The NBA officially formed in 1946 with the original teams:

 

Eastern Division

 

Boston Celtics

New York Knicks

Philadelphia Warriors

Providence Steamrollers

Toronto Huskies

Washington Capitols

 

Western Division

 

Chicago Stags

Cleveland Rebels

Detroit Falcons

Pittsburgh Ironmen

St. Louis Bombers

 

Of the eleven original teams in the league only three lasted.  Chicago was not one of them.

 

Here is a link to the timeline of the NBA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_National_Basketball_Association.

 

Chicago had two franchises prior to the Bulls. One dissolved and the other moved out of town.

The Chicago Bulls were an expansion team when I was a kid.  The first year with the exception of one game they played in the 9,000 seat Chicago Amphitheatre.  The other game was at the 7,000 seat Chicago Coliseum.  In the next season moved to the Chicago Stadium with seating of just under 19,000 for basketball.  Those early years attendance was not too good despite making the playoffs their first season in the league.  To get people interested in coming the Bulls hosted a second event on various game nights including The Harlem Globetrotters, wheelchair basketball, and professional table tennis.  They arranged bus trips to home games to pick up at various restaurants to make it easier for fans to attend games where parking was limited.

 

The Bulls and the NBA did not start hitting the attendance levels for a number of years.  Also, the oldest franchise in the NBA was not even an original member of the league. According to this web site, https://www.oldest.org/sports/nba-teams/ the Sacarmento Kings are the oldest franchise starting in 1923 as the Rochester Seagrams.  After location moves Cincinati, Kansas City and Omaha simultaneoursly the Sacramento and name chages from the Seagrams to the Eber Seagrams to the Royals then the Kings along with starting in other  leagues.

 

What did help attendance was the players they drafted from either college or the American Basketball Association dispersal.  Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan to name a few.  They grew the international audience with the likes of Yao Ming and various European players.  It would also be noted that the game adapted to the styles of the new players, not the new players adapting to the style of the league.

 

The experience with growing up with an expansion team gives me a perspective on the WNBA and how Caitin Clark helps me see her league.

 

Next, we will look at some of the history of the WNBA and some of the parallels of the NBA.