by William Cook
It was ridiculous and apparent that the Royals needed to improve to stay ahead of Atlanta and Baltimore. Joe Axelson was stating that he was looking into some trades.
Meanwhile, it was a surprise to no one that Bob Cousy was once again blaming the Royals’ poor play on Sam Lacey, even though he had scored 18 points and had 17 rebounds in the win over Phoenix. In the past two games, Lacey had scored 35 points and grabbed 33 rebounds.
Everything was on Sam Lacey’s shoulders, Cousy and Joe Axelson expected him to carry the team. Next up for the Royals was the Boston Celtics in a game at Omaha, and Joe Axelson was telling the press that whether or not he makes a trade might depend on how the Royals do against the Celtics. What Axelson was really saying was it all depended on how Sam Lacey did against the Celtics.
“A big part of Sam’s problem,” said Cousy, “is that he’s not in the best of shape. I’m convinced that’s why he has been tiring. I’m going to run him, run him and run him.”6
It turned out that things didn’t go well for the Royals in the game at the Omaha Civic Auditorium witnessed by 6,035 fans. The Royals were behind the entire game and defeated by the Celtics 120–109 as Dave Cowens scored 30 points and had 19 rebounds. For the Royals, Sam Lacey had one field goal for 2 points and was simply unable to contain Cowens. Bob Cousy actually gave up on Lacey and replaced him with rookie Gil McGregor.
Following the game, Cousy was livid. Nate Archibald and Norm Van Lier had been sulking because Cousy had been starting Matt Guokas at guard. “The rookies, as well as the veterans, are letting it go in one ear and out the other,” said Cousy. “I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve got a bunch of prima donnas. Somebody gets their feelings hurt; we take a guy out of the game at a certain time and guys are sulking. It looks like we’re dealing with a bunch of 12-year-olds.”7
In regard to Dave Cowens pushing Sam Lacey around and then Gil McGregor, Cousy stated that it had been a rough game out there and it wasn’t all Lacey’s fault because Cowens is quicker than he is. But Cousy added, “They came to play and banged us around. And if [Lacey] and McGregor allow Cowens to intimidate them again next week, I’m going to fine them both $500.”8
Bob Cousy had a very young team; nine of his players had a total of three years’ NBA experience and for the third time in three years as coach of the Royals, at the preference of himself and Joe Axelson, he was starting the rebuilding process all over again. Cousy had hoped that his young players would adapt to the pro game quicker than they were. It was apparent that his patience in getting the job done was waning.
Sam Lacey was a good basketball player, so respected that eventually his number 44 would be retired by the Sacramento Kings and hang high above the rafters at Sacramento’s arena. But Bob Cousy was never going to turn Lacey into the new Bill Russell.
In a frantic attempt to keep the Royals’ 1971–72 season from going down the drain, two days after the loss to Boston at Omaha, Cousy and Axelson traded Norm Van Lier to the Chicago Bulls for Jim Fox, a 6′10″ center. Fox had been an eighth-round draft choice by the Royals in 1965 and later traded along with Happy Hairston to the Detroit Pistons for Tom Van Arsdale and John Tresvant.
Bob Cousy said that it was the most difficult trade he had ever had to make as Van Lier had given him 200%. That, of course, was an astronomical rating considering that Cousy felt Jerry Lucas had only given him 80%.
But with Nate Archibald starting to demonstrate the ability to control the ball and score a lot of points, Cousy was of the opinion that the team could not have two guards on the court who wanted to control the ball, so he traded Van Lier.
At the time, Norm Van Lier, a black man, was dating Cousy’s oldest daughter Marie, who met him when she came to Cincinnati from the east on vacations. So, there were some individuals who were convinced that Van Lier was traded to break up the couple’s interracial relationship. But Cousy denied that and told various people that Norm would have made a great son-in-law.
In regard to Jim Fox, Cousy stated, “Who knows, acquiring Fox might result in improvement in the play of Lacey and Darrall Imhoff. Neither has been playing up to his potential. If I have to, I’ll use three different players at center.”9
Cousy would have the opportunity to try his triple-platoon center strategy almost immediately on November 10 against the New York Knicks. Superstar center Willis Reed had been hobbling around with a sore knee, was sidelined most of the game, and only able to play the entire third quarter. As a result, the Royals, led by Nate Archibald with 22 points and Sam Lacey with 16 rebounds, defeated the Knicks 99–85.
