Alternate NBA History (FBPB3)

[Umbrella]

I decided to start a dynasty with FBPB3. I'm starting in the 1946-47 season, and I'll randomly choose my team. I'm using all historical settings, and full finances. Finally, I'm using a little bit of variation for the players. This means that good players will still be good, but Michael Jordan may not be the GOAT. I did this so I wouldn't just be able to draft by name alone.

I'm going to start with a snake creation draft for all 11 teams. With that, let the dynasty begin.

1946-47 Providence Steamrollers

The first order of business is to get the draft going. Unfortunately, my staff was hired before I was, so I have no say in the coaches and scout. We got the #8 pick, resulting in #4 in even rounds.

1. Freddie Scolari - A 24 year old point guard from San Francisco. Nicknamed "Fat Freddie", he was blind in one eye, and deaf in one ear. Just the type of guy to be the cornerstone of the franchise.
2. Chuck Gilmur - 24 year old power forward from Washington.
3. Don Martin - 26 year old center from Central Missouri St.
4. Johnny Norlander - 25 year old small forward from Hamline.
5. Ralph Siewert - 22 year old center from Dakota Wesleyan. He was the first 7 footer to play in the NBA, so at least he has that going for him.
6. John Murphy - 22 year old shooting guard. No school info.
7. Ned Endress - 28 year old small forward from Akron.
8. Hank Beenders - 30 year old power forward from Long Island. Born in the Netherlands, he was the first foreign player to play in an NBA finals.
9. Frank Fucarino - 26 year old small forward from Long Island.
10. Ray Wertis - 24 year old point guard from St. Johns.
11. Garland O'Shields - 25 year old shooting guard from Tennessee. Nicknamed "Mule".
12. Wallace Sydnor - 25 year old point guard from Western Kentucky. Nicknamed "Buck".
13. Ken Keller - 24 year old shooting guard from St. John's.
14. John Swenson - 22 year old center from Samford.
15. Frankie Sims - 24 year old power forward from Saint Josephs.

The last two players I couldn't find any info on anywhere, so I'm not sure they were real players. The New York Knicks took C George Nostrand with the first pick of the creation draft.

With 15 players, and nothing but scrubs left, I didn't even bother signing any more free agents, so this is the initial version of the Providence Steamrollers.

[Umbrella]

1946-47 Providence Steamrollers (cont.)

I don't have high hopes for this team, and a preseason record of 2-4 didn't help matters any. Johnny Norlander got a concussion pretty early on, and it was severe enough to keep him out of action for almost 2 months. In mid-November, I signed Wallace Sydnor to a 1 year extension for the minimum. He has shown to be a decent bench player for us. Then disaster struck. Fat Freddie's knee just couldn't take the weight, and he dislocated it. He would be out for a while. We finished Novermber at 5-6, but just one game out of first.

We got both Freddie and Johnny back towards the end of December, but the losses continued to mount. We finished 1946 with a record of 8-12, four games back of Toronto. January was much better. After losing the first three games of the new year, we got hot, and finished the month with a 15-16 record. This moved us up to 3rd place, 4.5 games out of first.

Our lack of talent is evident, as we didn't have a single player in the all star game. We were 6.5 games out of first. I have said to myself I will not tank in this dynasty, so we will struggle on. Don Martin's feet started bothering him, so he had to sit for a few days. The last game in February saw us go above .500 for the first time at 20-19, and only four games out of first. We were still three games back of Boston for the final playoff spot.

Then Freddie broke his arm, which will probably sideline him for the remainder of the season. We finished March at 27-26. Good enough for 3rd, but 6 games from the top, and 5 games from a playoff spot. Freddie came back late, but we finished the season with a seven game losing streak, and a 28-32 record. That left us in 3rd, 11 games behind the winner Toronto.

I thought only the top two teams made the playoffs, but apparently we got the last spot since the top three from each division go in. We would get the Celtics in the first round. Since we went 3-7 against them during the season, I'm not having high expectations.

