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Buffalo Braves
Conference	Eastern
Division	Atlantic
Founded	1970
History	Buffalo Braves 1970–1978 San Diego Clippers 1978–1984 Los Angeles Clippers 1984–present[1][2]
Arena	Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
Location	Buffalo, New York
Team colors	Black, white, orange,Columbia blue[3]
Team manager	Eddie Donovan (1970–1975)
Head coach	Dolph Schayes (1970–1972) Johnny McCarthy (1972) Jack Ramsay (1972–1976) Tates Locke (1976–1977) Bob MacKinnon (1977) Joe Mullaney (1977) Cotton Fitzsimmons (1977–1978)
Ownership	Paul Snyder (1970–1977) John Y. Brown Jr. (1976–1978) Harry T. Mangurian Jr. (1977–1978) (minority partner)
Championships	None
Conference titles	None
Division titles	None
Playoff appearances	3 (1974,1975,1976)

TheBuffalo Braves were an American professionalbasketball team based inBuffalo, New York, founded in 1970. The Braves competed in theNational Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of theAtlantic Division of theEastern Conference. In 1978, ownerJohn Y. Brown Jr. swapped franchises with then-Boston Celtics ownerIrv Levin, who thenmoved the team toSan Diego, where it was renamed theSan Diego Clippers. The franchise relocated toLos Angeles in 1984, becoming theLos Angeles Clippers.

The Braves were one of three NBAexpansion teams that began to play in the1970–71 season (the others being thePortland Trail Blazers andCleveland Cavaliers). It was originally owned byNeuberger Loeb, aNew York City investment firm that had few ties to Buffalo. However, a series of missteps resulted in the league taking control of the team before it even played a preseason game. By opening night,Paul Snyder, a then 33-year-old entrepreneur who had recently cashed in on the sale of hisFreezer Queen business, had bought the franchise for $4 million.^[4] They played their home games at theBuffalo Memorial Auditorium, sharing the arena with another new franchise, theNational Hockey League (NHL)'sBuffalo Sabres, who also debuted in1970, as well as localcollege basketball teams that had used the auditorium for decades prior. Because the Braves only had third choice of dates (behind the Sabres andCanisius College Golden Griffins) at the auditorium, from 1971 to 1975 the Braves were forced to play a total of 16 home games atMaple Leaf Gardens inToronto; in addition to alleviating the auditorium's scheduling issues, the Braves also played internationally in the hopes of expanding their fan base beyondWestern New York and into theGreater Toronto Area^[5] (a similar strategy was employed by theNational Football League (NFL)'sBuffalo Bills from2008 to 2013).^[6] The NBA had two previous teams inUpstate New York, theRochester Royals and theSyracuse Nationals (who are now known as theSacramento Kings andPhiladelphia 76ers, respectively). As of 2025, the Braves are the lastNew York State-based NBA team to be based somewhere other thanNew York City, where theNew York Knicks andBrooklyn Nets play.

The team's firsthead coach wasHall of FamerDolph Schayes and the franchise's first star players wereBob Kauffman andDon May, who were acquired in the1970 NBA expansion draft. However, in theNBA draft of 1970, Buffalo passed on hometown heroCalvin Murphy, a 5-foot-9 point guard fromNiagara University, and picked Princeton graduateJohn Hummer as their first round draft pick. Murphy would eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame. As is typical of first-year expansion teams, the Braves finished with a dismal record, 22–60, seven games ahead of theCleveland Cavaliers, their expansion cousins, who finished at 15–67. Kauffman, who averaged 4.3 points per game the previous year with theChicago Bulls, led Buffalo in scoring with 20.4 points per game and earned a spot on the 1971NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team.

The Braves repeated their 22–60 record in the 1971–72 season, but made acquisitions that would prove to improve the team. Buffalo draftedcenterElmore Smith fromKentucky State University and local favoriteRandy Smith fromBuffalo State College.Johnny McCarthy replaced Schayes one game into the season as the team's head coach.

