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The Continental Basketball Association ('''CBA''') is a professional men's Basketball league in the United States . It is affiliated with USA Basketball , the sport's governing body in the United States. HISTORY The CBA can date its origins back to April 23 , 1946 , when it was called the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League (1946-47). The league began with six franchises - five in Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, Allentown, Lancaster and Reading) and a sixth team in New York (Binghamton, who later moved in mid-season to Pottsville, Pa.). The Eastern League would later add franchises in several other Pennsylvania cities, including Williamsport, Scranton and Sunbury, as well as place teams in New Jersey (Trenton, Camden, Asbury Park), Connecticut (New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport), Delaware (Wilmington) and Massachusetts (Springfield). The Eastern League continued as a centralized minor league until the 1970-71 season, when the league rebranded itself as the Eastern Basketball Association, operating both as a professional Northeastern League and as a feeder system to the NBA and ABA. On June 1 , 1978 , the league again rebranded itself, this time as the Continental Basketball Association, the name it uses to this day. Tracing the league's operation back to its Pennsylvania origins, the CBA is the oldest professional basketball league in the world (the NBA's predecessor, the Basketball Association of America, began operations in June 1946, two months after the CBA was formed). The CBA's first commissioner was Harry Rudolph , the father of Mendy Rudolph , one of the first great referees of the National Basketball Association . Notable CBA Accomplishments Integration In the 1946-47 Eastern League season, the Hazleton Mountaineers had three African-American players on their roster during the season - Bill Brown , Zack Clayton and John Isaacs . Isaacs previously played with an all-black touring squad, the Washington Bears, while Brown and Clayton were alumni of the Harlem Globetrotters . In the 1955-56 season, the Hazleton Hawks Eastern League team were the first professional league franchise with an all-black starting lineup: Tom Hemans , Jess Arnelle , Fletcher Johnson , Sherman White and Floyd Lane . Three-Point Line Although the 1961-63 American Basketball League used a three-point scoring line, the Eastern League added a three-point line for the 1964-65 season. In that year, Brendan McCann of the Allentown Jets led the league with 31 completed 3-pointers for the year. Although three-point plays in the 1960s were very few and far-between, the Eastern League did develop several scorers who used the three-point shot to their advantage, including sharpshooters Stan Pawlak and Rich Cornwall . Collapsible Rims After Darryl Dawkins shattered two basketball rims in the 1979-80 NBA season, the CBA tested out a collapsible hinged rim. Eventually, other leagues converted their rims over to the collapsible hinged model, which is still in use today. Ten-Day Contract In the early 1980s, the CBA and the NBA entered into an agreement where CBA players would be signed to 10-day NBA contracts, mostly to replace an injured player or to test out a top CBA prospect. Under the 10-day contract rule, a player is signed at the prorated league minimum salary for 10 days. If the NBA team likes the player, the team can sign him to a second 10-day contract. After the second 10-day contract expires, the team must either return the player to the CBA or sign him for the rest of the NBA regular season. THE ISIAH THOMAS YEARS (1999-2001) As of 1999, the CBA had survived for 54 years. That year all the league's teams were purchased by an investment group led by former NBA star Isiah Thomas . The combined ownership plan was unsuccessful, and by 2001, the CBA declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Several of its teams briefly joined the now defunct International Basketball League . The popular Scapegoat for the demise of the CBA is Isiah Thomas , who purchased the CBA and ran it as a single-entity league, only to abandon it a year later for an NBA coaching job. The following is a timeline of the events surrounding Thomas' ownership of the CBA:
Rebirth of the CBA In the fall of 2001, CBA and IBL teams merged with the International Basketball Association and purchased the assets of the defunct CBA, including its name, logo and records from the bankruptcy court and re-started operations, calling itself the CBA. TEAMS Current Teams American Conference National Conference
Inactive Teams/Potential Expansion