Game 1 was tight, as we mounted a furious comeback, but fell a little short 110-108. Freddie sprained his wrist, but he should be able to play through it. Game 2 wasn't competitive, losing 121-105. We got smoked again at home 126-114 to complete the sweep.

Pittsburgh won the inaugural championship four games to two over Boston. The Celtics Ed Sadowski won MVP. Even with all his injuries, Freddie was named 2nd team All-NBA with a 30.9/6.7/2.7 line (points/rebounds/assists). He was obviously our leading scorer., and led the team in assists as well. Chuck Gilmur led the team in rebounding with 16.6. Freddie was 4th in the league in scoring. Pittsburgh's Joe Fulks won the scoring title.

Looking at the end of year stats, we were #1 in rebounding margin. What hurt us is we were 10th in assists, and 11th in turnovers. I think Freddie is more of a shooting guard than a true point guard. But most of our stats were mediocre to below average, which is indicated by our record.

[Umbrella]

1947-48 Providence Steamrollers

The 1947-48 season started with the folding of four clubs: Toronto, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. All four of these teams were in the playoffs, so this is a bad start for the fledgling league. Baltimore was added to give us a total of eight teams. Washington was moved to the Western conference to balance things out.

My owner gave me a budget of a little over $50K for the season. The salary cap is $55K, so I'm pretty annoyed by this. With the players we currently have signed, that only leaves me a little over $500 to sign draft picks and any players we can get in the dispersal draft. We turned a profit of over $6K last season, so I'm not sure why he's being so cheap. Looks like I'll be skipping free agency again. O'Shields, Keller, Swenson, and Sims are all free agents, and will not be re-signed.

My staff was all signed, so no new staff was hired. We ended up picking 7th in the dispersal draft, since all the teams better than us (except Boston) folded. Last season's leading scorer SF Joe Fulks was available, so he's mine, budget be damned. We did have to expose four players to the expansion draft. Fucarino barely played, so he's one. Beenders and Endress weren't bad, but I don't want to expose any of the starters from last year. And finally, Siewart looks like the worst bang for the buck, so if I lose him, it should help with the budget. Of those four, Endress was the one that got chosen.

In the rookie draft, we pick 7th. C Red Rocha was the first overall pick to Washington. We chose 24 year old C Jack Toomay out of Pacific in the first round. Since I am already insanely over budget and salary cap, and injury prone Freddie is the only point guard on the roster, in the second round I chose 28 year old Mel Thurston out of Canisius.

I couldn't participate in free agency. None of my former players signed anywhere. C John Mahnken signed the largest contract in the young league's history with the expansion Baltimore Bullets.

We started the season with a starting five of Martin, Gilmur, Fulks, Thurston, and Scolari. Fulks and Thurston replaced Norlander and Wertis from last year's primary starting five. We finished pre-season with the same 2-4 record as last season, and lost Martin with a broken foot. A brutal starting schedule with eight of our first nine games on the road left us limping out of November with a 2-7 record, and last place. December was much more friendly, with only one road game, and we finished the month 8-9, good for second place, four games back of the Knicks.

January's schedule was a little more balanced. Unfortunately, we cannot win on the road. Fortunately, we win at home. A 12-1 home record and 1-11 road record at the end of January is a pretty drastic split. Joe Fulks won player of the month in January. This year, we got three players in the All Star game: Fulks, Scolari, and Gilmur. We continued to play decent, and finished February 17-14, in second place six games behind the Knicks.

A friendly schedule in March got us up to 26-15, just two games back. Joe Fulks won his second player of the month award. April would be tough with most of the games on the road. A club record 13 game winning streak was ended at Philadelphia. That started a streak which we lost our last 3 games to end the season at 30-18, second place five games back.