Although the Royals had won, Bob Cousy was disappointed with Sam Lacey’s shooting performance. The big center had made only 4 field goals out of 14 attempts while being guarded by Jerry Lucas who had 21 rebounds and 17 points. Bob Cousy, not wanting to give much credit to the play of Jerry Lucas simply said that Lacey had been given a lot of chances and should have had a field day.
Sam Lacey was very aware of all the criticism of his play in the Cincinnati newspapers. “They can write anything they want,” said Sam. “I just don’t give a damn. I just play the best I can. I’m doing the best I can.”10 Lacey attributed his poor shooting performance against the Knicks to attempting to make hook shots while working inside. However, he had a tendency to palm the ball when he shot.
Jerry Lucas had been doing a great job filling in at center for the aching Willis Reed and did indeed put pressure on Lacey. Playing about 30 minutes a game since Reed became injured, Lucas was the Knicks’ leading rebounder with 236 grabs in 384 minutes played so far in the season.
Jerry Lucas’ business holdings had been considered by Bob Cousy to be an enormous distraction to his game. But by 1971, things weren’t going well in the world of hamburgers and milkshakes for Jerry Lucas. He was experiencing financial problems and been forced to declare bankruptcy in his business holdings when his fast-food franchise, Jerry Lucas Beef and Shakes, went belly-up. Then, following the 1970–71 season, the San Francisco Warriors traded Lucas to the New York Knicks for Cazzie Russell.
But in the Bob Cousy-Joe Axelson Cincinnati Royals saga it would be Jerry Lucas who had the last laugh. Critics of Lucas had pointed out that although he played on the Cincinnati Royals with Oscar Robertson, he never won a championship in his prime years and was traded twice. First, to the Golden State Warriors in 1969 for Jim King and Billy Turner because Bob Cousy wanted to put more speed and hustle into the Royals’ game. Then a little over a year later in May 1971, Lucas was traded by Warriors to the New York Knicks.
In 1972, Jerry Lucas would finally make it to the NBA Finals with the New York Knicks, but they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 1.
The next season in 1972–73, Jerry Lucas got his championship ring as the New York Knicks turned the tables on the Los Angeles Lakes, defeating them in the finals 4 games to 1. Lucas played a formidable role in the Knicks championship coming off the bench playing 28.2 minutes per game, averaging 9.9 points per game, 7.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists.
The night of the Royals vs. Knicks game, Cincinnati Gardens was only about 25% full with 3,483 fans in attendance. A curious situation occurred when, for some reason, there was considerable enthusiastic and loud support from those fans for the visiting New York Knicks. Sportswriters and others there for the game were amazed at this circumstance as various groups of fans in the arena were overpowering the sparse Royals fans in their vocal support of the Knicks. Many observers thought that perhaps all the cheering for the Knicks was actually Royals fans cheering for Jerry Lucas.
But when a few of the media members investigated, they discovered that the Knicks were being supported by several hundred college students who were from New York and New Jersey that attended the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. With the indifferent and passive attitude of the sparse Royals fans that night, the students’ boisterous support of the Knicks had literary turned a road game in Cincinnati Gardens into a home game for the New Yorkers.
Cousy wa
s very happy with the win and at the moment, the Royals clung to the Central Division lead by two games over Baltimore.
On November 27, another young NBA team that included a grizzled old veteran came to Cincinnati Gardens—they were reigning NBA champion, the Milwaukee Bucks. The largest crowd of the year, 8,858, showed up to witness the play of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson, and no one was surprised with the result. The Bucks defeated the Royals 114–81. It was the lowest point total scored by a Royals team since the Boston Celtics held the Royals to 87 points in a 1966 game.
Early in the fourth period, the Bucks led by 39 points when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was taken out of the game. Jabbar had scored 20 points with 16 rebounds for the night.
Oscar Robertson led the Bucks with 25 points and 14 assists. The Big O, who held almost every pro basketball record in Cincinnati Gardens, set another with 9 assists in the third quarter. Asked if it made any difference that he was playing against his old team, Robertson just shrugged his shoulders.
