- San Diego Conquistadors
NBA team
name = San Diego Conquistadors
logo =ConquistadorsLogo.png
imagesize =
conference = none
division = Western Division
founded =1972
history = San Diego Conquistadors
1972-1975
arena = Peterson (San Diego State) Gymnasium
1972-1973
Golden Hall
1973-1974
San Diego Sports Arena
1974-1975
San Diego Sports Arena
city =San Diego, California
colors = Yellow & Red
color box|yellow color box|#C41E3A | coach =K.C. Jones
(1972-1973)
Wilt Chamberlain
(1973-1974)Alex Groza Beryl Shipley
(1974-1975)
Bill Musselman
owner =Leonard Bloom
(The Q's)
(1972-1975)
Frank Goldberg
league_champs = None
playoff appearances = 2 (1973-74)
The San Diego Conquistadors, nicknamed the "Q's", were anAmerican Basketball Association team based inSan Diego, California . They were the onlyexpansion team in the history of the ABA. The team played from 1972 to 1975. They were replaced in the ABA by theSan Diego Sails .History
an Diego Conquistadors -- The Q's
The franchise was founded by Leonard Bloom. But a feud between Bloom and Peter Graham, proprietor of the city-owned, the 14,400 seat
San Diego Sports Arena , led Graham to lock the newborn team out of the facility for two years. By the time the conflict was resolved in the fall of1974 , it was too late for a weakened franchise that had been forced to play, in the interim, at such bandboxes as PetersonGym (3,200 seats) and Golden Hall, a mereballroom .After reaching the
1973 ABA Playoffs in their inaugural season, the Q's seemingly pulled off a coup by paying theHall of Fame centerWilt Chamberlain $600,000 to play and coach in 1973-74. But theLos Angeles Lakers sued to block their former star from playing for his new team; relegated to a sideline role, Chamberlain was reduced to an indifferent, 7-foot-1-inch sideshow who once skipped a game in favor of anautograph session for his recently publishedautobiography . (His fill-in, on that and other occasions, wasStan Albeck , who later skippered theChicago Bulls ,San Antonio Spurs andNew Jersey Nets of the NBA.) Nonetheless, the team again reached the postseason, bowing out in the first round, for the second year in a row, in the1974 ABA Playoffs .For their third and final season in 1974-75 the Conquistadors lost Chamberlain and finally gained their place in the San Diego Sports Arena. But without Chamberlain as a gate attraction, the team was roundly ignored by San Diegans, and placed last in the Western Division, missing the
1975 ABA Playoffs .Replacement
Bloom sold the franchise during the summer of 1975 to Frank Goldberg, a former co-owner of the successful
Denver Nuggets franchise. Goldberg started anew in San Diego with a team called theSan Diego Sails for1975 -1976 . Goldberg hired formerUniversity of Minnesota coachBill Musselman and, with a completely different roster, color scheme, set of uniforms and just about everything else, sought to repeat Denver's turnaround, in 1974-75, from mediocrity to championship contender.External links
* [http://www.remembertheaba.com/San-Diego-Conquistadors.html San Diego Conquistadors page at RememberTheABA.com]
External sources
* [http://www.remembertheaba.com/San-Diego-Conquistadors.html San Diego Conquistadors page at RememberTheABA.com]
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