The awards poured in. Freddie was named to the All Defensive 2nd team. Toomay was All Rookie 1st team (2.8/6.1/0.7). Must be a weak rookie class. Both Freddie (21.9/6.4/2.3) and Joe Fulks (36.3/11.7/1.6) were All NBA 1st team. And Fulks was deservedly named the MVP. In addition, our coach, Truman Moore, won coach of the year. Red Rocha won rookie of the year. Fulks was our leading scorer, Gilmur was our leading rebounder with 17.3, and Freddie was our best assist man. Fulks was the leading scorer in the league, with Freddie finishing 4th. Gilmur finished 5th in rebounding.

For the second year in a row, we meet with Boston in the first round of the playoffs, but this team we have the home court advantage. We take game 1 in a laugher, 111-88, behind 40 from Fulks. Fulks and Freddie carried the team in game 2, scoring 39 and 26 respectively, in a 89-77 victory. Boston takes game 3 at the Garden with a close 110-107 win. We play much better defense in game 4 to win 96-75.

We meet New York in the conference finals. We were unable to steal game 1 on the road, losing 89-86. Fulks went off in game 2, scoring 51 in a 117-105 upset. Thurston sprained his ankle during the game, and will be questionable for the rest of the series. The team continues their good play, winning game 3 121-99. Fulks put up 50 for the second straight game. Fulks cooled down a bit in game 4, but Freddie scored 30 in another blowout, 102-86. We lost game 5 in New York 95-84. Even worse, Freddie was injured, and may miss the rest of the playoffs. I don't want to go back to New York for game 7, so game 6 is huge. Thurston went back into the starting lineup, and played well in a 106-85 victory. On to the finals.

Our opponent is the St. Louis Bombers, who were the #2 seed in the West. We have the home court advantage, and I'm hoping Freddie will return before this is done. We shoot an abysmal 20% in game 1, giving up the home court advantage in a 83-76 loss. Without Freddie, our scoring is completely unbalanced, but Fulks does enough in pulling out a 88-85 victory in game 2. We lose a heartbreaker in game 3 92-90. However, we regain the home court advantage by winning game 4 95-82. The finals are a 2-3-2 format, so game 5 is in St. Louis. Fulks plays OK, but the rest of the team shoots 18% as we lose 96-73. We're going back to Providence, but we must win out. The pressure was too much, and we play our worst game of the season in a 114-69 blowout. If Freddie stays healthy, I think we were the better team, so that was a tough one. To make things worse, after the game, both Freddie and Siewert were cleared to play.

This team played really great after the first month of the season, but I'm unsure if we will be able to keep the team together. We're $13K over budget, but we turned a profit for the second straight season, even without the $10K we got in revenue sharing. I'm hoping our owner reconsiders for next season.

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1948-49 Providence Steamrollers

The season starts out with four new teams: Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Rochester. Washington and Baltimore move into the Eastern Conference, and all the expansion teams are in the west. Our budget was increased for the season to $63,980, so I think we can compete. Our scout and an assistant coach had their contracts expire, and another assistant retired. I hired a former assistant with Chicago. I also hired Roy Hutton, who coached Pittsburgh to the first NBA title. He may be a head coach in waiting here. Also, Pittsburgh's former GM is now my new scout.

We started the season with only six players under contract, and I have to expose one of them to the expansion draft. Fulks, Freddie, and Gilmur are out of the question, so that leaves Thurston, Martin, or Toomay. Of those three, I think Toomay is the most expendable, so he gets exposed. He gets taken by Ft. Wayne with the third pick of the expansion draft.

In the rookie draft, we pick 11th. George Mikan goes first overall to Philly. I choose a 32 year old C from Manhattan named Jake Pelkington. With my second round pick, I take 24 year old Bob Brown, a power forward from Miami (OH).