Circumstances for the Royals were about to get a lot worse. Between December 12, 1971, and January 9, 1972, the Royals would lose fourteen straight games leaving them with a season record of 10–31. Finally, on January 11, the Royals would defeat the Buffalo Braves 109–107 in overtime on a basket by Sam Lacey to end their agony. At that point, the season was half over, there were 40 games remaining, and to make the playoffs the Royals would need to win about two-thirds of them.
On February 16, Wilt Chamberlain scored 19 points for the Los Angeles Lakers in a losing effort vs. the Phoenix Suns. In the third period, Chamberlain became the first player in NBA history to score 30,000 points in his career. In a recent game, Chamberlain had surpassed Bill Russell’s career record for rebounds.
Two days later, on February 18, the Cincinnati Royals would begin another losing streak. This time the Royals lost eight games in a row leaving them with a season record of 18–44.
Then, suddenly the Royals went on a hot streak, winning four games in a row to make their record 22–44. Despite their poor record, they were only 6½ games behind Atlanta for second place.
After beating Buffalo 100–97 on February 24 at the University of Dayton arena in front of 2,422 fans, everyone seemed pumped up. Nate Archibald had scored 32 points and Tom Van Arsdale, 19. Sam Lacey, who had scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, was all smiles as he told the press, “We needed this one tonight. So we worked the last eight minutes. Everyone was after loose balls and rebounds.”11
The Royals then departed on a west coast road trip, February 25 to March 1, and lost four straight games in Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland (Golden State), and Houston to limp home with a record of 22–48.
For three months, as the Royals continued to flounder, Joe Axelson had been looking for a new home to relocate the team. On March 15, the players, their fans, and the community at large in Cincinnati got the disappointing news that the Royals were being moved to Kansas City next season.
Joe Axelson had received an offer to buy the Royals from Peter Graham, a San Diego financier. But it was turned down on the recommendation of Royals attorney Ambrose Lindhorst as unsatisfactory. Eventually, a group of ten Kansas City businessmen would buy the Royals for $5 million, but at the present, Max and Jeremy Jacobs still owned the Royals and would continue to control it throughout the transfer.
The only concern expressed by the Jacobs brothers in authorizing the franchise shift to Kansas City was in regard to Cincinnati Gardens, which they still owned. It was a no-brainer that they couldn’t sell hot dogs in an empty auditorium. The brothers were quickly relieved when informed by Axelson that for the coming year, the Gardens had about 200 days and nights of events booked including an ice show, circus, wrestling, the Harlem Globetrotters, and a few college basketball games, including the annual sell-out—a shootout between crosstown rivals, Cincinnati vs. Xavier.
While Ambrose Lindhorst held a somber and stuffy press conference in Cincinnati to announce the move of the Royals, Joe Axelson and his assistant, Larry Staverman, held a warm and fuzzy welcome wagon news conference in Kansas City. Staverman was familiar with the city as he had been a player with the Kansas City Steers in the defunct ABL.
Chastising Cincinnati and the Royals fans, Axelson remarked to the Kansas City press, “We have tried every promotion under the sun. But you can’t build a crowd on gimmicks. An average of 3,500 customers this year represents the NBA’s lowest attendance figure. This number also represents a drop of about 500 a game from last season. Kansas City is a good basketball town, Cincinnati is not. Xavier [University] and [The University of] Cincinnati have good basketball teams and don’t even fill small buildings with students getting in free.”12
The move of the franchise was a strange situation. In actuality, the Royals were not moving to Kansas City but were going to become a regional team playing in both Kansas City and Omaha. Since Kansas City already had a Major League Baseball team called the Royals, the name of the basketball team would be changed to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.
The plan was for the Kings to play 21 home games in Kansas City, ten in Omaha, and ten in St. Louis.
The act of becoming a regional team infuriated some of the Royals players. Tom Van Arsdale, the Royals players’ union representative, informed NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy and players’ association attorney Larry Fleisher that the move was bush and the players were threatening to fight it.
