his $20,000 deposit, reportedly half of the purchase price. Saperstein claimed he had received "exactly nothing" from the NBA for his money: neither the club nor the contract of four ex-Stags players who jumped to the National Professional Basketball League. (Supposedly, Podoloff, acting on behest of a group of other NBA owners, "foreclosed" on the Stags due to their inability to repay a $40,000 loan that enabled them to finish the 1949-50 season in the first place.) It marked the end of the NBA in Chicago until the Chicago Packers were joined in 1961. On April 25, 1950, Bob Cousy was drafted by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks but did not sign with the team. Cousy wanted $10,000 and Blackhawks owner Ben Kerner countered with $6,000 in negotiations. Cousy was then sold to the Stags in a trade. When the Stags/Bruins folded, a dispersal draft was held on October 5, 1950 to divide their players throughout the league, with Cousy going to the Boston Celtics. The Stags were one of seven teams that quickly left the NBA: the Anderson Packers, Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks jumped to the NPBL, while Chicago, Denver and St. Louis folded, shrinking the loop from 17 teams to 11 at the dawn of the 1950–51 season. (The situation got worse in January 1951 as the Washington Capitols folded as well, bringing the number of NBA teams down to ten.) The NBA would return to Chicago twice, first with the Packers/Zephyrs (now the Washington Wizards) from 1961 to 1963 and since 1966 with the Bulls. Arena The Stags played at Chicago Stadium, which was located at 1800 West Madison Street and was demolished in 1995 to make way for the United Center; it later served as the home court of the Bulls from 1966 to 1994. Notable players Chuck Gilmur Chick Halbert C Paul Huston Johnny Jorgensen Stan Miasek Doyle Parrack Andy Phillip Gene Rock G Ken Rollins G (gold medalist in the 1948 Summer Olympics) Mickey Rottner F Kenny Sailors Ben Schadler Jim Seminoff Jack Toomay Gene Vance #12 G Max Zaslofsky (1947–48 scoring leader of BAA) Basketball Hall of Famers Season-by-season records Aftermath The Chicago Bulls, the city's current NBA team, wore replicas of the 1946 Stags uniforms during the 2005–06 NBA season as part of the NBA's "Hardwood Classics" program (they wore them on December 5, 2005, February 22, 2006 and April 16, 2006).