Furry Basketball Association

2011-12-13T22:52:03Z

69.107.127.149: Major additions made to the article, including a section describing the real history of the league.

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[[File:FBA Logo 2.png | thumb | The current logo of the FBA.]]
The '''Furry Basketball Association''' ('''FBA''') is a fantasy sports league run by the furry community. Unlike most fantasy leagues, the FBA does not follow any real world sports. Instead, the FBA has established its own sports teams, divisions, conferences and 80-game schedule, with the team rosters filled by characters created by participants in the league. Game results are calculated by using a proprietary simulation engine, with daily updates being posted on [[FurAffinity]] and [[Twitter]]. The FBA borrows heavily from the National Basketball Association for inspiration, including Eastern and Western Conferences, an annual player draft, a 16-team playoffs bracket with best-of-7 series, and rules from the NBA including a 23 foot, 9 inch 3-point line. However the FBA has many of its own rules based on the wide variety of furry players in the league, including rules for tail-dribbling, tonguing the ball, and a one-flap rule for avian players.

As of December of 2011, the FBA has begun its third season. While this is its third season as an active fantasy league for the fandom, the FBA Universe has developed a history that places the beginning of the league in 1961. Within the FBA storyline, the 2011-2012 season is the league's 50th in existence.

On March 13, 2011, the FBA was announced as a finalist in the '''Best Game''' category for the [[Ursa_Major_Awards|Ursa Major Awards]]. It eventually lost out to the Junction Point video game title ''Epic Mickey''.

==Beginnings of the FBA==

The FBA was started in 2009 by [[J. Mateo Baker|Buck Hopper]] as backstory for his [[Buck Hopper]] character. At the time, the FBA only existed as a footnote in the character's description on TapestriesMUCK, suggesting that Hopper's team, the Layleaux Thrust, was part of a larger league of furry basketball players. Originally, it was not intended to develop into anything more.

Gradually, through role-plays on TapestriesMUCK and later through comments and questions posted to Hopper's account on FurAffinity, details about the league developed. A handful of teams and other players were referenced in the character's backstory and in art pieces, suggesting at growing detail in the league. The FBA's growth took off on June 3rd, 2009, when the first of three ''Be-Hope'' articles were posted on FurAffinity. The art pieces, made in the style of a sports magazine story, went into deep detail about Buck Hopper's character and his history with the league. Despite earning few looks or favorites, the art pieces inspired a swell of interest in the FBA by a handful of fans. That swell then inspired Baker to create the first seven episodes of The FBA Post Up Podcast, audio recordings produced in the style of a radio sportscast, to relate the story of Buck Hopper's team facing the Huntsville Mayors in the 2009 FBA Finals. Because the storyline was no longer being told from TapestriesMUCK, Baker decided to change the name of Hopper's team, replacing the Taps-only location of Layleaux with the name of the California county he grew up in, Stanislaus.

After the seventh episode of the podcast, interest in the FBA continued to grow. This success inspired Baker to take another step forward and design an entire league. In the fall of 2009, he invited his watchers on FurAffinity to come up with new teams for the league, eventually settling on 24 with 4 teams in each of 6 divisions. He then invited his watchers to come up with players to fill the rosters of each of the teams, organizing them in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Once the rosters were filled, remaining slots were set aside for a bundle of new players created for the 2009 FBA Draft. The first FBA draft was held on November 1, 2009, and filled the final slots in the FBA rosters, allowing for the beginning of the first season of the FBA.

===2009-2010 Season===

===2010-2011 Season===

===2011-2012 Season===

==The FBA Universe==

===Howlereen===

Every FBA season begins with the Howlereen Invitational, the league's customary first pre-season match. Howlereen is always played on October 31st in Montana against an invited opponent, usually the defending league champions.

The first Howlereen Invitational was played in 1968 in the inaugural year of the Montana Howlers. Being the first expansion team of the league, the introduction of the Howlers franchise unbalanced the conferences by putting 4 teams in the Western Conference with 3 teams in the Eastern Conference. As an effort by team management to ease tensions in the league over the unbalance, the Howlers held the league's first ever pre-season match on October 31st, 1968. The event was such a success, the Howlers held a pre-season match on Halloween every year, until it's become the FBA tradition it is today.

==FBA Details==

===Teams===
The FBA currently consists of 24 extant teams. 23 are from the United States and 1 from Canada.

