History
Originally entering the CBA as an expansion franchise in the 1982-83 season, the Patroons won league championships in 1984 and 1988, defeating the Wyoming Wildcatters in both instances.
NBA head coach Phil Jackson won his first championship ring when he guided the Albany Patroons to the 1984 CBA championship. Walter (Walt The Stalt) Williams was named MVP of the series and went on to become a key assistant coach to Jackson. Jackson would later win NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
In 1988, the Patroons won a second championship, this time under head coach Bill Musselman. Musselman would later coach the Minnesota Timberwolves, and several Patroons from the 1987-88 championship year - including Rick Carlisle, Scott Brooks, Tod Murphy, Tony Campbell and Sidney Lowe - played on those early Timberwolves squads.
Three years later, the Patroons completed a 50-6 regular season, including winning all 28 of their home games; at that time, George Karl was the Patroons' head coach. Future NBA stars Mario Elie and Vincent Askew were part of that 50-6 squad.
During the Patroons' time in the CBA, they won two CBA championships and five Eastern Division regular season titles. For the 1992-93 season, the Patroons were renamed the Capital Region Pontiacs, as the team received sponsorship from the local car dealerships. After that season, the franchise was relocated to Connecticut, where it played for 1½ years as the Hartford Hellcats.
Other notable basketball coaches that have coached the Patroons are Bob Thomason and Bruce Brown.
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“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)