1968–69 Minnesota Pipers season

The 1968–69 Minnesota Pipers season was the only season of the Pipers franchise up in the state of Minnesota and second overall season in the American Basketball Association. The previous season, the Pipers had won the ABA Finals, but moved the team from Pittsburgh to Minnesota (which had just lost the Muskies) after the season ended.

However, the Pipers would have a rollercoaster of a season in Minnesota before deciding to relocate back to Pittsburgh for 1969. The team went through three coaches: Harding, who coached the team who was fired after attacking the Pipers Chairman Gabe Rubin at the banquet of the All-Star Game. Mikkelsen (the general manager) took over for a while before Verl Young took the job permanently. At the All-Star break, the Pipers were 26-19. However, the team went into a dry spell, losing twelve of their last fifteen games to end the regular season, with Hawkins, Williams, Vaughn, and Heyman each being nagged by injuries due to long practices. The Pipers lost in the Division Semifinals to the Miami Floridians. While the state of Minnesota would try a third time to get a new ABA team in the state with the owner of the Memphis Tams later having a desire to sell the team and potentially move the franchise up to St. Paul instead of within the Minneapolis area, they would not have a professional basketball team again until 1989 with the Minnesota Timberwolves out in the NBA.