Van Arsdale told the press, “None of us are happy. How can you be happy playing 61 games on the road? It’s ridiculous.”13
Sam Lacey was taking the move more personal. “Hey you’re never home man,” said Lacey. “I don’t like the idea of moving anyway. I like the city. I’m used to it.”14
The San Francisco Warriors players had been confronted with a similar situation a year ago when the Warriors management wanted to play half their home games in San Diego and half in Oakland while changing the team name to the Golden State Warriors. To that end, players’ association attorney Larry Fleischer informed Walter Kennedy that the players were not going to be in a situation where they were a floating franchise. The team name was changed and a compromise was reached as the Warriors played all but six of their home games in Oakland.
Everybody had their opinion of what happened to cause the Royals to fail in Cincinnati. Some were saying that fans, angered by Bob Cousy and Joe Axelson trading Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas, stopped going to Royals games. Some blamed very difficult accessibility of getting to Cincinnati Gardens—it was a fact that there was very little public transportation to the Gardens. Others blamed the success of the Cincinnati Bengals, the rise of the Big Red Machine (Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, etc.), or the popularity of college basketball in the city with Cincinnati and Xavier.
Some explanations were downright silly, such as the notion advanced by Cincinnati Enquirer sportswriter Jim Schottelkotte that the domination of the sport by blacks had added to its demise in Cincinnati.15
The racial theory for the demise of the Royals in Cincinnati just doesn’t cut the mustard. When the Royals first made Cincinnati their home in 1957–58, they were a predominately white team and averaged 3,643 fans per game. Their last season in Cincinnati, in 1971–72, the Royals were a predominately black team and average home attendance was 3,688.
The reason for professional basketball failing in Cincinnati is more complex. There were some who felt the absentee ownership of Max and Jeremy Jacobs was a large part of the problem. It’s true that the Jacobs brothers were very busy running their concessions empire and relied heavily on Bob Cousy, Joe Axelson, and Ambrose Lindhorst to make autonomous business decisions relative to the Cincinnati Royals.
According to Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy was trusting Joe Axelson to make decisions on players, and he didn’t know a basketball from a pumpkin.
When Bob Cousy was asked what went wrong in Cincinnati, he replied, “Let’s blame it all on Joe Axelson, he’s dead so he can’t defend himself.”16
&
nbsp; While Cousy appears to be avoiding the issue, his suggestion could be taken as tongue-in-cheek. But forty-five years after the fact, the actions and non-actions of Joe Axelson appear to be pretty much the bottom line on the demise of the Cincinnati Royals. Joe Axelson did not know how to build a successful professional basketball team. Axelson was constantly jumping into empty pools with trades and draft choices that didn’t make any sense, and he didn’t have a clue on how to promote the team or the league. It was as if he was marketing challenged. Beyond that, Axelson kept appealing to absentee ownership in Buffalo to help him find the solution to the Royals’ difficulties rather than working with local entrepreneurs and local government officials.
There could have been a different outcome to the Royals’ dilemma if Joe Axelson had any business foresight rather than tunnel vision. In just a few years after the Royals left Cincinnati for Kansas City, a new 14,000-seat basketball/hockey arena was built downtown next door to Riverfront Stadium that was very accessible to fans throughout the city, suburbs, and Northern Kentucky by both public transportation and interstate highways. Parking was also part of the plan, and in the winter, 4,500 parking spaces would be available next door in Riverfront Stadium and an additional 18,000 parking spaces in downtown Cincinnati within ten minutes walking distance of the arena.
Furthermore, in the early 1970s, about the time Joe Axelson and Bob Cousy were packing their bags for Kansas City, Cincinnati was about to experience an urban renaissance as the city fathers continued to implement its 1948 Master Plan for development.
The construction on Riverfront Stadium that seated 60,000 for football and 52,000 for baseball, was completed at the same time that the construction of a new convention center opened which spawned lots of investment in new restaurants, bars, and three new hotels downtown; even the city’s historic public meeting place, Fountain Square, had been torn down and rebuilt. The core area of the city had become very popular with the 20-something crowd and “Yuppies.” There were rock concerts, a taste of Cincinnati festival, Oktoberfest, and a Labor Day extravaganza on the Ohio Riverfront that as a stand-alone event attracted nearly 250,000 persons annually and culminated with one of the largest pyrotechnical displays in the nation.