Baltimore’s secret of a great basketball tradition

By: Corey Johns

Ten years ago I walked into Lids at White Marsh Mall and saw a Baltimore Bullets hat. It was a simple throwback cap with a blue base with the logo and red brim. I didn’t buy it, I was a broke high school kid with no money to pay for it at the time but figured after I got my paycheck from my little part time job I had while I was 16-years-old I would be able to go spend the $24.99 plus-tax to get it.

Two weeks later I walked back into that same store, but to my dismay the hat was gone. I asked the cashier what happened to them and they told me they were sold out and the retro-hats go on a five-year rotation, so I would have to wait five years before I could ever buy that hat again at a Lids store or from their website.

I was so upset. I really wanted that hat.

I went home and went online to search for the exact hat I wanted, but could not find it. I saw other Baltimore Bullets hats but I did not like how they looked at all. Some had Bullets under the brim in thick block letters. Some had these different waves of red, white and blue. Some were multi-tone. Or they said Washington Bullets. But I’m from Baltimore, I did not want a Washington Bullets hat.

For five years I would walk into every hat store I walked past to browse their selection to see if by chance they had a Baltimore Bullets had. Shoe City, DTLR, Foot Locker anywhere with hats. Even Lids despite saying they would have have another one any time soon. I never found one and still could not find the one I wanted online anywhere. The plain red brim, blue top and logo.

After five years I went into Lids and asked when the hat would come back out. And I got even worse news: they no longer had the contract for the Baltimore Bullets and could no longer make them.

I was heart-broken. I really wanted that hat.

For another five years I would walk into every hat store looking. And I would still look online, but could not find the hat I wanted. I wasn’t going to waste that many years of my life searching for a specific hat and spend my money on one I didn’t actually want just because it said Baltimore Bullets instead of Washington Bullets.

Finally, one day I walked into Lids and told the guy working my story about how for a decade I would walk into every hat story I saw to see if they had this hat I’ve always wanted. The guy said he was a Baltimore Bullets fan when he was younger. He remembered when Lids lost the contract, so he was going to help me find this hat.

At last, we found out that Mitchell & Ness had the contract to make Baltimore Bullets hats. As soon as I went home, I went online, ordered the hat and after 10 years I finally own the Baltimore Bullets hat I’ve been searching for.

Even though I was only 16-years-old at the time and grew up in an area that had not hosted a professional basketball team for over three decades, I respected the great history that team had. Wes Unseld, Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe, Elvin Hayes…three of the greatest players in the league’s history all played for that team that was actually only in Baltimore for 10 seasons before the league grew and the Baltimore Arena was no longer big enough to support a franchise, forcing the move to the nation’s capital.

But the great tradition of basketball has carried on in Baltimore, even without a professional franchise. The NBA is full of players who come from Baltimore. Carmelo Anthony played at Towson Catholic. Rudy Gay played at Eastern Tech and then Archbishop Spalding. Juan Dixon, Sam Cassell, Steve Francis, Juan Dixon, Gary Neal, and Reggie Lewis all come from the area.

In 2008, one tenth of the NBA draft picks hailed from Maryland.

In 1997 Coppin State, led by the legendary basketball coach Fang Mitchell pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history when they knocked off second-seeded South Carolina.

And you can’t talk about the great history of basketball in Baltimore without mentioning Dunbar High School and their legendary squads that were led by Muggsy Bogues.

This fall the ESPN 30 for 30 series will highlight the Dunbar Poets teams from the early 80s. Their greatness will be told to the world, which is a great thing because the great basketball tradition in Baltimore and in Maryland has been a hometown secret ever since the Bullets left back in 1973.

This article was provided by So Much Sports. For more great sports coverage by So Much Sports please visit somuchsports.com and baltimore.somuchsports.com.