I've written quite a bit in this project so far about the humble beginnings of the NBA, when even the highest level of professional basketball was a hard blue collar sport, catering to the ruffian dayworkers who frugally saved slowly, bit by bit, for a better living. I've covered how a lot of today's big time glamor teams began as small, humble little operations in the most industrialized parts of what is now the Rust Belt: The Los Angeles Lakers originally formed as the Detroit Gems; today's Philadelphia … more