What if an entire NBA team died?

As you have probably read the title by now, you may have already guessed that this week's blog post will be a little bit dark. The title really must have intrigued you. I may only be asking "What if an NBA team died?" as a hypothetical question, but however, there once was a team where this almost became a reality. This topic may be a bit morbid and the NBA does want fans to forget this dark tragedy and discussion. As crazy as it sounds, this actually almost happened, back in the 1960s. The incident occurred with the Lakers, at the time when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis rather than Los Angeles.

Minneapolis Lakers (the 1960s)

The team was just about to head back from taking a loss to the St. Louis Hawks. The loss was the last thing the Lakers' minds as they were about to board the plane. They few nervously in a frozen twin-propeller plane which began suffering an electrical failure after takeoff. It was a dark and dangerous night, with a cold blizzard as a burden. What makes this night even worse and much creepier, is the fact that one of the players were in possession of an Ouija board and was playing with it moments before complications on the plane began to occur. Co-pilot Harold Gifford claimed, "For a time, we weren't sure if we'd make it". Luckily, they eventually made it and barely landed safely in an Iowa cornfield.

Now, what would happen if an entire NBA team actually ended up dying? The NBA holds what is called a "Disaster Draft" if an incident occurred where 5 or more players were to be dismembered. Nobody knew this rule existed mainly because the NBA would not want a young audience to see the league in that way. The purpose of the Disaster Draft is to replace the individuals who were lost.  The rest of the teams that were unaffected by the disaster are allowed to protect five players. Though, the team that was affected would only be able to pick 1 player from a single roster of each team. This Disaster Draft would really hurt teams that are on the rise up of rebuilding and the team that was affected by the disaster, which chooses the players, still has the liberty of picking members of stacked teams, allowing them to build their own empire. That is what makes this rule extreme. The reminder that 5 players make big difference.