The National Basketball Association was at war with the American Basketball Association, and the NBA needed reinforcements as quickly as possibly.
The established NBA had been first challenged by the ABA in the summer of 1967. The new league has shown to be typically annoying and pesky, driving up the costs of player salaries dramatically. That meant the existing NBA teams were always looking for new revenue sources, and expansion fees were one such source.
The Seattle SuperSonics and San Diego Rockets entered the league in 1967. Milwaukee and Phoenix entered in 1968. That put the number of teams at 14, and it still wasn't enough.
In fact, two teams' fees split 14 ways wasn't enough. So the NBA announced on Nov. 5, 1969, that it would expand by two teams. After looking over applications from Buffalo, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Memphis and Portland, the league added three teams for an entry fee of $3.7 million each. The official birthday of the Buffalo Braves, Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers was February 6, 1970.
That wasn't much time to get organized. The draft was less than two months away. What's more, the new team was playing catchup from the day it was created.
The franchise was originally awarded to the city of Buffalo before it was assigned to a particular holder/owner. A couple of groups were hoping to get the franchise. Keep in mind that this was the time that there was talk of a new domed stadium in suburban Buffalo, and one of the groups had ideas of playing home games there -- a plan that was, in a sense, ahead of its time.
Eventually the franchise went to Neuberger-Loeb, a New York investment firm. The organizing group was headed by Philip Ryan and Peter Crotty, and Carl Scheer was the first president of the team. The corporate end of the franchise was a bit unsettled from the start. That may have been a factor in the loss of Carl Scheer as president of the team. Scheer went on to a long career in professional sports, including some time running the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.
What's more, there was already another new pro franchise coming to Buffalo. Hockey's Buffalo Sabres were due to start play in the fall of 1970 as well. It had strong local ties in owners Seymour and Norty Knox. And it had a strong lease for Memorial Auditorium that gave the team good dates (Thursdays and Sundays, mostly) and revenues from many Auditorium events. The basketball ownership group clearly had plenty of work ahead of it.
Step one was a general manager, and there was a good candidate at the other end of the Thruway. Eddie Donovan was the current occupant of the same job of the New York Knicks, who were on their way to the NBA championship that spring. He also had Western New York ties, playing and coaching St. Bonaventure University before heading for the Knicks as coach in 1961. Donovan is the answer to the trivia question, "Who coached the Knicks the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points?" He later moved up to general manager. It was considered quite a coup when he was lured to Buffalo before the end of the 1970 season to take over the new franchise.
The coach (picked on March 31) was also a well-known name. Dolph Schayes was one of the greatest players in NBA history. He had led the Syracuse Nationals to a championship in 1955, and retired in 1964 as the NBA's all-time leading scorer. Later he went on to coach the Philadelphia 76ers, although he lost his job as the Sixers couldn't get over the hump represented by the Boston Celtics despite the presence of Chamberlain. Schayes had been working as the NBA's supervisor of officials.
"Dolph's strong point, I think,' was being able to communicate with the fans of the area. He was tremendous on radio and television," said Jim Baker, who covered the team for the Courier-Express. "He was an excellent interview, a good speaker. He was a very likable guy."
