Raising a banner for the Buffalo Braves

This is a cause that has been near and dear to our hearts for almost this entire decade.

Back in 2000, when Buffalo Braves great Bob McAdoo was being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and when he chose to enter the Hall as a Buffalo Brave, Pete and I asked – When are we going to do the right thing here in Buffalo and retire his number?

Had the Braves not departed Buffalo, such an honor would have been a total no brainer. After all, McAdoo’s accomplishments as a player are worthy of HOF status, and match up against the greatest who ever played the game. But because the team was gone from Buffalo, there was no “political will” to get this done.

We took our case to several media representatives who were close to the Braves back in the day. We appealed to the Sabres upper management, and surprisingly, got a positive reception on the idea from our good friend Ron Bertovich, who wanted to shepherd the proposal through the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame Committee.

Meanwhile, through the course of our USRT travels, we got to meet up with McAdoo not once, but twice. In 2002 we dropped by the American Airlines Center and a practice/shootaround of the Miami Heat, where McAdoo serves as an Assistant Coach. Bob gave us a generous amount of time, and spoke passionately about the Buffalo Braves and his days in Buffalo. A year later, we were in Indianapolis at Conseco Fieldhouse, being feted by the Pacers front office on completing our USRT journey, and the Miami Heat just happened to be that night’s opponent. As were were walking around the arena still over two hours to tipoff, there was McAdoo, dressed in sweats, out on the court all by himself just shooting baskets. Pete and I walked out onto the court, Bob tossed Pete the basketball and the two of them just started playing a little shootaround.

I am not one to be mesmerized by athletes; when I cover Sabres games and walk into the dressing room, I see these young men and they look no different than the kids working the landscape crews in my neighborhood. The only difference being is that they possess a special skill for which the market pays ridiculous amounts of money.

Yet when we were down on that court, at Conseco Fieldhouse, with Bob McAdoo shooting baskets, I couldn’t help but be a bit weak at the knees, sharing this moment with one of the sports heroes of my childhood. It was an epic USRT happening.

The banner idea was put on the back burner when Sabres management changed hands. But with the Aud coming down, the release of an awesome new book on the Braves history written by Tim Wendel, and the recent sad news of the passing of Randy Smith, we thought this would be an ideal time to revive the idea and see if it gets any traction.

So check out this week’s Play Ball Sports Feature in Artvoice. With an extended column, we lay out the entire case for a Buffalo Braves banner at HSBC Arena in explicit detail.

Props to our Editor, Geoff Kelly, for working with us to make this a truly special piece. We also want to thank our cracker jack graphics person at Artvoice, Betsy Frazer. Betsy designed the prototype for a banner which appears with this post as well as with our article. She very alertly picked up the powder blue background, which was the Braves uniform color in the mid 70s, and added the familiar black and orange “B” logo which became the Braves’ symbol after the franchise’s first season. Added to the banner are the retired numbers of #9 Randy Smith and #11 Bob McAdoo.

Do you support the idea of this banner? If so, let the honchos at the Sabres – Tom Golisano, Larry Quinn and even Mike Gilbert know of your thoughts. Talk to representatives at the major media; mention the idea to your favorite elected official. It is time for this to happen. We need our voices to be heard.