In free agency, we need players, as we've only got seven under contract. We only have about $7600 in cap space, so I have to be a little frugal. I re-signed Wallace Sydnor to the league minimum. I also signed Nat Frankel, a 34 year old small forward to a league minimum contract. He's played with New York and Cleveland the last two seasons. I then signed Walt Miller, a 33 year old shooting guard who has been with Chicago his whole career. He was an all defensive first teamer in 1946, so taking a chance with another minimum contract seems prudent. I singed power forward Bob John Duffy to a two year minimum contract. He played limited time over the last two years with Boston and Pittsburgh. I finished off the free agency period signing rookie SG Fred Lewis out of Eastern Kentucky to a one year contract. In terms of former players, John Murphy went to Indy, John Norlander went to Philly, Ralph Siewert went to Rochester, and Ray Wertis signed with Minneapolis.

Our starting lineup to begin the season is Pilkington, Gilmur, Fulks, Thurston, and Scolari. We actually had a good preseason, going 4-2. Early in the season, I signed Gilmur to a 5 year, $61,759 deal. His rebounding is excellent, and he is one of my core players. Thurston broke his foot in late November, so I brought John Murphy back as insurance. We finished November at 7-3, good enough for first place, 1.5 games in front.

In December, I made my first trade, trading little used Bob John Duffy to Indianapolis for C Irv Rothenberg. We were scorching hot in December, finishing the month at 16-4, 4.5 games in front of the rest of the field.

Right before the All Star game, I got a trade offer from Washington. They wanted to trade C Joe Mills, one of the best in the league, for Freddie. I thought long and hard on this one. I finally turned it down. He's my favorite player, and point guard is the one position we don't have good depth. Freddie and Fulks represented us in this year's All Star game. We finished February at 26-10, a full seven games in front of Philly.

March earned Thurston a much deserved contract extension: $4260 over five years. He immediately rewarded me by getting injured the next game. His value shows, as we went 3-4 during the time he was hurt. March ended with us at 36-14, nine games up on Philly. Fulks won player of the month as well.

April wasn't great for us, but our lead was big enough. We finished the season 42-18, winning the division for the first time. Fulks (35.0/10.9/1.7) and Freddie (21.5/5.9/3.3) were both named All NBA first team. Coach Truman Moore won coach of the year for the second time. George Mikan won both MVP and Rookie of the Year. Once again, Fulk led the league in scoring, with Freddie in fifth. Freddie's career high in assists was good for fourth in the league. Rookie Jake Pelkington led the team in rebounds with 11.0.

We got the first round bye, and watched Philly take care of Boston 3-1. Philly shocked us in game 1, winning 108-89. We got revenge in game 2, winning 112-99. Game 3 also went their way 110-95. Our defense didn't show up again in game 4, as we lost 131-101. We needed a miracle. We stayed alive in game 5 by winning 106-91, but Pelkington was injured. Philly completed the upset in game 6, winning 92-85. Having the best record in the league was not enough. Philly continued their hot play, sweeping last years champion St. Louis to win their first championship.

After the season we had, it was pretty disappointing to flame out in the playoffs, but I think the team is positioned well to make another run next season.

[Umbrella]

1949-50 Anderson Packers

Our great season wasn't enough. Providence folded at the end of the season, along with Indianapolis. In addition, a whopping seven new teams joined. These are Anderson, Denver, Sheboygan, Syracuse, Tri-Cities, Waterloo, and a new team in Indianapolis. Chicago was also looking for a new GM as well, so I could choose from eight teams. I randomly chose Anderson as my new home.

My first order of business was hiring Roy Hutton, our former assistant, as the inagural head coach. I hired a scout and assistants with no previous experience.

We had the first pick in the dispersal draft. As much as Freddie and Fulks looked promising, I instead took C Jack Nichols, a promising player who was a rookie with Indianapolis last year. Plus, his contract was much friendlier. In the expansion draft, we picked sixth. I selected SF Ossie Schectman from Minneapolis. For the rookie draft, we were fifth. Minneapolis took C Dolph Schayes with the first pick. We took C Jack Coleman out of Louisville. Our second round pick was PF Bob Carpenter out of East Texas St.

