Tuesday trivia
Okay hoops fans, time to test your knowledge
I’m going to start something new tonight that is planned to be a weekly item. As you can see above it’s Tuesday trivia.
Every Tuesday, I’ll post a 10-question sports trivia quiz. The answers will follow later in each post.
The plan is to have a theme each time.
The Timberwolves have certainly been a hot topic recently, so the theme for this first quiz is professional basketball in Minnesota.
It didn’t strike me until I was done with the questions that they all are about men’s basketball. Maybe I’ll try to put together a women’s basketball quiz sometime during the Lynx season.
The list of possible topics is endless. They could be local, regional, state, national or even global.
If you have any ideas on what you’d like to see as a theme, let me know. Contact me at sportsdr44@hotmail.com
Here we go.
1. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Loa Angeles in 1960. The Lakers actually had moved to Minneapolis from another location in 1949. Where did the franchise start?
2. George Mikan played for another pro basketball team George Mikan played for before the Minneapolis Lakers. Who was it?
3. Only one Laker player has been named Rookie of the Year and it came while the team was in Minneapolis. Who was it?
4. What non-NBA team did the Minneapolis Lakers play several games against?
5. Which former Minneapolis Laker was the first commissioner of the American Basketball Association?
6. After the Minnesota Muskies move to Florida after the ABA’s first season, what team replaced them?
7. Who was the Timberwolves’ first head coach?
8. Who was an assistant coach with the Wolves under Musselman who would later return to Minnesota as the head coach?
9. Who was the first player ever drafted by the Timberwolves?
10. Who was the Timberwolves’ leading scorer in their first season?
ANSWERS
1. The Lakers franchise started as the Detroit Gems, who played one season, 1946–47, in the Western Division of the National Basketball League. The NBL was a predecessor organization to the National Basketball Association. Following the season, in which the Gems had a 4-40 record and finished last in the league, the franchise was put up for sale. It was purchased for $15,000 by Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen and relocated to Minneapolis to become the Lakers.
2. After playing college basketball at DePaul, George Mikan played for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League. Gears owner Maurice White was so happy with the play of Mikan that, after winning the 1947 NBL title, he announced he was leaving the NBL to form his own league, the 24-team Professional Basketball League of America. The disastrous and unsustainable PBLA quickly went bankrupt, White’s Gears folded, and the entire roster was up for grabs, including Mikan, the best player in America.
The Lakers’ owners immediately demanded the No. 1 pick in the ensuing dispersal draft. After all, they argued, their franchise—as the Detroit Gems—had just finished dead-last in the NBL the previous season and needed all the help they could get. The argument worked. George Mikan and his glasses parachuted into Minneapolis.
3. Elgin Baylor was the Rookie of the Year in the 1958-1959 season when he averaged 24.9 points, 15.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists for the Lakers, who reached the NBA Finals to an up-and-coming team from Boston.
Two players who were later members of the Lakers won MVP awards, Wilt Chamberlain with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1960 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970. Magic Johnson was second in voting to Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics in 1980. Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals won the award in The Logo’s (Jerry West) rookie season in 1961.
4. The Lakers played the Harlem Globetrotters eight times, the first in 1948 and the last in 1958.
The first game was on Feb. 19, 1948, two years before professional basketball was desegregated. The Globetrotters' 61-59 victory on a basket by Ermer Robinson at the buzzer, challenged prevailing racial stereotypes about the abilities of black athletes.
The idea for the game was hatched by Globetrotters owner and coach Abe Saperstein and Lakers general manager Max Winter, two friends who both believed they had the best basketball team in the country.
The teams would play eight times. The Globetrotters won the first two and the Lakers the final six.
The series, with date, score and site in parenthesis:
02-19-1948: Harlem Globetrotters 61, Minneapolis Lakers 59 (Chicago Stadium)
02-28-1949: Harlem Globetrotters 49, Minneapolis Lakers 45 (Chicago Stadium)
03-14-1949: Minneapolis Lakers 66, Harlem Globetrotters 53 (Minneapolis Auditorium)
02-21-1950: Minneapolis Lakers 76, Harlem Globetrotters 60 (Chicago Stadium)
03-20-1950: Minneapolis Lakers 69, Harlem Globetrotters 54 (St. Paul Auditorium)
02-23-1951: Minneapolis Lakers 72, Harlem Globetrotters 68 (Chicago Stadium)
01-02-1952: Minneapolis Lakers 84, Harlem Globetrotters 60 (Chicago Stadium)
01-03-1958: Minneapolis Lakers 111, Harlem Globetrotters 100 (Chicago Stadium)
5. George Mikan was the ABA’s first commissioner and introduced the world to the three-point shot. The new league awarded three points from baskets made from 25 feet or more.
6. After the ABA’s first season the league champion Pittsburgh Pipers ironically relocated to Minnesota to play as the Minnesota Pipers for the 1968–69 ABA season, also its home games at Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington. The franchise would move back to Pittsburgh after one season in Minnesota.
7. Bill Musselman coached the Wolves for their first two seasons, compiling a record of 51-113. Team President Bob Stein said Musselman, who had a year left on his contract, was fired because he refused to play young players enough and because he 'couldn't communicate' with his team.
8. Tom Thibodeau, who was also fired after the team’s second season under Musselman, coached the Wolves through the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons and was dismissed 40 games into the 2018-2019 season. He had a record of 97-107. He’s tied for third in wins for Minnesota with Rick Adelman, trailing Flip Saunders (427) and Chris Finch (160).
9. Jerome "Pooh" Richardson Jr. was selected No. 10 by the Timberwolves in 1989. His nickname came from his grandmother, who thought he resembled Winnie the Pooh. He played 10 seasons in the NBA, three with Minnesota, two with the Indiana Pacers and five with the Los Angeles Clippers.
10. Tony Campbell averaged 23.2 points per game in the 1989-90 season. Also averaging in double figures that season were Tyrone Corbin (14.7), Sam Mitchell (12.7), Pooh Richardson (11.4) and Lake City native and former Minnesota Gopher Randy Breuer (10.22).