Winter Auction 2016 Closing January 30th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/31/2016
Hound Dog McClain donned this practice jersey during the Buffalo Braves final season before they moved to San Diego and became the Clippers. The Braves were McClain's fifth pro club and the last season of the Buffalo Braves turned into a memorable one. Team owner John Brown had grown dissatisfied with attendance in Buffalo. Since he wanted to stay on the east coast, relocating his franchise was out of the question because the major cities already had an NBA team. In what has to be one of the oddest franchise swaps in sports history, Brown met with Boston Celtics owner Irv Levin who wanted to move to California. Since the NBA would never allow the Celtics to move out of Boston, Levin and Brown swapped teams - Levin moving the Braves to San Diego and becoming the Clippers while Brown stayed close to home as the Celtics new owner! This unique Columbia blue and white jersey was made reversible, enabling it to be used for both home and road games. The blue road side has "BUFFALO" and McClain's number "12" silk screened in white and the home white side has "BRAVES" and the number "12" in blue. Overall the jersey shows good practice use. The colors are still quite bold and the screen printing ink is still solid and intact. All-in-all this piece is in great shape for being an almost 40 year-old practice jersey. Comes with Letter of authenticity from Ted McCLain.