We filled out the rest of the roster during free agency. I couldn't get any big names to sign, so this season will be rough. My signees are SF Cliff Barker, PF Bob John Duffy (remember him?), SF Jack Burmaster, PG Bobby Cook, SG Irv Torgoff, SG Joseph Reiser, PG Dee Gibson, and PG George Munroe.

Our starting lineup is Nichols, Coleman, Torgoff, Gibson, and Cook. We went 1-5 in the preseason. I traded Bob Carpenter to Philly for SF Bob Feerick. Feerick will be a starter, while Carpenter was coming off the bench, so I hope this improves our team. We were actually respectable to start the season, going 5-7 in November. December resembled more of an expansion team, and we were 7-16 at the end of the month.

We continued to limp along. We entered the all star break at 12-25, only ahead of Tri Cities. Nichols was our lone representative at the game. We actually played better after that, finishing March at 24-34, even though we were fighting some injuries. We ended the season at 28-40, good enough for 7th out of the nine teams. Bob Feerick was named All Defensive second team, and Jack Coleman was named All Rookie second team. George Mikan won his second straight MVP, and Ed Macauley won Rookie of the Year. In the playoffs, Philadelphia won their second straight championship behind Mikan. They have become the dominant force in the league.

If it weren't for revenue sharing, we would have lost tons of money. We play in a high school gym, and are only selling about 20% of capacity. With ticket prices being 23 cents, we had no income. I don't know if this franchise will survive.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So, uh, educate me.

Is the stuff like franchise open/close, movement, etc all automatic (and historic) or are you doing that manually?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So, uh, educate me.

Is the stuff like franchise open/close, movement, etc all automatic (and historic) or are you doing that manually?

Not to speak for OP, but the game could do it according to history if you want, but you can also do it manually.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Not to speak for OP, but the game could do it according to history if you want, but you can also do it manually.

That's right. At the beginning of the season, I choose the year in the league structure, and it does it all automatically.

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1950-51 Syracuse Nationals

The NBA contracts, losing six teams (Anderson Packers, Sheboygan Red Skins, Waterloo Hawks Chicago Stags, Denver Nuggets and St. Louis Bombers fold) and shrinks from 17 teams to 11 before the season starts. Syracuse was the only team in the market for a GM, so that was my only choice.

This is a team that is coming off a 27-41 record last season, so I have my work cut out for me. The roster looks pretty weak, but we'll get the second pick in the rookie draft. With two potential superstars, we are guaranteed one of them. The staff was all under contract, and working pretty cheap, so I kept them all.

In the dispersal draft, once again I take Jack Nichols. He was our lone all star, and a solid player. In the rookie draft, Milwaukee took C Larry Foust first overall. We took promising PG Bill Sharman out of USC. Our second round pick is PF Chuck Cooper of Duquesne, helping to break the color barrier in the NBA.

Free agency was quiet throughout the league. I have 15 players already under contract, and not much room under the cap, so I stayed put. Our starting lineup to start the season is Don Otten, Jack Nichols, Bill Sharmin, Danny Wagner, and Belus Smawley. The coach is starting Sharmin at SF, which seems strange seeing how bad my backcourt is. But he's the coach, so I stay out of it. We go a respectable 3-3 in the preseason, so maybe we won't be so horrible this year.

The team is not very good. We start out 5-7 after November, even with Sharmin winning rookie of the month. Jack Parkinson broke his foot, and will miss significant time. At the end of December, we are 8-16, and fighting to stay out of the cellar. Sharmin is looking like the real deal, winning his second straight rookie of the month.

