While the Knicks, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, 76ers, Kings, Pistons, and Hawks have been active in the NBA since the late '40s, these other early franchises weren't so lucky and closed up shop after a brief lifetime, often as short as just one season.
1) Baltimore Bullets (1947-1955)
Within the four major U.S. professional sports leagues, there exists only one franchise that won a championship and then folded, and that is the Baltimore Bullets of the NBA. That title came in 1948 when the Bullets, led by player-coach Buddy Jeannette and a young Connie Simmons, defeated the Warriors in the NBA Finals, clinching the series at home at the Baltimore Coliseum in game six. It was actually Baltimore's first season in the NBA (which was then still called the BAA), having previously competed in the ABL prior to 1947. The Bullets lasted six more full seasons in the NBA, but they would never again finish above .500 or win another playoff series, let alone another title (it didn't help that their coach and owner, Clair Bee, was an erratic alcoholic). They folded on Thanksgiving Day of 1954, just 14 games into the '54-'55 season, with a 32-game road losing streak, a record that stood until 1990. When the Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore in 1963, they took the name Bullets as an ode to the former NBA champions, but the newer Baltimore franchise, which now plays in Washington as the Wizards, has no technical connection to the original one.
2) Chicago Stags (1946-1950)
One year before the Bullets won their title, the Chicago Stags played in the inaugural NBA Finals in their first of what would turn out to be just four seasons of franchise history. They were part of a long line of failed Chicago pro basketball teams, starting with the Duffy Florals of the Midwest Basketball Conference in the late '30s, followed by the Chicago Bruins of the National Basketball League in the '40s, and finally the Chicago Packers, that lasted just two seasons in the NBA in the early '60s before moving to Baltimore. Originally called the Chicago Atomics, they were rechristened as the Stags right before the start of the '46-'47 season and played their home games at the legendary Chicago Stadium. Led by dynamic scoring guard Max Zaslofsky, the Stags finished with the NBA's second-best record in '46-'47, then upset the top-seeded Washington Capitols in the league Semifinals, before losing in five games to the Philadelphia Warriors in the Finals. Unlike the Bullets, who fell apart in the wake of their surprise title, Chicago was successful for the remainder of its run, reaching the Semifinals again in 1948 (losing to the Bullets), then making playoff appearances in 1949 and 1950. Despite the success on the court, the team struggled to draw fans and was one of seven franchises to fold before the '50-'51 season. In addition to their Finals appearance, the Stags have two other claims to fame: 1) they were the first NBA franchise to invite black players to try out for the team, in 1948, and 2) in the spring of 1950, they made a trade for a recently drafted point guard named Bob Cousy, who was then dispersed to the Celtics when the Stags soon folded.
3) Toronto Huskies (1946-1947)
Though the NBA has arguably taken the mantle now as America's second most popular sports league after the NFL, its beginnings were much more humble. In fact, one of the main factors in starting the BAA was pro hockey owners looking to utilize arenas during the winter when their teams had off nights or were playing on the road. 10 of the 11 original BAA teams were based in cities that had an NHL (Chicago, Boston, New York, Detroit, and Toronto) or AHL (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Providence, and St. Louis) franchise. Hence, Toronto, a full 50 years before the Raptors and 30 years before the Blue Jays, had a major pro sports team in the Huskies. In fact, the Huskies hosted the first NBA game on November 1st, 1946, losing to the New York Knicks. They ended up losing 12 of their first 17 games, cycling through an improbable four coaches during that stretch. The original coach was Ed Sadowski, who also doubled as their leading scorer but quickly lost control of the roster, quit as coach, and was traded to the Cleveland Rebels. They finished the season 22-38, tied for last in the Eastern Division with the Celtics, and due to financial losses, ownership quickly folded the team. Starting point guard Mike McCarron stands as the franchise's all-time career leader in every major stat, including points, assists, field goals, and free throws (rebounds, blocks, and steals weren't being tracked) yet played just eight more games in his NBA career. When Toronto was awarded a new NBA franchise starting in the '95-'96 season, ownership initially wanted to revive the Huskies name but were worried that the logo would be too similar to the Minnesota Timberwolves and went with Raptors instead.
