Spirits of St. Louis

NBA team
name = Spirits of St. Louis

imagesize = 50px
conference = Eastern Conference
division = East Division
founded = 1974
history = Houston Mavericks
1967-1969
Carolina Cougars
1969-1974
Spirits of St. Louis
(1974-1976)
Utah Rockies
(proposed)

arena = St. Louis Arena
city = St. Louis, Missouri
colors = Burnt Orange, Silver & Black
coach = Bob MacKinnon
(1974-1975)
Rod Thorn
(1975)
Joe Mullaney
(1976)

owner = Ozzie Silna and Dan Silna
General Manager = Harry Weltman
affiliate = None
league_champs = None
playoff appearances = 1 (1974-76)

The Spirits of St. Louis were one of two teams still in existence at the end of the American Basketball Association that did not survive the merger with the NBA. They were a member of the league in its last two seasons, 1974-75 and 1975-76, while playing their home games at the St. Louis Arena.

The Spirits (who took their name from the Atlantic Ocean-crossing plane flown by Charles Lindbergh) were the third incarnation of a franchise that was once known as the Houston Mavericks and later the Carolina Cougars. Despite their history, they essentially were an expansion team, as there was just one holdover from the Cougars.

The Spirits were a colorful team featuring a number of players, both on and off the court, who were fairly successful in their basketball careers. Among them were Moses Malone, acquired during their second season, who went on to a long and successful career in the NBA, culminating in enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Maurice Lucas spent most of his time in the ABA as a Spirit, then later became an all-star in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers. Other well-known players that played for the team included former Boston Celtics sixth man Don Chaney, future Celtics head coach M.L. Carr, and Ron Boone, who held the record for consecutive games played in pro basketball for many years. One of the most colorful players on the team was forward Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, famous for stories about his off-court behavior and lack of understanding of time zones.

A couple of off-court personalities from the team became well known as well. One of the coaches in 1975 was former NBA player Rod Thorn, who became the NBA's vice president of basketball operations (or, in essence, the No. 2 man behind commissioner David Stern) for a number of years. On radio, the team featured Bob Costas as an announcer. Costas would go on to a highly successful career working for NBC television and radio.

After a slow start in their inaugural season, 1974-75, the Spirits reached the playoffs with a late rush, then upset the defending ABA champion New York Nets in the first round of the playoffs. But the team squandered this good start the following year, finishing well out of playoff contention in 1975-76 as attendance in St. Louis dwindled. At season's end, negotiations were under way to move the franchise to Salt Lake City, Utah and rename the team the Utah Rockies.

In the summer of 1976, with the ABA at the point of financial collapse after nine years, the six surviving franchises (the Virginia Squires went bankrupt immediately after the final season) began negotiating a merger with the NBA. But the senior circuit decided to accept only four teams from the rival league: the Nets (the last ABA champion), Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs.

The NBA placated John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, by giving him a $3.3 million settlement in exchange for shutting his team down. (Brown later used much of that money to buy the Boston Celtics of the NBA.) But the owners of the Spirits, the brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, struck a prescient deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, a one-seventh share from each franchise, in perpetuity. With network TV deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas wealthy, earning them $168 million as of July 2006, according to a Los Angeles Times report. (The NBA nearly succeeded in buying out the Silnas in 1982 by offering $5 million over eight years, but negotiations floundered when the siblings demanded $8 million over five.) The current TV deal gives the Silnas $14.57 million a season; on June 27, 2007, it was extended for another eight years, ensuring another $100 million-plus windfall for the former Spirits owners. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070627/ap_on_sp_bk_ne/bkn_nba_new_tv_deal_2;_ylt=Al9lg41YCEzuIe.Zgx8wVuYE1vAI]

External links

* [http://www.remembertheaba.com/Spirits-of-St-Louis.html Spirits of St. Louis history from RememberTheABA.com]
* [http://www.mikedust.com/spirits/index.html 1975-76 Spirits of St. Louis Official Program]
* [http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-aba31jul31,0,917243.story?coll=la-home-headlines Los Angeles Times article on the deal between the Silna brothers and the NBA to ensure the NBA-ABA merger]