Sharmin continues to excel, while the team continues to struggle. In spite of the team record, we get three players in the All Star game; Sharmin, Nichols, and Wagner. Wagner is a free agent after the season, and has no interest in re-signing with us, so I try to see if I can trade him. I end up trading him to Milwaukee, along with my 1952 2nd round pick, for PG George Mearns and their 1951 2nd round pick. We end February 18-28, still in last place in the league.

The team decides to play better, winnning four straight when Sharman dislocates his knee. We finish the season 28-38, which is only good enough for the #2 draft pick. Sharmin (21.7/5.8/1.9) makes All Defense 2nd team, All Rookie 1st team, but loses Rookie of the Year to Paul Arizin. Jack Nichols (15.7/12.9/2.2) gets All Defense 1st team, and All NBA 2nd team. Chuck Cooper gets All Rookie 2nd team. I think this is by default, because his numbers are nothing special. Mikan wins his 3rd consecutive MVP. Washington ended up winning their first championship.

All in all, the team barely improved from last season. I need to get rid of Belus Smawley and his ridiculous contract. Sharmin, Nichols, and Otten are the only players worth keeping at this point. Our finances are a mess, so I hope I can survive another season.

[Umbrella]

1951-52 Syracuse Nationals

Winning the championship wasn't enough to save Washington, and they contract. In the dispersal draft, we pick second, and get star PF Harry Gallatin. He is on his last year, so we need to re-sign him at any cost. In the rookie draft, Milwaukee selects C Charlie Share first overall. With the second pick, we take SF Neil Johnston out of Ohio St. With back to back picks to start the second round, we take PG Jake Fendley out of Northwestern, and SF Elmer Behnke out of Bradley.

In free agency, we are over the cap, so I will remain silent. With the adddition of Gallatin though, Nichols becomes a luxury, so I trade him to Philly for C Connie Simmons. Our backcourt doesn't look great, but our frontcourt looks solid. Since I made this trade, I decline the team option on C Don Otten.

Our starting lineup will be Gallatin, Simmons, Johnston, Sharmin, and Smawley. The starting lineup is pretty good, but our depth is horrible. We go 2-4 in the preseason. We start the season relatively healthy, and fly out of the gates at 11-1 behind Gallatin, who wins player of the month. Gallatin continues to dominate in December, winning player of the month again. Neil Johsotn wins rookie of the month, and we finish December 20-4. Unfortunately, we don't have any money, so I cannot sign Gallatin to an extension.

Gallatin and Johnston win player and rookie of the month respectively for January, and we sit at 33-6 at the All Star break. Sharmin, Johnston, and Gallatin all get selected for the game. Johnston wins rookie of the month for February as well. Almost all of the games in March are on the road, but the team continues to play great, and we sit at 47-11 going into the home stretch. We have the #1 seed in the playoffs all but locked up.

We finish the season 53-13, the second best record in league history. The awards poured in. Sharmin (25.5/5.3/2.3) was All Defense 1st team, defensive player of the year, and All NBA 1st team. Johnston (13.6/10.9/2.9)was All Defense 2nd team, All Rookie 1st team, All NBA 2nd team, and Rookie of the Year. Simmons (10.1/8.2/1.5) was All Defense 1st team. Gallatin (22.4/14.9/2.2) was All Defense 2nd team, all NBA 2nd team(?), and won MVP. Sharmin was 2nd in the league in scoring and steals, Gallatin led the league in rebounding and was second in blocks, Johnston was 5th in assists, and Simmons was fourth in blocks. In addition, I won my first GM of the year award.

We watched Boston beat Philly in the first round of the playoffs. We won the first pretty easily, 85-73. Game 2 wasn't much better for them, as we won 90-78. Game 3 in Boston was a little closer, but we took care of business 96-88. Boston was the more desparate team, avoiding the sweep in a 95-82 win. We were able to complete the series at home 89-82.

