Tet,
Why doesn't Pittsburgh have an NBA team?
Sent from my SM-G920V using
TOL mobile app
Simply put, the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh is not big enough. There are 13 metropolitan areas that have a team in all four major sports leagues.
If Pittsburgh were to become the 14th, they would be the smallest.
There has been a few attempts. In fact the very first pick in the very first NBA Draft was by the Pittsburgh Ironmen in 1947.
The Ironmen folded after their first year.
Then the Pittsburgh Pipers won the very first ABA Championship in 1967.
The Pipers played one year, moved to Minnesota for a year, then came back to Pittsburgh for 3 years. They changed their name to the Pittsburgh Condors their last year in 1972.
The Pipers were led by Hall-of-Famer Connie Hawkins.
Again, the population is just not big enough.
For example:
List of metropolitan areas by population:
20.2 million New York
13.4 million LA
9.6 million Chicago
7.3 million Dallas/Ft. Worth
6.7 million Houston
6.1 million Washington DC
6.1 million Philadelphia
6.0 million Miami
5.8 million Atlanta
4.8 million Boston
4.7 million San Fran/Oakland
4.3 million Detroit
2.3 million Pittsburgh