Complete team List CBA Champions All-Star Games NOTABLE PEOPLE CBA/NBA RELATIONSHIP During the early years of the CBA, when it was the EPBL, the league's relationship with the NBA was frosty at best. The NBA would send several players to the Eastern League for extra playing time, and for several seasons two Eastern League teams would play the opening game of a New Year's Eve doubleheader at Madison Square Garden, with the NBA playing the nightcap contest. Although the NBA did play some exhibition contests with the Eastern League in the late 1940's and early 1950's, the exhibition games ceased in 1954, when the Eastern League signed several college basketball stars who were involved in Point-shaving gambling scandals during their college years, including such players as Jack Molinas , Sherman White , Floyd Layne and Ed Roth . The Eastern League also signed 7-foot center Bill Spivey , the former University Of Kentucky standout who was accused of pointshaving (although Spivey was acquitted of all charges, the NBA still banned him from the league for life). After a few seasons, however, the NBA and EPBL resumed exhibition games in the 1950s, including a 1956 matchup in which the NBA's Syracuse Nationals lost to the EPBL's Wilkes-Barre Barons at Wilkes-Barre's home court. Other EPBL-NBA exhibition matchups include an October 1959 contest in which the New York Knicks defeated the Allentown Jets, 131-102, in a game in Allentown; and a contest in April 1961, in which the Boston Celtics also played an exhibition contest against Allentown, defeating the Eastern Leaguers soundly. The Eastern League became a haven for players who wanted to play professionally, but were barred from the NBA because of age restrictions. Even though Ray Scott had left Portland University two months after his matriculation, the NBA could not sign Scott to a contract until Scott's class graduated. The EPBL, however, could sign him, and Scott played 77 games for the Allentown Jets before later joining the NBA's Detroit Pistons . By the 1967-68 season, the Eastern League lost many of its players when the upstart American Basketball Association formed. Players such as Lavern "Jelly" Tart , Willie Somerset , Art Heyman and Walt Simon , all of whom were all-stars in the Eastern League just a year prior, were now in ABA uniforms. The ABA continued to siphon both NBA and Eastern League players, leaving the Eastern League with only six teams in 1972; and four teams in 1975. Only the merger of the ABA and the NBA kept the Eastern League alive, as an influx of players from defunct ABA teams joined the Eastern League. In 1979, the NBA signed four players from the newly-renamed CBA. The CBA, receiving no compensation from the NBA for these signings, filed a lawsuit against the NBA. The suit was settled and in exchange for the right to sign any player at any time, the NBA paid the CBA $115,000 and also paid the CBA $80,000 to help develop NBA referees at CBA games. NBA/CBA relationships grew tense again in 1982, when the CBA added the Detroit Spirits franchise to their league roster. Since the Spirits played in the same city as did the NBA's Pistons, the NBA chose to not sign any CBA players, arguing that the CBA illegally moved into an NBA city. After much negotiation between the two leagues, the NBA agreed to sign qualified CBA players to a 10-day contract. A player could be called up to an NBA team for 10 days at the league minimum, often replacing an injured NBA star. The CBA player could sign a second 10-day contract, but after the completion of the second 10-day contract, the NBA team would have to sign the player for the rest of the season, or return him to the CBA. The CBA teams, in turn, would receive compensation for each 10-day contract. During the 1980s and 1990s, the NBA's relationship with the CBA grew, to the point where dozens of former CBA stars found their way onto NBA rosters, including Tim Legler (Omaha Racers), Mario Elie (Albany Patroons), and Ron Davis (Anchorage Northern Knights). The CBA also sent qualified coaches to the NBA, including Phil Jackson (Albany Patroons), Bill Musselman ( Tampa Bay Thrillers ), Eric Musselman (Rapid City Thrillers), Flip Saunders (LaCrosse Catbirds) and George Karl (Montana Golden Nuggets). In 2002, the NBA formed its own minor league, the National Basketball Development League (the NBDL or "D-League"). At the end of the 2005-2006 season, three current and one expansion CBA franchise jumped to the NBDL. The CBA obtained eight new franchises for a confirmed total of 10 for the 2006 season. The Atlanta Krunk Wolverines and Vancouver Dragons deferred their participation to the 2007-2008 season, and the Utah Eagles folded as of January 25, 2007. During the 2006-07 season, not one player was called up from the CBA to the NBA, ending a streak of over 30 seasons of at least one call-up per year. The CBA's 2007-08 season will begin with ten franchises, the greatest number of teams to start a CBA season since the 2000-01 campaign. In addition to six returning franchises, the CBA added three new expansion teams - the Oklahoma Cavalry , the Rio Grande Valley Silverados and East Kentucky Miners , while the Atlanta Krunk joined the league after sitting out the 2006-07 season. Whether the influx of new teams will convince the NBA to examine or sign CBA players to NBA contracts is unknown at this point. RULES The CBA follows the same basketball rules as does the NBA and most other professional leagues. However, in the late 1970s CBA commissioner Jim Drucker added several new rules to increase scoring and raise fan interest.
Other CBA rules and innovations that were later adopted by the NBA include the three-point line (first used in the CBA in 1964), collapsible rims to keep backboard glass from being destroyed in a dunk (first used by the CBA in 1980), and the offering of three foul shots if a player is fouled in the act of shooting a three-point behind-the-arc play.
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