Our opponent in the finals was Milwaukee. The two worst teams from the previous season were playing for a championship. We crushed them in game 1, 93-75. Game 2 was a shocking upset, 93-82. We fell behind two games to won, losing 91-83. The series got evened up in game 4 with an easy 95-79 win. Game 5 was still in Milwaukee, and we were heading back to Syracuse with a loss, 90-83. Home cooking served us well, as we won game 6 90-70, forcing the first game 7 in finals history. The game didn't live up to the hype, as we won a laugher 107-71, winning the first championship for Syracuse, and my first championship as well. Harry Gallatin won playoffs MVP. If this is his last year with us, he went out with style.

[Umbrella]

1952-53 Syracuse Nationals

For the first time, there was no expansion or contraction. I think the league is finally getting some stability. But we started the season with some bad news. Connie Simmons decided not to exercise his player option and will become a free agent. I hired a new scout and some new assistant coaches.

For the rookie draft, we don't have our second round pick, and we pick last in the first round. It's looking like a weak draft. Rochester took PF Gene Conley with the first pick. We select PG Sherwin Raiken out of Villanova.

In free agency, I need a power forward, as we don't have any on the roster. In addition, I'd like to try and upgrade the center position. We still have Bird rights (which is funny, because Larry Bird hasn't even been born yet) to Gallatin, so he's my #1 target. We also have Bird rights to Otten, so he may be the power forward target. I offer a monster contract to Gallatin, and decide to see if Simmons is interested in re-signing. Gallatin signs for $103,125 over six years. That puts us over the cap, so we cannot sign anyone else. My strategy is to see if I can unload Smawley on anyone for some cap relief. Unfortunately, I can't make it work with the cap. I also have Bird rights to PF Roger Jorgensen, so I offer a minimum contract to see if he is interested. He signs it. I also offer a minimum contract to SG Johnny Payak to get my roster to 12. He is the last player I have Bird rights to, and can afford. He signs, and I will go into the season with 12 players on the roster.

We go into the season with a starting lineup of Gallatin, Johnston, Raiken, Sharman, and Fendley. We go 4-2 in the preseason, ready to defend our title. Raiken ruptures his Achilles in the third game. We start the season losing our first two games, but then go on a eight game winning streak. Gallatin decides to prove he is worth his contract by dominating the league. We end December at 18-6.

We continue to play well, going into the All Star game with a 25-13 record, but only a half a game in front of Philadelphia. Sharmin, Johnston, and Gallatin all make the All Star team. Philly continues to play great, and take the lead. In a crucial home game against them, we crush them 94-60 to move within a half a game, but lose Sharman to a knee injury. Johnston gets a minor injury a few games later. The injury bug we avoided last year is making up for lost time. Going into April, we were 38-22, 3.5 games back, but most of the remaining games at home, and starting to get healthy.

We were on a nine game winning streak with two games left in the season, and tied with Philly. The next to last game was at home against Philly, and would probably decide the #1 seed. A balanced effort resulted in an 87-79 win. A tight win against the lowly Knicks secured our second straight #1 seed.

Neil Johnston (16.9/10.9/2.8) was named All Defense 1st team and All NBA 2nd team. Gallatin (24.4/15.8/2.0) and Sharman (27.1/5.6/2.2) both made All NBA 1st team. And Gallatin won his second MVP award. Fletcher Oates won coach of the year for us. Sharman was second and Gallatin was fourth in scoring. Gallatin led the league in rebounding. Sharman was 2nd and Johnston was fifth in steals. And Gallatin was second in blocks.

Baltimore pulled a pretty big upset in eliminating Philly three games to one. They put up a good fight in game one, but lost 89-81. Our defense continued in game 2, winning 86-74. We had a late comeback in game 3, and won 84-82. Game 4 was once again a good game, but we completed the sweep in a 88-79 win.