4) Detroit Falcons (1946-1947)
Sharing Olympia Stadium with the Red Wings (who themselves had briefly been called the Falcons in the early '30s), playing in the basketball hotbed of Detroit, and featuring one of the BAA's top stars in Stan Miasek, the Falcons are the most surprising entry amongst the one-and-done franchises. In fact, they were the first of four franchises to fold following the inaugural BAA season, calling it quits on July 10, 1947, a few months after finishing with the second worst record in the league, at 20-40. It was certainly not the fault of their star forward Miasek, who was named 1st-Team All-BAA and finished fourth in the league in scoring at 14.9 points per game. He was selected by the Chicago Stags in the dispersal draft and lasted five more seasons in the NBA. Meanwhile, local college stars like Michigan's Tom King and Michigan State's Chet Aubuchon struggled in the pro ranks and didn't draw fans as expected. Other than the poor effort in the standings, the other big problem for the Falcons is that they weren't the only pro basketball team kicking off play in Detroit in 1946. The Detroit Gems joined the NBL the same year and also barely survived one season, eventually getting sold to a Minnesota businessman who moved them to Minneapolis to become the Lakers. A decade later, the Fort Wayne Pistons moved to Detroit, and pro basketball has been a steady presence in the Motor City ever since.
5) Indianapolis Jets (1948-1949)
6) Indianapolis Olympians (1949-1953)
Before the BAA and NBL merged officially in 1949, four teams jumped ship from the NBL to join the BAA one year early. Three of those teams - the Lakers, the Kings (then the Royals), and the Pistons - are still in the NBA today. The fourth lasted just one season in the new league before giving way to a different franchise from the same city. Founded by an Indianapolis grocer named Frank Kautsky, the Indianapolis Kautskys began play in the National Professional Basketball League in 1931 and eventually joined the newly formed NBL in 1937. One of their early stars was a young John Wooden, but their time in the NPBL and NBL was otherwise unremarkable, and even included a three-year hiatus to retool their roster and business strategy. They still somehow made it to the BAA in 1948, changing their name to the Jets because of the league's rule against corporate team names. Their one season in the BAA went poorly, with player-coach Bruce Hale (future Miami Hurricanes coaching legend and father-in-law of Rick Barry) getting fired after a 4-13 start and subsequently traded to the Pistons. The Jets finished dead last in the Western Division at 18-42 and were cast aside by the BAA/NBL merger including a new franchise called the Indianapolis Olympians. Taking over the Jets' residency at the legendary Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Olympians were appropriately highlighted by two Olympics stars in 1948 gold medalists Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, who had also won back-to-back titles together at Kentucky. In fact, the original Olympians roster featured six players from those Wildcats title teams (including the entire "Fabulous Five"), along with the successful return of Hale as just a player this time. They had a successful first season, finishing with the top record in the Western Division and making it to the Division Finals, where they were upset in a best-of-three by the Anderson Packers. Groza was a certified star, getting named 1st-Team All-NBA in his first two seasons, and finishing second behind George Mikan for the scoring title each time. But he and Beard were charged in 1951 for taking bribes as part of the CCNY point shaving scandal. NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff immediately suspended them for life and the Olympians never recovered, struggling to compete in the '51-'52 and '52-'53 seasons before finally folding. Despite the strong history of basketball in the city, Indianapolis would have to wait 14 years to get another pro team when the Pacers joined the ABA.
7) St. Louis Bombers (1946-1950)
One of the charter members of the BAA in 1946, the Bombers got off to a solid start thanks to guard Johnny Logan, who was named 2nd-Team All-BAA in his first three seasons. They started off the '46-'47 season with a 20-7 record but struggled down the stretch and were eventually eliminated in the postseason quarterfinals by the eventual champion Warriors. Led again by Logan and future All-Star Red Rocha, they were champions of the Western Division in '47-'48 and received a bye to the semifinals, but once again ran up against a superior foe in Philadelphia, who defeated them in a best-of-seven series that went the full distance but ended with the Bombers losing the decisive final game on their home court by 39 points. After the BAA and NBL merged into the NBA in 1949, a franchise savior appeared in the form of Ed Macauley, a local legend at the high school and college levels that the Bombers selected with their territorial pick in the 1949 draft. Macauley lived up to the hype, finishing seventh in the NBA in scoring in his rookie season, but St. Louis struggled in the newly wide-open league, which had just expanded to 17 teams. They slipped to last place in the Central Division and ceased operations once the season ended. Macauley moved on to a Hall of Fame career with the Celtics, while Rocha found success with the Nationals. Logan, who was on the verge of turning 30, played just one more mediocre season with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, who would eventually move to St. Louis in 1955.
