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13 views4 pages

OD295

Uploaded by

moyeso4250
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© © All Rights Reserved
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the first West Coast basketball team to win a major professional championship.

Formed in February 1967, the


team played in the ABA during the 1967–68 and 1968–69 seasons at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
Arena. The team colors were green and gold.

On February 2, 1967, longtime entertainer and business entrepreneur Pat Boone, S. Kenneth Davidson
and Dennis A. Murphy (who would later co-found the World Hockey Association) were awarded a team in
exchange for $30,000. Initially, Boone received a 10 percent share of the franchise to serve as president, but
he had limited involvement in team operations and rarely attended home games because of his outside
interests.

An earlier Oakland Oaks basketball team played in the American Basketball League in 1962, along with
a baseball team that had played for nearly a half century in Oakland, with the latter and the ABA Oaks both
using the oak tree and the acorn on its logos.

Beginnings
[edit]

The team had widely varying performances in its two years of existence. In their first season, the Oaks finished
22–56 and had the second-worst performance of any professional basketball team ever in a major league, of
1485 such team-seasons (through 2015, according to the Elo rating system); only the 1946–1947 Pittsburgh
Ironmen had a worse year.[1]

They were probably noted more for a major contract dispute with the cross-bay San Francisco Warriors of the
established National Basketball Association over the rights to superstar player Rick Barry than for any on-court
accomplishments. Barry, a former NBA Rookie of the Year who led the Warriors to the NBA finals in 1966–67,
was so frustrated by team management's failure to pay him certain incentive awards that he sat out the 1967–
68 season. He joined the Oaks in the following year, leading the franchise to the ABA championship in 1968–
69.

The first and last great year


[edit]

The road to the championship was led by pioneering owner, S. Kenneth Davidson, who aggressively pursued
Barry and one-time Warriors head coach Alex Hannum, signing them for an unprecedented $85,000 per year.
His efforts drove a historic turnaround from last place to first in one year. Unfortunately for Barry, he tore
ligaments in his knee after colliding with Ken Wilburn late in a game versus the New York Nets on December
27, 1968. He tried to return in January, but he only aggravated the injury and he subsequently sat out the rest
of the season, only appearing in 35 games as a result. Regardless, the Oaks won 60 games on the season.

In the playoffs, the Oaks outlasted the Denver Rockets in seven games in the semifinals then swept the New
Orleans Buccaneers in the Division Finals to advance to the ABA Finals versus the Indiana Pacers. After a split
of the first two games, the Oaks won an overtime thriller 134–126 to take a 2–1 lead in the series. Then they
won the fourth game to set up a clinching opportunity in Oakland. In Game 5, the Oaks won 135–131 in
overtime to clinch the series and league title Warren Jabali was named Playoffs MVP on the strength of 21.5
points and 9.7 rebounds per game in the postseason. In the nine playoff games in Oakland, the Oaks averaged
just 3,401 attendance a game (30,615 total). The highest came in Game 5 of the Finals, when 6,340 were on
hand.

Demise
[edit]

With or without Barry, the team proved to be a poor investment for Boone, who became majority owner after
Davidson left the group. Despite winning the ABA championship, the Oaks were a failure at the box office, due
in large part to the proximity of the NBA Warriors nearby. The team was sold and moved to Washington, D.C.,
for the 1969–70 season, where it was renamed the Washington Caps.

After one season in the nation's capital, the franchise moved to Norfolk, Virginia for the 1970–71 season and
became the Virginia Squires. The team disbanded after the 1975–76 season, keeping it out of the ABA–NBA
merger which occurred just weeks later.[2]

Basketball Hall of Famers


[edit]

Rick Barry in an Oakland Oaks uniform

Oakland Oaks Hall of Famers

Players

No. Name Position Tenure Inducted

24 Rick Barry F 1968–1969 1987

11 Larry Brown 1 G 1968–1969 2002

Coaches

Name Position Tenure Inducted

Alex Hannum Head coach 1968–1969 1998

Notes:

 1
Inducted as a coach.
Seasons
[edit]

Note: W = wins, L = losses, % = win–loss %

Season W L % Playoffs Results

Oakland Oaks (ABA)

1967–68 22 56 .282 Did not qualify

Won Western Division Semifinals Oakland Oaks 4, Denver Rockets 3


1968–69 60 18 .769 Won Western Division Finals Oakland Oaks 4, New Orleans Bucs 0
Won ABA Finals Oakland Oaks 4, Indiana Pacers 1

References
[edit]

1. ^ Nate Silver; Reuben Fischer-Baum (May 22, 2015). "The Best NBA Teams Of All-Time, According To Elo". Five
Thirty Eight. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
2. ^ "Remember the ABA: Oakland Oaks".

External links
[edit]

 Oakland Oaks site at remembertheaba.com


 Year-to-Year Franchise Notes

show

 v

 t

 e

American Basketball Association seasons

show

 v

 t

 e

American Basketball Association teams


show

 v

 t

 e

American Basketball Association champions

show

 v

 t

 e

Oakland Oaks 1968–69 ABA champions

Categories:
 American Basketball Association teams
 Defunct basketball teams in California
 Oakland Oaks
 Basketball teams established in 1967
 Basketball teams disestablished in 1969
 1969 disestablishments in California
 1967 establishments in California
 This page was last edited on 24 January 2024, at 15:18 (UTC).
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