Louisville, Kentucky Colonels Expansion Team to Join the NBA?

How close is the home of Kentucky Fried Chicken and boxer Muhammad Ali to gaining an NBA franchise?

The are many contenders vying to become the NBA’s next expansion franchise.

Favourites are the Seattle SuperSonics who would represent the West.

The favourite for NBA expansion into the Eastern Conference is Louisville, a city which hasn’t seen pro basketball since the days of the Kentucky Colonels.

Related: Seattle SuperSonics Expansion Team Rejoins the NBA? When We Can Expect a Return

Kentucky Colonels History
Louisville, Kentucky was home to the Kentucky Colonels, with a rich history as one of the most successful ABA franchises.

The Colonels also lays claim to three basketball Hall of Famers in Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore and Louie Dampier.

In front of over 16,000 fans at Freedom Hall, the Colonel’s would clinch the 1975 ABA Championship.

Despite having one of the ABA’s best fanbases, they along with the Spirits of St. Louis would fold in 1976 missing out on merging into the NBA.

The Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets and San Antonio Spurs would all be a part of the ABA-NBA merger and create the NBA as we know it today.

Why Louisville, Kentucky for the Next NBA Expansion Franchise
The franchise was ready to make the leap into the NBA during the NBA-ABA merger however due to strong pressure mainly from the Chicago Bulls, owner John Y. Brown cashed in on the franchise, selling star players and accepting a buyout in the process.

Decades later, Louisville was heavily favoured to take on the Grizzlies franchise following relocation from Vancouver in 2001 but ended up in Memphis instead.

Louisville was also in the running for the NBA’s 30th franchise but would ultimately end up in Charlotte in 2004.

President of the Louisville Basketball Investment & Support Group and Colonels Hall of Famer Dan Issel believes that Louisville is ready to host the next NBA team.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we would be able to support an NBA team in this area”, Issel said in early 2020.

The state of the art 22,000+ capacity KFC Yum! Center, home to the Louisville Cardinals, is NBA ready.

Although Louisville is a small market area it is a bigger market than New Orleans and Memphis.

Louisville, Kentucky NBA Team Name
A Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor that can be bestowed upon in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It’s therefore the perfect name for a Louisville NBA expansion team considering there are no major league professional sports teams in Kentucky, or Louisville for that matter right now.

Another name that could be considered is the Kentucky Buckets, a double entendre to ‘scoring buckets’ in basketball and wordplay on paying homage to the home of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The Louisville Liberty is another possibility that 2k franchise fans will know all too well.

Whatever the name is to be, Louisvillians won’t give a damn. So long as they have an NBA team to support.