8) Providence Steam Rollers (1946-1949)
Taking their name from a Providence-based football team that won the NFL title in 1928 (before the NFL began officially recognizing a championship game), the Steam Rollers were the last major pro team from Rhode Island. The name turned out to be a cruelly ironic one, as Providence was arguably the worst franchise in NBA history, regularly steam rolled by opponents. They lasted three seasons in the old BAA, missed the playoffs each time, and finished with an overall record of 46-122, good for a winning percentage of 27.3%. Their winning percentage of 12.5% in '47-'48 stood as the NBA record for almost 25 years before the '72-'73 76ers mercifully bested (worsted?) it. One notable impressive feat that the Steam Rollers can claim is that they did feature the first player to lead the NBA in assists per game, Ernie Calverley, who did so with 3.4 per game in '46-'47. They also live on as the team for which the oldest player in NBA history suited up, but that one is a mixed bag. Nat Hickey had been a legend in the barnstorming days and coached the Indianapolis Kautskys (soon to be Jets) for some time in the NBL. The Steam Rollers hired him midway through their infamous '47-'48 season, when they held a 2-17 record. When they failed to improve under his leadership, Hickey threw caution to the wind and took the court just before his 46th birthday, playing atrociously in two games before returning to just coaching. Soon after folding the franchise in 1949, owner Louis Pieri was approached by Celtics owner Walter Brown to buy a minority stake in the struggling franchise. Pieri agreed on the condition that his friend, Red Auerbach, would be hired as coach, forever changing the trajectory of NBA history.
9) Pittsburgh Ironmen (1946-1947)
10) Cleveland Rebels (1946-1947)
For one brief season in the BAA, the Cleveland-Pittsburgh rivalry spilled out into the world of basketball. The Cleveland Rebels and Pittsburgh Ironmen were both charter members of the BAA, but both also lasted only season before folding. They met six times during that season, with the Rebels prevailing in four of them. Wins were hard to come by in general for the Ironmen, who finished with the league's worst record at 15-45. Cleveland had more success, finishing with a 30-30 record, good enough to clinch a playoff spot as the third place team in the Western Division. They were the only one of the four one-and-done charter BAA franchises to reach the postseason, but lost in their quarterfinal series to the Knicks. Neither the Ironmen nor Rebels managed to turn a profit and their owners each decided to refocus on just pro hockey. Cleveland's best player, Ed Sadowski, was taken by the Celtics in the dispersal draft and went on to a solid career for three more seasons. The city would receive another crack at an NBA franchise 34 years later when the Cavaliers joined the league. Pittsburgh would eventually got another pro team too, but it was the Condors of the ABA, who lasted four seasons before folding well ahead of the merger.
11) Denver Nuggets (1949-1950)
Like the Baltimore Bullets and Indianapolis Jets, the Nuggets already had a long and varied history before they joined the NBA. They began life as an AAU squad back in the early '30s before finally joining the NBL in 1948. Despite finishing in last place in the NBL standings in '48-'49, the Nuggets were one of six teams that made the 1949 transition to the NBA as part of the BAA-NBL merger. They participated in the very first post-merger NBA game, losing on the road to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, which was a result indicative of their brief NBA tenure. As the first NBA team west of the Mississippi (and the only until the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960), the Nuggets had by far the most brutal road schedule in the league, and it showed. They lost their first 15 games of the season, 11 of them by double digits, and finished the year with a 1-24 road record (the lone win coming against the Sheboygan Red Skins). Denver finished the season 11-51 overall, which was the worst record in the league by a full eight games. Though the franchise technically disbanded after the season ended, many of the players and coaches regrouped to play as the Denver Refiners for one season in the National Professional Basketball League before shuttering for good. The Nuggets name lives on, of course, as Denver received a charter ABA franchise in 1968 called the Rockets, who changed their name to Nuggets in 1974 ahead of the pending ABA-NBA merger to avoid confusion with the Houston Rockets. None of the original Nuggets had much future success in their pro basketball careers, but one team member, Morris Udall, did move on to became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and ran for president in 1976.
