1969–70 New Orleans Buccaneers season

August 2023 New Orleans Buccaneers ABA 1970 42 42 5th Babe McCarthy Tulane GymMunicipal Auditorium WDSU 6 Memphis Pros The 1969–70 New Orleans Buccaneers season was the third and final season of the Buccaneers in the ABA. The Buccaneers entered the season with a 22–12 record by the beginning of 1970 in part due to two 6-game winning streaks. However, an eight-game losing streak from February 22 to March 8, 1970 plummeted the team from a 31–24 winning record to a 31–32 losing record, which led to New Orleans remaining around .500 from there on in, to the point where they later won their last two games of the season to finish at exactly .500. Despite their average record being a finish that would normally entail a playoff spot in the ABA, the Buccaneers were eliminated from playoff contention by finishing one game behind the Los Angeles Stars, a team who entered the season with little expectations on their end and later reached the 1970 ABA Finals. This led to this season's New Orleans Buccaneers team being the only ABA team to ever finish their season with at least an average record, yet still miss out on competing in the ABA Playoffs. The Bucs were tenth in points scored this season with 107.9 points per game and second in points allowed at 107.1 points per game. Despite looking successful on the court, the team did not have as much success with their attendance, and plans were made following the season's end to play their home games throughout the state of Louisiana (to the point of even renaming themselves as the Louisiana Buccaneers similar to other regional franchises like the Carolina Cougars, Virginia Squires, Texas Chaparrals, and "The Floridians" franchises that had attempted to rebrand themselves as regional franchises in the previous two seasons with mixed short-term results), such as Shreveport, Lafayette, Monroe and Baton Rouge. However, on August 21, 1970, P. L. Blake bought the team and subsequently moved it to Memphis, Tennessee ten days later to become the Memphis Pros (with the name Pros being chosen due to Blake wanting to refurbish the Buccaneers' four letter jerseys of "Bucs" to the best of his abilities, choosing Pros as his cheapest option to do so), though the team's move to Memphis would later cause them to go from being one of the better franchises in the ABA to one of the worst-ran franchises on an almost overnight basis, to the point where the ABA had to step in and try to save the team on multiple occasions at various points before later giving up on them altogether. New Orleans would not have a new pro basketball team until 1974 with the New Orleans Jazz coming to the rivaling NBA, with their current franchise there being the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA following the Jazz moving to Utah in 1979 and a franchise called the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans (keeping their original Hornets name) in 2002, later becoming the Pelicans in 2013 and then its own franchise a year after that when the Charlotte Bobcats renamed themselves to the new Charlotte Hornets (though the Pelicans would also keep the history of the New Orleans Hornets name as a part of their own team history, including the couple of years where they went by the temporary moniker of the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, with them temporarily being stationed at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma due to Hurricane Katrina). Roster New Orleans Buccaneers 1969–70 #041E42 #D40032 #D40032 #FFFFFF 14 Tommie Bowens PF 6 8 220 July 7, 1940 Grambling State University 10 Mike Butler basketball SG 6 2 170 October 22, 1946 Memphis 34 Lee Davis PF 6 8 235 October 11, 1945 NC Central 11 Ron Franz SF 6 7 205 October 20, 1945 Kansas 25 Gerald Govan C 6 10 220 January 2, 1942 Saint Mary of the Plains College 15 Jimmy Jones basketball PG 6 4 188 January 1, 1945 Grambling State University 23 Steve Jones basketball SG 6 5 205 October 17, 1942 Oregon 32 Jackie Moreland PF 6 7 215 March 11, 1938 Louisiana Tech 12 Ron Perry basketball, born 1943 SG 6 3 190 December 29, 1943 Virginia Tech 21 Red Robbins C 6 8 190 September 30, 1944 Tennessee 22 Jerry Rook F October 27, 1943 219 6 5 Arkansas State University 24 Skeeter Swift SG 6 3 204 East Tennessee State June 19, 1946 31 Jasper Wilson basketball 200 SF July 12, 1947 6 6 Southern Babe McCarthy https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/NOB/1970.html Final standings Western Division Western DivisionWLPCTGBDenver Rockets * 51 33 .607 —Dallas Chaparrals * 45 39 .536 6.0Washington Caps * 44 40 .524 7.0Los Angeles Stars * 43 41 .512 8.0New Orleans Buccaneers 42 42 .500 9.0 Awards, records, and honors 1970 ABA All-Star Game played on January 24, 1970 Jimmy Jones Steve Jones Gerald Govan Red Robbins (injured, did not play) References Buccaneers on Basketball Reference New Orleans Category:New Orleans Buccaneers New Orleans Buccaneers, 1969-70 New Orleans Buccaneers, 1969-70