On This Date in Sports August 4, 1949: The NBA is Born
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
After battling for three years, the Basketball Association of American merges with the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association. The NBL had been around for 12 seasons, mostly in small midwestern cities, while the BAA filled major eastern arenas. The NBA would recognize the BAA years part of their history as they more or less absorbed the older league to form the NBA.
After James Naismith invented the sport of basketball at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1892, the sport had a rapid growth as it became popular with college sports programs as well as small-town high schools. The first true attempt at a professional league was the American Basketball League, but at the time basketball was a fringe sport at the time so the league never was more than a small league with a small fan base.
The National Basketball League was established in 1937, with most teams in the Midwest and operating as a corporate league, with teams like the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. The NBL began to help foster more interest in basketball, but it was not until major arena openers looking to fill their buildings began to bring professional basketball to the big time as they founded the Basketball Association of America.
The BAA would be the full precursor of the NBA, as the league recognizes that championship won in 1947 by the Philadelphia Warriors, the Baltimore Bullets in 1948 and the Minneapolis Lakers in 1949. The latter was by a team that the BAA poached from the NBL, as George Mikan and Minneapolis were originally an NBA team.
While basketball was indeed growing, two leagues competing against each other was not a situation that assured success for anyone. Ten BAA teams would be a part of the new NBA, with Indianapolis Jets and Providence Steam Rollers deciding to fold after the 1949 season. The formative years of the BAA are recognized as part of the NBA’s history as the Philadelphia Warriors 1947 Championship is called the first NBA title, with Commissioner Maurice Podolof being the driving force to bring the leagues together
The NBL meanwhile faded into obscurity as none of the records were kept. However, with the merger, the NBA now had 17 teams as six NBL teams and an expansion team in Indianapolis joined the NBA for the 1949/50 season. Four former NBL teams, the Anderson Pacers, Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks all left the NBA after one season and joined a new professional league called the National Professional Basketball League. At the same time three old BAA teams, Denver Nuggets, St. Louis Bombers, and Chicago Stags folded showing just how tenuous the future of professional basketball was.
The sport of basketball would slowly grow through the 1950s despite the original Baltimore Bullets folding early in the 1954/55 season. Over the next ten years the smaller market teams that were originally in the NBL, began moving to larger cities as basketball’s popularity grew and helped it become one of American’s four major sports.