12) Sheboygan Red Skins (1949-1950)
13) Waterloo Hawks (1949-1950)
14) Anderson Packers (1949-1950)
As previously mentioned, the NBL actually predated the BAA by nine years, beginning play in 1937, made up mostly of Midwestern corporate-sponsored all-star teams (the inaugural NBL championship featured the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars). The Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Red Skins were one of the premier NBL franchises, reaching the league finals five times (only their cross-state rivals in Oshkosh played in more), winning the championship in 1943, and featuring future Hall of Famers Buddy Jeannette and Bobby McDermott. The Anderson (Illinois) Packers and Waterloo (Iowa) Hawks were much newer franchises on the scene at the time of the 1949 merger. In fact, the Hawks played just one season in the NBL and missed the playoffs before they were brought over to the NBA, becoming the first and only pro team in the four major sports in Iowa history. The Packers had begun life in 1946 as the Duffey Packers, named after their owner brothers, the Duffeys, who had founded a meat-packing plant. They won the last championship in NBL history, defeating Oshkosh in a finals sweep in 1949. The NBA was not particularly kind to the Red Skins, who became the smallest-market team in league history, or Hawks, who became the second-smallest, as they both finished with winning percentages below .400. Sheboygan inexplicably somehow still made the playoffs, but were quickly dispatched by the Indianapolis Olympians. The Packers fared much better, finishing in second place in the Western Division and winning playoff series over the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Indianapolis Jets before falling to George Mikan and the powerhouse Lakers in the league semifinals. Despite the divergent results, all three franchises were dispelled from the NBA after just one season and joined the newly minted National Professional Basketball League. They finished with the league's top three records in the regular season standings, but the NPBL folded before a postseason could be conducted. While the Hawks and Packers folded permanently at that point, the Red Skins made a go at returning to their barnstorming roots, but found that the old semi-pro business model was no longer viable as the NBA was gaining popularity. Though all three franchises technically left the NBA on their own volition, it has always been rumored that they were forced out by commissioner Maurice Podoloff after big city teams like the Knicks and Celtics threatened to ditch the NBA themselves if they had to continue to travel to small, Midwestern markets to play games.
15) Washington Capitols (1946-1951)
We end with the franchise that is arguably the most surprising in retrospect to fold, and had the most easily avoidable issues that led to its downfall. Featuring the legendary Red Auerbach at coach with 1st-Team All-BAA honorees Bones McKinney and Bob Feerick on the floor, the Capitols were easily the best BAA team in the inaugural '46-'47 regular season. They won 17 straight games at one point, an NBA record that would stand for over two decades, and finished the season at 49-11, a full 10 games ahead of the second best team. But the playoffs were a different story, as the Capitols were upset in six games in the league semifinals by the Chicago Stags. After a disappointing finish in '47-'48, missing the postseason entirely, the Capitols were as good as ever in '48-'49. They won 15 straight games to start the season, a record that would stand until 2015 (it was tied by the Rockets in 1993, then finally broken by the '15-'16 Warriors) and reached the BAA Finals, where they ran into the immovable object George Mikan and fell valiantly against the Lakers in six games. Sensing the changing nature of the game and the merger with the NBL imminent, Auerbach came to management with several roster demands before the '49-'50 season, including inviting several prominent black players to attend team try-outs. Owner Mike Uline declined, leading to Auerbach resigning and eventually joining the Celtics, with whom he'd win nine championships as coach (he had brief stops in-between as an assistant with Duke and with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks). The Capitols installed Feerick as a player-coach and couldn't sustain their success. They finished below .500 in '49-'50 and were swept in the first round of the playoffs. Things went even worse in '50-'51, despite drafting future Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, and the Capitols were forced to fold halfway through the season, with a record of 10-25. It took 22 years for Washington to get another NBA franchise, when the Bullets moved to D.C. from Baltimore in 1973. Though the Capitols didn't heed Auerbach's advice in 1949 and give try-outs to black players, they did break the color barrier one year later, when Earl Lloyd suited up for their '50-'51 season opener.