Minneapolis was waiting for us in the finals. They also swept their opponent, and were the favorites. They beat us 90-83 in game 1. Our defense was nowhere to be found in game 2, losing 115-105. Coming back home helped, as we won game 3 93-84. We lost a heartbreaker in game 4, 78-77. The Lakers must have started celebrating too early, because we won game 5 92-68. But winning the last two games in Minneapolis will be tough. We managed to force a game 7 by winning 93-86. In game 7, Bill Sharman showed why he is one of the best players in the league, by scoring 37 in a 101-90 victory, tying us with Philadelphia with two championships. Neil Johnston won playoffs MVP.

We should be set up pretty good for next season. Smawley's awful contract will be off the books, and everyone else is already signed.

[Umbrella]

1953-54 Syracuse Nationals

Indianapolis folds in the offseason. Both Martin and Abramovic decline their player options, and stay with the team. We only have six players under contract, so work will need to be done.

The first order of business is to re-sign head coach Fletcher Oates to a three year contract. We also sign a new assistant.

There were only six players in the dispersal draft, so we didn't get to pick. In the rookie draft, Rochester selected PF Clyde Lovellette with the first pick. With the 8th pick we took PG Irv Bemoras out of Illinois. In the second round, we took PF Jim Neal from Wofford.

We were busy in free agency. We started by signing SF Kenny Sailors to a one year contract. We then signed PG Bobby Wanzer, one of the better point guards in the league, to a three year deal. To round out our roster, we re-signed Smawley and Payak to minimum one year deals.

Our starting lineup is Gallatin, Johnston, Wanzer, Sharman, and Sailors. This is the best team we've had yet, so it's championship or bust this year. We do well in preseason, going 5-1. We started the season 6-1 when Sharman signed a 5 year $61,644 extension. We now have two of our big three signed to long term contracts.

We were out to a 13-2 record when Wanzer had a stress fracture. We initially stumbled, but then righted the ship with his absence. He returned, but two games later suffered a concussion. We were used to playing without him, and took a 28-10 record into the All Star break. As usual, Gallatin, Sharman, and Johnston represented the Nationals in the game.

We had a 35-12 record when Gallatin went down with a torn ligament. He should be back late in the season, but he is a big part of our success. We actually continued to play well, at 43-15, when Sailors went down with a sprained ankle. He should return around the same time as Gallatin, but we are now testing our depth.

We finished the season 55-17, first in the conference, but Minneapolis had a league record 58 wins. Sharman (27.2/6.4/2.2) won Defender of the Year, 1st team All Defense, and 1st team All NBA. Neil Johnston (18.5/13.3/2.9) won Most Improved Player, 1st team All Defense, and 1st team All NBA. Both Neal and Bemoras made 2nd team All Rookie. Sharman was 2nd in scoring, Gallatin was 1st in rebounding, Johnston was 3rd in rebounding, Sailors was 3rd in assists with 3.1, while Wanzer was 5th with 3.0. Sharman and Johnston finished top 2 in steals. Gallatin was second in blocks. Dolph Schayes of the Lakers won MVP, and Clyde Lovellette won Rookie of the Year.

Unfortunately, right as the playoffs started, Gallatin sprained his ankle, and will likely miss most of the playoffs. Once again, Boston upset Philly to match up with us. Our defense was amazing in game 1, as we won 71-56. Game 2 was a more offensive show, but we won 99-96. Boston shut us down in game 3 86-69. We got back on the winning track in game 4 94-78. We closed out the series at home 75-67.

Gallatin wasn't 100%, but cleared to play in the finals. Once again, we started on the road against Minneapolis. We stole home court advantage in game 1, 96-89. Game 2 was even better, 90-73. We came back to Syracuse looking to threepeat on our home court. Game 3 went our way 96-88. Gallatin's rough year ended in game 4 with a dislocated knee. But we were still able to win a tight one 92-88 to complete the sweep. Neil Johnston won playoff MVP for the second straight year. With the win he had in Washington before we took him, Gallatin now has four straight championships.

Sailors is the only key player we are losing for next year, so can we keep the dynasty going?