CPChicago Packers
NBA Champions history, aggregated from our sourced basketball champions list.
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
CPChicago Packers — 0 nba champions.
Franchise history
The Chicago Packers were the NBA's first expansion franchise since the league's founding era, joining for the 1961-62 season after a planned Cleveland Pipers addition, backed by young owner George Steinbrenner, fell through over financing. The Packers finished 18-62 under coach Jim Pollard, worst in the league and last in the Western Division.
The season's one bright spot was rookie center Walt Bellamy, the No. 1 overall pick out of Indiana, who averaged 31.6 points and 19.0 rebounds a game, won NBA Rookie of the Year, and made the All-NBA First Team -- numbers that rank among the best rookie seasons in league history. Attendance in Chicago was thin, and the franchise lasted just this one season under the Packers name: ownership rebranded the team as the Chicago Zephyrs for 1962-63, reportedly in part to shed any association with the NFL's Green Bay Packers, before the franchise relocated to Baltimore the year after that.
Sources
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