothenberg led the team with blocked shots with 1.0 BPG (6th).

We watched Boston upset Philadelphia in the first round 3-0, to advance to play us. Well rested, we stomped them in game 1 112-80. Game 2 was even better, winning 102-69. The home team continued the blowout trend, as we lost in Boston 110-89. They evened the series, winning game 4 103-84. Unfortunately, game 5 didn’t provide home cooking, and we lost 106-103. We would have to win in Boston to avoid being eliminated. We got a great all-round performance, as five players scored over 18 points in a 118-111 victory. I think nerves came into play, as my normally good free throw shooting team missed 15 FT’s in a 109-102 home loss in game 7. Boston continued their hot run into the finals, clinching their first championship 4-1.

Our attendance increased to 4,986/game. The increase in attendance didn’t offset the salary increases, and our profit went down to $36,263.

The end of the season was a major disappointment, as we were the class of the league this year. I was unable to re-sign Stutz, as he wants to test the free agent market, but the rest of the major players will be back next year, so I am hoping we can make another run for a title next season.