The year of 2011 has marked the 39th anniversary of the absence of a legitimate professional basketball team in the Pittsburgh area (I’m sorry Pittsburgh Xplosion).

The Pittsburgh Condors played their last game during the 1971-72 season before folding in order to migrate to the Andes Mountains.

On a serious note, I think it’s high time that the ‘Burgh got an NBA team. Pittsburgh is a sports town, and based on our other pro teams, I’d say that that an NBA team would work out pretty well. The Steelers and Penguins both have rabid fan bases, some of the largest and wildest in their respective leagues, and even the mediocre Pirates bring a decent amount of fans to PNC Park. The Pittsburgh NBA team’s games would be well attended, and the team would certainly make money off of merchandise sales, especially if they were able to pick up a superstar rookie in their first draft.

Now, some doubters might say that building a new stadium for the team would be too expensive and not worth it. But in truth, I think that the franchise would make that money back and more pretty quickly; plus, the construction would open up a lot of job opportunities for the 7% of Allegheny County that is currently unemployed. Or Mark Cuban could just saddle up, move the Mavericks to his hometown, build the stadium himself and we would all be just spiffin’.