The Baltimore Claws was an American Basketball Association team. After the 1974_75 season, a group of Maryland businessmen bought the moribund Memphis Sounds franchise (which the ABA league officers had taken over midway through the previous season) and relocated it to Baltimore. After the league objected to the new owners' first choice of a nickname, "Hustlers," it was changed to "Claws."
Hustlers or Claws, the Baltimore team lasted all of three preseason games.
The team was to play the 1975-76 season at the Baltimore Arena. But almost immediately after the move, the franchise began to implode: missed paydays to players, scant meal money, and no rent payments to the city of Baltimore, which owned the arena. On Oct. 20, five days before the start of the season, the city padlocked the team's office at the arena and the ABA ordered the franchise shut down, its players to be distributed to the nine surviving teams in a dispersal draft. (Before going their separate ways, the former Indiana Pacers star Mel Daniels recalled in Terry Pluto's book "Loose Balls," players were allowed to take equipment and furniture from the team office in lieu of payment.)
The collapse of the Claws began a chain reaction that, in short order, sparked the dissolution of the San Diego Sails (the rechristened Conquistadors) and Utah Stars early in the season, abruptly shrinking the 10-team league to seven.
Baltimore Harbor is one of the best protected deepwater seaports in the world, with the Delmarva Peninsula shielding the area from most hurricanes and tropical storms, and the Appalachian Mountains protecting the city from much of the winter cold that would freeze the harbor.
Baltimore grew swiftly in the mid- to late 18th century as the granary for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean.
Baltimore is on the northern end of the humid subtropical climate zone, according to the Köppen classification, with moderating influence from its relative proximity to the ocean.
The BaltimoreClaws was an American basketball team, which was supposed to appear in the 1975-76 season in the American Basketball Association.
On Oct. 20, five days before the start of the season, the city padlocked the team's office at the arena and the ABA ordered the franchise shut down, its players to be distributed to the nine surviving teams in a dispersal draft.
The collapse of the Claws began a chain reaction that, in short order, sparked the dissolution of the San Diego Sails (the rechristened San Diego Conquistadors) and Utah Stars early in the season, abruptly shrinking the 10-team league to seven; and ultimately spelling the demise of the league at the end of the 1975-76 season.
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