====Western Conference====
=====Northwest Division=====
*Alaska Arctics
*Montana Howlers
*Idaho Mounties
*Spokane Rapids

=====Midwest Division=====
*Dakota Bikers
*Des Moines Blanks
*Kansas City Clefs
*Winnipeg Voyageurs

=====Southwest Division=====
*Galveston Sand Dollars
*Santa Ana Spectrums
*Santa Fe Whips
*Stanislaus Thrust

====Eastern Conference====
=====Northern Division=====
*Albany Alphas
*Bangor Bantams
*Newark Pride
*Plymouth Taproots

=====Central Division=====
*Baltimore Spirits
*Loraine Firestorm
*Pittsburgh Keystones
*Williamsburg Minutemen

=====Southern Division=====
*Biloxi Mudpuppies
*Huntsville Mayors
*Tallahassee Typhoons
*Tennessee Moonshiners

====Historical Teams====
* St. Paul Mayors (founded in 1961, became the Huntsville Mayors in 1984)
* Hamilton Mariners (founded in 1920 as part of the Great Lakes Basketball League, joined the FBA in 1980, became the Albany Alphas in 1995)
* Rocky Mountain House Royals (founded in 1974 as an amateur team, joined the FBA in 1980, became the Rocky Mountain Rabble in 2004)
* Santa Cruz Clefs (founded in 1961, became the Kansas City Clefs in 2009)
* Tucson Demons (founded in 1961, became the Galveston Sand Dollars in 2009)
* Springfield Fusion (founded in 1995, became the Pittsburgh Keystones in 2010)
* Rocky Mountain Rabble (Changed their name from the Rocky Mountain House Royals in 2004, became the Rocky Mountain Royals in 2010)
* Rocky Mountain Royals (Sent to FBA D-League in 2011)

===Champions===
1961-1962: St. Paul Mayors

1962-1963: Plymouth Taproots

1963-1964: Santa Cruz Clefs

1964-1965: Plymouth Taproots

1965-1966: Tucson Demons

1966-1967: Biloxi Mudpuppies

1967-1968: St. Paul Mayors

1968-1969: St. Paul Mayors

1969-1970: Santa Cruz Clefs

1970-1971: Biloxi Mudpuppies

1971-1972: Plymouth Taproots

1972-1973: Montana Howlers

1973-1974: Tucson Demons

1974-1975: Tucson Demons

1975-1976: Montana Howlers

1976-1977: Montana Howlers

1977-1978: Montana Howlers

1978-1979: Baltimore Spirits

1979-1980: Tucson Demons

1980-1981: Montana Howlers

1981-1982: Montana Howlers

1982-1983: Baltimore Spirits

1983-1984: Baltimore Spirits

1984-1985: Montana Howlers

1985-1986: Tucson Demons

1986-1987: Plymouth Taproots

1987-1988: Montana Howlers

1988-1989: Montana Howlers

1989-1990: Plymouth Taproots

1990-1991: Biloxi Mudpuppies

1991-1992: Loraine Firestorm

1992-1993: Dakota Bikers

1993-1994: Santa Cruz Clefs

1994-1995: Dakota Bikers

1995-1996: Huntsville Mayors

1996-1997: Huntsville Mayors

1997-1998: Huntsville Mayors

1998-1999: Huntsville Mayors

1999-2000: Huntsville Mayors

2000-2001: Newark Pride

2001-2002: Loraine Firestorm

2002-2003: Williamsburg Minutemen

2003-2004: Dakota Bikers

2004-2005: Albany Alphas

2005-2006: Santa Fe Whips

2006-2007: Newark Pride

2007-2008: Dakota Bikers

2008-2009: Huntsville Mayors

2009-2010: Dakota Bikers

2010-2011: Stanislaus Thrust

==See also==
* [[The FBA Post Up Podcast]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.furrybasketball.com/ Furry Basketball Association]
* [http://twitter.com/FurryBasketball FBA] on Twitter

===Mentionings in media===
* [http://psamp.com/2010-articles/august/theres-a-pittsburgh-furry-basketball-team.html ''There's A Pittsburgh Furry Basketball Team''], PSAMP sports blog

[[Category:Fictional organizations]]

WikiFur - User contributions [en]

Furry Basketball Association