An NBA Atlas · 1946–2014
Every franchise relocation in NBA history, told in the visual language of its own decade. Scroll on — the page changes with the times.
1946–1956
The BAA and NBL merge and a young league finds its feet — small-market clubs chasing big-city gate receipts, and the map already redrawing itself.
3 entriesThe Gems lasted exactly one NBL season, winning just four of 44 games — a record that still ranks among the worst in pro basketball history. In 1947 Minnesota businessmen Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen bought the wreckage for $15,000, carried it to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and rebranded it the Lakers. The name stuck so hard it survived the eventual move to Los Angeles — a city not famous for its lakes.
The Hawks left the Tri-Cities — Moline, Rock Island and Davenport — shortly before the area picked up a fourth town and became the Quad Cities. The franchise got out just ahead of the recount.
Four years in Milwaukee, no titles, modest crowds. The Hawks packed for St. Louis and kept the name — though this particular bird was nowhere near done migrating.
1957–1968
Russell's Celtics against Wilt's scoring binges: integration, the first true superstar rivalry — and a league scattering west for new markets.
7 entriesNamed for owner Fred Zollner's piston foundry in Fort Wayne, the Pistons moved to the Motor City and became the rare franchise whose name made more sense after the move. Sixty-odd years on, it still fits perfectly.
The Royals had won it all in Rochester in 1951, but a small arena and a smaller market sent them to Cincinnati. This was merely the first leg: the franchise would eventually call five cities home.
Pro basketball's first West Coast franchise. Minneapolis had given the league its first dynasty; Los Angeles gave it sunshine, courtside celebrities, and a team name that has confused geography students ever since.
In March, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game for Philadelphia. By autumn the Warriors were in San Francisco anyway — proof that not even the greatest stat line in sports history can argue with a better arena deal. Wilt went with them.
Chicago's second crack at an NBA franchise lasted two seasons under two names — Packers, then Zephyrs — before blowing east to Baltimore as the Bullets. Chicago's third attempt, the Bulls, finally took.
Philadelphia spent exactly one season without pro basketball before lifting Syracuse's Nationals and renaming them for 1776. The city that had just lost the Warriors replaced them inside twelve months — the fastest rebound on this page.
Move number three for basketball's most migratory bird. St. Louis had given the Hawks their only championship; Atlanta offered a bigger market and — fittingly for a bird in constant flight — one of the world's busiest airports.
1969–1979
Red, white and blue basketballs, the 1976 merger, and a Wild West decade. Texas joins the league and franchises shuffle like a funk bassline.
7 entriesChristened in San Diego for the city's rocket-building industry, the franchise moved to Houston — home of Mission Control — and accidentally produced the most aerospace-accurate name in sports. The only relocation in league history improved by NASA proximity.
Renamed from Royals to Kings to avoid clashing with Kansas City's baseball team, then split home games with Omaha — briefly the only franchise in the league whose home town contained a hyphen. Omaha lasted three seasons; from 1975 they were simply the Kansas City Kings.
Dallas had grown so indifferent to its ABA Chaparrals that the team was essentially lent to San Antonio to see if anyone there cared. Verdict: five NBA championships and the most devoted fan base in Texas. Dallas declines to discuss it.
Three names in one city: Capital Bullets on arrival, Washington Bullets a year later, and — once the owner decided 'Bullets' was no longer a name worth advertising — Washington Wizards from 1997.
A year earlier the Nets had sold Julius Erving — three-time ABA MVP — just to afford the NBA's entry fee. Then they left Long Island too. Nassau County lost the best show in basketball and the team that sold him, all within a year.
Owner Irv Levin wanted to live in California, so he swapped entire franchises with the owner of the Boston Celtics — the only deal in NBA history where the trade asset was the team itself. Buffalo's Braves sailed west and became the Clippers, named for the tall ships in San Diego's harbour.
The Jazz carried the most New Orleans word in the English language to Salt Lake City, a town not historically celebrated for its brass sections. The name stayed; the genre never followed. The Lakers, at least, finally had company.
1980–1992
The golden age. Boston green against Showtime gold, the TV explosion, Jordan's arrival — while the Clippers and Kings slip quietly into new homes.
2 entriesDonald Sterling moved the Clippers up the coast without asking the league's permission. The NBA sued, thought better of it, and Los Angeles woke up with a second team. The Lakers barely noticed for thirty years.
After Rochester, Cincinnati, Omaha and Kansas City, the league's most travelled franchise finally rolled into Sacramento — and then, against every instinct in its corporate DNA, stayed. Four decades and counting.
1993–1999
Three-peats, a lockout, and global expansion — and not a single moving truck. The most dominant stretch in league history stays exactly where it is.
0 relocationsWhile Jordan three-peated — twice — the map stood frozen. Between the Kings settling in Sacramento in 1985 and the Grizzlies leaving Vancouver in 2001, not a single NBA franchise changed cities: the longest stretch of geographic calm in league history.
2000–2015
Moneyball thinking reaches the NBA and the map thaws — Vancouver and Charlotte feel it first. Superteams form, arena economics rule the spreadsheets, and one hurricane forces a detour.
8 entriesHalf of the NBA's 1995 Canadian experiment gave up after six seasons. The Grizzlies took their name to Memphis, where wild grizzlies are in famously short supply — proudly upholding the naming tradition of the Lakers and the Jazz.
Charlotte didn't stay empty for long — the league handed the city an expansion team, the Bobcats, in 2004. A decade later, that team took the Hornets name back.
Hurricane Katrina forced the franchise out of New Orleans; Oklahoma City played host while the city rebuilt.
The detour ends and the Hornets head home full-time — though Oklahoma City had just spent two seasons proving it could host an NBA team. Remember that.
Oklahoma City's audition paid off. After a lawsuit and a settlement, the Sonics' forty-one years in Seattle ended with the franchise heading for the plains — though Seattle kept the name, the colours and the banners, like a divorce where one side keeps all the photo albums.
When the Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957, big-league sport left Brooklyn with them. The Nets ended the borough's 55-year wait.
A rebrand, not a relocation — and a rare move toward accuracy: the brown pelican is Louisiana's state bird. Somewhere in Utah, the Jazz took careful notes and changed nothing.
The 2004 expansion Bobcats took back the Hornets identity, and the league returned the original Charlotte records along with it — the only case on this page of a city repossessing its own past.
2016–present
The three-point revolution, load management, and social-media stars. The map, for once, holds still.
0 relocationsNo NBA franchise has changed cities since the Nets crossed the river to Brooklyn in 2012. Thirty teams, zero moving trucks — and a Seattle-shaped hole that the rumour mill keeps trying to fill.