The Floridians

NBA team
name = The Floridians
conference = None
division = Eastern Division
founded = 1967
history = Minnesota Muskies
1967-1968
Miami Floridians
1968-1970
The Floridians
1970-1972
arena = Miami Beach Convention Hall ,
Miami-Dade Junior College North,
Dinner Key Auditorium,
Curtis Hixon Hall,
Bayfront Arena,
Jacksonville Coliseum| city = Miami, Florida
colors = Burnt Orange and Magenta
color box|#CC5500 color box|magenta
coach = Harold Blitman
1970
Bob Bass
1971-1972
| General Manager = Dennis Murphy
owner = Ned Doyle
affiliate = None

The Floridians were a professional basketball franchise in the original, now-defunct American Basketball Association. The Floridians began as the Minnesota Muskies in 1967 and then played in the ABA from 1968 through 1970 as the Miami Floridians and as simply The Floridians from 1970 through 1972. The team had two color schemes: their original red, blue, and white, and their later black, magenta, and orange.

The Miami Floridians were the new name of the charter ABA franchise formerly known as the Minnesota Muskies, who played in Bloomington, Minnesota at the Met Center and wore blue and gold. The Floridians never did attract a large following, but the team did manage to make the playoffs three out of the four years of their existence. The 1968-69 season was the most successful for the Miami Floridians by far, finishing their first season in Florida with a 43-35 record and defeating the Minnesota Pipers in the Eastern Division semifinals 4 games to 3 before losing in the divisional finals to the Indiana Pacers 4 games to 1.

The 1969-1970 season was largely forgettable for the Miami Floridians. The team missed the playoffs and the team was forced to play its "home" games in several cities: Miami at the Miami Beach Convention Hall, Tampa-St. Petersburg at the Curtis Hixon Hall and Bayfront Arena, Jacksonville at the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum, West Palm Beach, even, briefly, at Dinner Key Auditorium. The team's original owner sold the Miami Floridians at the end of the season and from that point on, the team was simply known as "The Floridians".

The Floridians' 1970-71 season was better than that of the previous year, but it was obvious that even a slight name change, new colors and uniforms, and oddball promotions such as bikini-clad ballgirls wasn't going to make South Florida a pro basketball hotbed. The team finished the season with a losing 37-47 record, yet still qualified for the playoffs. The Floridians, predictably, lost their series to the Kentucky Colonels, 4 games to 2. In The Floridians' final ABA season, the 1971-72 team again managed a losing record (36-48) but again managed to make the playoffs. The Floridians, once again, lost in the opening round by virtue of a sweep to the stronger, Julius Erving-led Virginia Squires, 4 games to none.

Declining fortunes both on and off the basketball court sealed the demise of the Floridians franchise. At the end of the 1971-1972 season, a group (led by Cincinnati lawyer Ron Grinker) made a bid for the franchise in hopes of relocating the team to Cincinnati after the void left by the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA when they moved to Kansas City. The plan was to offer the public shares in the team. Grinker was quoted as saying, "I'd like to have 5,000 owners of the ball club so we could have 5,000 people at the gate".

But Floridians owner Ned Doyle disbanded the franchise instead and another professional basketball team would not emerge in Florida until the 1988 expansion Miami Heat played their first NBA season. The Orlando Magic followed a year later. The Heat wore replicas of the 1970-71 Floridians uniforms for seven dates in 2005-06 as part of the NBA's "Hardwood Classics" program. During these games Heat dancers wore bikinis with white go-go boots like their Floridian predecessors.

External links

* [http://www.remembertheaba.com/Floridians.html Remembering the ABA: The Floridians]
* [http://www.nba.com/heat/multimedia/heat_floridians_index.html Miami Heat Floridians website]