The team did slightly worse in the 1972–73 season, as it went 21–61 under new head coachDr. Jack Ramsay. In a showcase of the futility of the '72-'73 Braves, during the team's fifth game of the season on October 20, 1972, the team set an NBA record which still stands for most points in a single quarter with 58 in the fourth quarter against theBoston Celtics. However the Celtics were in the process of a blowout win and had already led the Braves 103–60 at the start of the quarter. They had inserted their substitutes to play the final quarter and the reduced quality of the opponents allowed for the comeback. The Braves outscored the Celtics 58-23 but still lost 126–118. The Braves' big move that season was drafting forward/centerBob McAdoo fromNorth Carolina. The team finally made its first playoff appearance in1974, in which they faced the Celtics and lost in six games. That season, McAdoo posted averages of 30.6points and 15.1rebounds; this is the last time any player has averaged at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in the same NBA season. Also, that season, the Braves rookieErnie DiGregorio won theNBA Rookie of the Year Award.

In1974–75, McAdoo was awarded theNBA Most Valuable Player Award, averaging 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds. and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2% from the field and 80.5% from the free-throw line. The Braves made trips to the playoffs in both 1974–75 and1975–76, the latter of which would be their last playoff berth playing in Buffalo.

The Braves by this point were a modest success, both on the court and off; the team was drawing close to the league average in fans, had solid broadcasting ratings and was turning a consistent profit. Even so, by 1976 Snyder was facing severe pressure to sell the team and get it out of Buffalo. As a result of the Braves only getting the third choice of dates at the Aud, the entire NBA was unable to finalize a schedule and hammer out television contracts until the Sabres and Griffins finalized their schedules. The NBA considered this untenable, and gave Snyder five years to resolve the problem. In a 2016 interview withThe Buffalo News as part of a retrospective on the Braves, Snyder laid particular blame on Canisius president FatherJames Demske for making it difficult to get good home dates at the Aud. Snyder recalled offering Demske $125,000 per game to give up some Saturday night dates to the Braves. However, Demske turned the offer down, believing that the Braves posed a threat to theLittle Three rivalry in college basketball. When the five-year deadline expired without a resolution, Snyder found himself with two options–build a new arena or sell the team. Building a new arena wasn't financially realistic at the time, leaving Snyder with no option but to sell the team. Had the dispute been resolved, the Braves would have likely been able to stay in Buffalo, especially since Canisius basketball went into what would be permanent decline in the early 1980s.^[4]

At the time, Snyder's more public feuds were with the Sabres, whose owners,Northrup andSeymour Knox, represented Buffalo'sold money circuit while Snyder hadnouveau riche status. Years later, Snyder attributed these feuds to his own inexperience with sports ownership and now speaks in more conciliatory tones regarding his hockey competition.^[7]

The June 15, 1976 issue of Buffalo'sCourier-Express blasted the headline "Braves Go to Florida, Leaving 'Hockey Town'". Snyder had a handshake deal to sell the team for $6.1 million to hotel owner Irving Cowan, who would move the Braves to theHollywood Sportatorium outside ofMiami. However, the city of Buffalo filed a $10 million damage suit to block the move. The sale eventually fell through and the Braves and the city signed a new 15-year Memorial Auditorium lease in July with a provision that the lease could be voided if the team did not sell 5,000 season tickets in any season. Later that summer, Snyder finally sold 50% of the franchise to businessmanJohn Y. Brown Jr., who had previously owned theKentucky Colonels of theAmerican Basketball Association (ABA). Brown later acquired the remaining half from Snyder sometime in the1976–77 season with the intention of reviving the Colonels by relocating the Braves to Louisville. Unable to find a willing co-owner for such a venture, he resold the other stake to another businessman,Harry T. Mangurian Jr.^[8]

