Fort Wayne Fury
Continental Basketball Association (1991-2001) Born: September 1990 – CBA expansion franchise Folded: February 8, 2001 First Game: November 8, 1991 (L 99-89 vs. Columbus Horizon)
Continental Basketball Association (1991-2001) Born: September 1990 – CBA expansion franchise Folded: February 8, 2001 First Game: November 8, 1991 (L 99-89 vs. Columbus Horizon)
The Rockford Lightning were a popular attraction in Illinois’ third-largest city from 1986 until 2006. The Lightning’s twenty-season run was unusually long by the standards of minor league basketball. The club played in the Continental Basketball Association championship series on four occasions but never managed to win a title.
The Grand Rapids Hoops were a durable minor league basketball operation that played 14 Continental Basketball Association seasons in various buildings in and around the Western Michigan city. The team was known as the Grand Rapids Mackers for a period (1994-1996) after ownership briefly passed into the hands of Scott and Mitch McNeal, founders of the Gus Macker 3-on-3 basketball tournament empire. When the McNeals unloaded the team in 1996, new owner Bob Prsybysz quickly restored the “Hoops” identity.
The Gary Steelheads were an Indiana minor league basketball franchise that competed in three different minor professional leagues between 2000 and 2008. Steelheads investors had the misfortune of purchasing a Continental Basketball Association franchise just as the NBA prepared to launch its own proprietary farm league, the NBA Development League (known today as the “G-League”). The NBA’s league undermined the rationale and investment prospects for the remaining independent minor pro basketball leagues, most of which closed their doors by the end of the 2000’s.
Publisher receives compensation for affiliate advertising on this website.
*Like our new look? Next up: site speed. You can help with a tip for our Speed Fund today. Thank you!