Miami Floridians

The Miami Floridians, later in their history known simply as The Floridians, were a professional basketball franchise in the original, now-defunct American Basketball Association. The Miami Floridians played in the ABA from 1968 through 1970 when they became simply The Floridians. The team had two color schemes: their original red, blue, and white, and their later black, magenta, and orange.

The Miami Floridians began as the Minnesota Muskies, a charter ABA franchise who played in Bloomington, Minnesota at the Met Center and wore blue and gold. The Muskies finished with the league's second-best record, but wretched attendance figures (officially 2,800 per game, a figure that was likely padded) led owner Larry Shields to conclude that the team could not be viable in the Twin Cities. He sold minority shares to a group of Florida businessmen and moved the team to Miami. However, in order to pay leftover debts in Minnesota, Shields sold Rookie of the Year Mel Daniels to the Indiana Pacers, a deal now reckoned as the most lopsided trade in ABA history.

Move to Miami

The Floridians never attracted a large following, despite numerous promotions—including ballgirls wearing white bikinis and go-go boots. However, the team did manage to make the playoffs three out of the four years of their existence. The Floridians' first homes were the Miami Beach Convention Center and the Convention Center Annex. Coached by former Minneapolis Lakers great Jim Pollard, the 1968–69 season was the most successful for the Miami Floridians by far, finishing their first season in Florida with a 43–35 record and defeating the defending champion Minnesota Pipers (who played in the city the Floridians had just abandoned) in the Eastern Division semifinals 4 games to 3, before losing in the divisional finals to the Indiana Pacers 4 games to 1.

The 1969–70 season was largely forgettable for the Miami Floridians. They split their home games between Dinner Key Auditorium and Miami-Dade Junior College's North Campus gym. Dinner Key, a former aircraft hangar, was perhaps the most infamous building in ABA history. It had no air conditioning and would often get quite hot inside, forcing management to throw open the doors; players would then have to adjust their shots by the ocean breezes that whistled onto the court. The Floridians dismissed Pollard during the season and named Hal Blitman of Cheyney State College as their head coach. The minority partners began taking a greater role in team operations, often trading players without Blitman's knowledge. Not surprisingly given the constant turnover on the roster, the Floridians finished 23-61 and missed the playoffs. The team's original owners, Shields and Fred Jefferson, sold the Floridians at the end of the season.

The Floridians

Following the 1969–70 season, new owner Ned Doyle dropped "Miami" from the team's name and made it a "regional" franchise, scheduling games in Miami (back at the Miami Beach Convention Center), Tampa-St. Petersburg at the Curtis Hixon Hall and Bayfront Arena, Jacksonville at the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum, and in West Palm Beach at the West Palm Beach Auditorium. In an unprecedented move, Doyle "fired" the entire team (all players were either traded or released prior to the start of their new season) and kept the coach. The team replaced Blitman after an 18–30 start with Bob Bass. Bass was able to turn the team around and the Floridians finished fourth in the Eastern Division with a record of 37–47. The Floridians made the playoffs, but lost their series to the Kentucky Colonels, 4–2.

For the 1971–72 season, the Floridians split their home games between Miami and Tampa. They again finished in fourth place in the Eastern Division, with a record of 36–48. Once again the team made the playoffs and once again they lost their series, this time to the Virginia Squires, 4–0.

The Floridians has to use the gymnasium of Dade County Junior College for their two playoff games reportedly because the Center had booked other events not thinking the team would make the playoffs. The dreadful attendance for their two home playoff games against the Squires convinced Doyle that the team could not be viable in South Florida. After a deal to relocate to Cincinnati fell through and attempts to find a bigger market in Albuquerque, San Diego, Montreal, and Omaha turned up nil for different reasons. By June of 1972, rumblings of a potential merger between the two leagues led to speculation that any attempt of it happening would leave the Floridians out, as they were listed as among the weak franchises in the league alongside the Pittsburgh Condors and the Memphis Pros. On June 13, 1972, Commissioner Jack Dolph announced that the Condors and Floridians would be disbanded. Ironically, San Diego would end up getting their own ABA expansion team in the San Diego Conquistadors in what essentially became a replacement for both The Floridians and the Pittsburgh Condors (who also considered San Diego as an option to move their franchise before shutting down operations) months later. Big-time basketball wouldn't return to Florida until the NBA expansion team, the Miami Heat, played their first season in 1988. The Orlando Magic followed suit with them a year later.

The Heat franchise paid tribute to the Floridians franchise in recent years by wearing near replicas (the jerseys instead had "Miami" on the front to go along with a smaller "Floridians" wordmark on the shorts) of the 1970–71 (and 71-72) Floridians home and away uniforms for several games in the 2005–06 and 2011–12 seasons as part of the NBA's "Hardwood Classics Night" program.https://basketballjerseyarchive.com/the-floridians-1970-72-away-jersey/82207/

Basketball Hall of Famers

Notes:
* ¹ Inducted as a player.

Season-by-season

References

External links

Remembering the ABA: The Floridians

{{ABAteams

American Basketball Association teams
Defunct basketball teams in Florida
Basketball teams established in 1968
Basketball teams disestablished in 1972
1968 establishments in Florida
1972 disestablishments in Florida
Defunct basketball teams in the United States