Brown and Mangurian proceeded to dismantle the Braves. Ramsay, unwilling to have his career hurt by the change in ownership, left for thePortland Trail Blazers, who would win the NBA championship in the upcoming 1976–77 season.^[9] A provision in the team sale agreement stipulated that if Brown sold the contract of any Braves player, then the money would go to Snyder and the purchase price would be reduced. This subsequently occurred when the Braves sent McAdoo to theNew York Knicks for players and cash midway through the season. Before the first game of the season, the Braves also managed to acquire eventual Hall-of-Fame centerMoses Malone from Portland. However, after just two games in which he played a total of six minutes, he too was traded; he was sent toHouston for two draft picks. He would finish the season in Houston averaging 13 points and 13 rebounds while only two years later winning his first of three MVP Awards. The Braves would go through four head coaches in the next two seasons:Tates Locke,Bob MacKinnon,Joe Mullaney (formerly coach of the Colonels) andCotton Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons (who would find himself in a nearly identical situation seven years later when his next team theKansas City Kings relocated to Sacramento) jokingly took the blame for the Braves' relocation and acknowledged that the NBA had given Buffalo a "raw deal."^[10]

The team's poor play in its final two years (30–52 in 1976–77 and 27–55 in1977–78) and the overt attempts to break the lease on Memorial Auditorium drove attendance down below the threshold that would have been needed to break the lease.^[4] John Y. Brown met withIrv Levin, who then owned the Celtics, and negotiated a deal in which the owners would swap franchises, with Brown taking control of the Celtics and Levin getting the Braves. Levin was aCalifornia businessman, and wanted to own an NBA team in his native state. However, he knew the NBA would not even consider letting him move the Celtics. He was therefore very receptive to Brown's offer. The deal was brokered by then NBA general counselDavid Stern, who became the league's commissioner in 1984. Following what would be the Braves' final season inWestern New York, the NBA owners voted 21–1 to let the team move. As Levin wanted, he became owner of a team inSan Diego after the 1977–78 season, which became theSan Diego (now Los Angeles) Clippers.^[11][12] As part of the transaction, the teams traded most of the players on their rosters.^[12] Brown would sell off the Celtics in 1979.^[8]

For the franchise's first season (1970–71) team colors were blue, red & gold; home white uniforms featured lettering and striping in only red & gold, with road uniforms being blue, also with red & gold lettering and striping. In the second season, (1971–72) the team adopted the colors of theBaltimore Orioles. This was with the heavy influence of the local uniform supplier, James (Jim) Ludtka. Ludtka, was a former pro baseball player with theNew York Yankees and was scouting for the Orioles organization. The new color scheme was white, orange and black, with the now familiar "feather B" logo featured on uniforms that had diagonal stripes across both jerseys and shorts (the predominant color on the road being orange). This scheme was kept one more season (1972–73) and, with the 1973–74 season, the team adopted another new color scheme ofColumbia blue and white, with uniforms including black accents outlining the lettering and also striping on jerseys and shorts; they continued with these uniforms until the team was moved toCalifornia. (Despite the new color scheme, the logo – which no longer appeared on the uniforms – remained the black and orange "feather B").

SinceSteve Ballmer bought the team, the history of the Braves have been acknowledged through occasionalthrowback uniforms during Clipper games and Buffalo throwback merchandise being made available through team venues, though any explicitNative American references outside the city name, the Braves name itself, and "feather B" logo have been de-emphasized, with the original "feather sunburst" logo remaining unused.^[13] The team's name, said at the time to be a tribute to theSeneca Nation of New York, came well before thecontroversy of Native American names in sports beginning in the 1990s came to light, and the Braves nickname has been said to have been a "curse" upon the franchise from the start.^[14] The Clippers refused to relinquish the Braves trademark in 2005 when an expansionAmerican Basketball Association franchise wanted to use it, so that team instead became theBuffalo Rapids.^[15]

NBA All-Star selections

• Bob Kauffman – 1971, 1972, 1973
• Bob McAdoo – 1974, 1975, 1976
• Randy Smith – 1976, 1978

NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player

• Randy Smith – 1978

For most of the team's existence,WBEN (930 AM) was the radio home of the Buffalo Braves, withVan Miller on play-by-play. Miller also called play-by-play on the team's telecasts over WBEN-TV (channel 4, nowWIVB-TV), the local CBS television affiliate. Snyder claimed that the Braves broadcasts were drawing far higher ratings than the Sabres at the time and insisted that if he had managed to keep the Braves in Buffalo, the Sabres would have been the team eventually forced to move out of the city.^[4]

• THE OFFICIAL PAGE OF THE BUFFALO BRAVES (at Clippers.com) (Archived)

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