On July 7 in 1978, one of the weirdest chapters of the storied franchise’s history unfolded as the Celtics became the (then) Buffalo Braves (now, Los Angeles Clippers) and the Braves the Celtics when the NBA granted permission for the swap
Confused? You should be — it is perhaps the only time in the history of major North American professional sports that franchise owners swapped ownership of their respective franchises in a move that has largely been forgotten by fans, buried by the sands of time. Save when Los Angeles Lakers fans get angered by Boston fans suggesting the Lakers ought to eschew counting their titles from when the team was based in Minneapolis, anyway.
Boston’s owner at the time — Irv Levin — wanted to move to the west coast, but there was no way the NBA would approve a move for the Celtics to go there with him.
The Clips/Celtics charter swap goes back to the John Y. Brown 70's era when the then Buffalo Braves swapped with the Celtics ownership
— Jon Duke (@csl_duke) December 11, 2013
Instead, one the suggestion of NBA lawyer and future commissioner David Stern, he pitched Buffalo’s owner, John Y. Brown, to swap franchises, and Brown agreed.
The move was approved by the league’s Board of Governors by a 21-1 vote (the lone dissenting team appears lost to history), and the two teams also traded most of their respective rosters to maintain continuity.
I wrote about the wild times of that Braves-Celtics ownership swap a few years ago. https://t.co/Q98whHHU0F pic.twitter.com/IHb1TRK7b9
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) November 10, 2019
At the time, Levin considered — but ultimately decided against — demanding the inclusion of an interesting prospect out of Indiana.
“I absolutely could have had Larry Bird if I wanted. No question about it,” Levin said via the New York Time’s Peter May. “But I knew Red was very high on the kid and I felt if I took Bird to San Diego, Red would in some way make sure that he never signed with me. It was too risky. We were starting a new franchise. Of course, had I known then what I know now, I would have taken that risk.”
The Braves decamped from upstate New York that summer, and reinvented themselves as the San Diego Clippers.
Very, very strange — but true!
The 70s were a weird time for pro basketball, and no team sums that up more than the Buffalo Braves. In this episode of Deep Dives I discuss how the Braves owner dealt the franchise for the right to own the Boston Celtics. Check it out on SoundCloud:https://t.co/3N4KfiaHHV
— Ben Shulman (@benshulman7) July 7, 2020
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YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ
