What glitters isn't golden

Sporting News, The, Nov 4, 1996 by Steve Gietschier

The NBA--not really 50--is the offspring of two parents

Let's get one thing straight. The National Basketball Association, poised to celebrate its golden anniversary, is not really 50 years old. The NBA, as we know it today, was born in 1949, not 1946. It was not created out of nothingness but was the result of a merger between two prior leagues. Having the NBA celebrate its 50th anniversary this year is akin to having a child wish "Happy Anniversary" to one parent but not the other.

One of the NBA's forebears, the Basketball Association of America (BAA), was indeed founded in 1946. It grew out of the Arena Managers Association of America, a group of businessmen who owned the nation's largest indoor arenas and teams in the National and American Hockey Leagues. These men, led by Walter Brown of Boston, realized that pro basketball could fill a few seats on nights when hockey was not being played.

The BAA opened its inaugural season, 1946-47, with 11 teams assigned to two divisions. In the East were the Boston Celtics, New York Knickerbockers, Philadelphia Warriors, Providence Steamrollers, Toronto Huskies and Washington Capitols. The West included the Chicago Stags, Cleveland Rebels, Detroit Falcons, Pittsburgh Ironmen and St. Louis Bombers.

Each team played a 60-game, regular-season schedule. The playoffs format matched the second-place teams, Philadelphia and St. Louis, and third-place teams, New York and Cleveland, in the first round, with the two survivors, Philadelphia and New York, meeting in the semifinals. Washington and Chicago, the two first-place teams, also squared off in the semifinals. The Warriors, having finished second in the East, defeated St. Louis, two games to one, and the Knicks, two games to none, then beat Chicago, four games to one, to win the championship.

In the league's second year, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Toronto dropped out, and the Baltimore Bullets jumped from a lesser league the American Basketball League, and came away with the title, defeating Philadelphia in the final series, four games to two.

Especially in this second season, the BAA was more or less an eastern league with six of its eight teams located on the Eastern Seaboard. In the Midwest, though, sat the National Basketball League, an established entity that is, in fact, the NBA's off-forgotten other parent.

The NBL began in 1937-38, when several midwest industrial teams, including the Akron Firestone Non-Skids and the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, joined forces with some independent teams to form a professional league. The NBL had 13 teams in its first season and the Wingfoots won the title, defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars, two games to one, in the finals.

The NBL endured several difficult seasons, especially during World War II, and twice finished a year with only four teams. But average scores went up during the war, and as THE SPORTING NEWS reported December 10, 1942, "The fans love it. They get action all the time and the early-season crowds have been unusually good, despite the handicaps of gas rationing and the loss of so many potential customers to the military service."

One NBL team, the 1942-43 Chicago Studebaker Flyers, became the first integrated professional team. Chicago's Studebaker plant converted from making cars to war production, and workers there were exempt from the draft. A number of basketbal players, including members of the Harlem Globetrotters, got jobs at the plant. They beacme Flyers when the United Auto Workers secured the NBL's Chicago franchise.

When the BAA made its debut in 1946, the NBL was operating with 12 teams: In the East, the Buffalo Bisons (who became the Tri-Cities Blackhawks before the year was out), Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, Rochester Royals, Syracuse Nationals, Toledo Jeeps and Youngstown Bears; in the West, the Anderson Packers, Chicago American Gears, Detroit Gems, Indianapolis Kautskys, Oshkosh All-Stars and Sheboygan Redskins. A year later, Chicago, Detroit and Youngstown dropped out, and the Flint Dow A.C.s and the Minneapolis Lakers dropped in.

The two leagues were clearly at war with each other. The BAA had its teams in the larger cities, but the NBL, once the only destination for college stars, still attracted the better players. In 1947-48, for example, the Lakers, led by George Mikan and Jim Pollard, won the NBL title. They defeated the Royals, with Bob Davies, Arnie Risen, Al Cervi, Red Holzman, Fuzzy Levane and Bobby Wanzner on their roster.

The BAA gained the upper hand in 1948-49 by persuading four teams, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester, to which leagues. But during the following summer, the NBL convinced the graduated stars of the University of Kentucky, two-time NCAA champs and the bulk of the United States' 1948 Olympic team, to turn pro en masse as an NBL team in Indianapolis. The BAA then sued for peace, and an accord was reached when two leagues merged August 3, 1949.

Today, NBA is comprised of 29 teams. Three can trace their roots back to the BAA's first season: The Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors (once the Philadelphia Warriors) and the New York Knickerbockers. Four others go back to the NBA's other parent, the NBL: The Atlanta Hawks (once the Buffalo Bisons), Detroit Pistons (once the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons), Philadelphia 76ers (once the Syracuse Nationals) and Sacramento Kings (once the Rochester Royals). Happy Anniversary to them all.