Saskatoon Slam

The Slam were founded in 1990 as the Saskatchewan Storm of the World Basketball League (WBL). The Storm narrowly lost their first game, 117–115 against the Las Vegas Silver Streaks, in front of a record crowd of more than 8,000.[2] The team did not win a championship but had some notable alumni, including Thomas Lyles, the father of Sacramento Kings player Trey Lyles, and current UC Davis Aggies men's basketball coach Jim Les. The WBL folded before the conclusion of the 1992 season, and the Canadian franchises opted to create a new national league, the National Basketball League (NBL). It was then that the Storm changed their name to the Saskatoon Slam.

The Slam were a success in the only full NBL season. On 8 September, 1993, they defeated the Cape Breton Breakers by a score of 109–107 in the fourth game of the championship final to win the league title.[3] This was the province's first professional basketball championship, and the only one until the Saskatchewan Rattlers won the inaugural Canadian Elite Basketball League title in 2019.[4]

The NBL struggled financially–for example, all games of the 1993 finals were played in Saskatoon to reduce travel costs–and the league folded in the middle of the 1994 season, along with the Slam.[2] This left the city and province without professional basketball until briefly hosting the Saskatchewan Hawks, from 2000 to 2002.[3]