We know the NBA was created with the BAA(Basketball Association of America), merging with the NBL(National Basketball League) during the 1940s. The 1940s was a historically packed period consisting of World War II, Jim Crow Laws, and the beginnings of the Cold War. This period also produced inventions such as the Velco, Microwaves, and Commercial Television.

On November 1st, 1946, the opening game of the BBA(Basketball Association of America) took place between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers at the Maple Leafs Garden in Toronto, Canada. Ossie Schectman of the New York Knickerbockers went down as the first to ever score a basket in NBA History by doing a “layup,” which is a one-handed shot made from near a basket. Even with the merger of leagues in the early stages of the NBA, the NBA still considers BAA their first season in history. The NBL was just as crucial as the BAA in creating of the NBA. 5 of the current teams in the BAA. There we only 11 teams back then, and only three of those original teams still stand today: Boston Celtics, New York Knickerbocker(later known as the New York Knicks), and the Philadelphia Warriors(relocated to San Franciso and got renamed as the Golden State Warriors). 4 of the teams folded before the BAA even began their second season (Detroit Falcons, Pittsburgh Ironmen, Cleveland Rebels, and the Toronto Huskies). The remaining teams were the Baltimore Bullets, Pittsburgh Steamrollers, Chicago Stags, and St. Louis Bombers. These 11 teams were split into 2 divisions, in which 6 were in the east and 5 were in the west. They used to play in 60-game schedules compared to the 82-game schedule played nowadays. In the first NBA Finals ever played that year in 1947, the Warriors beat the Stags 4 – 1 to lift the very first NBA Championship. However, the Warriors would lose their throne to the Baltimore Bullets the following year, in 1948. One fun fact about the 1947 season was that every team in the 8-team League won at least 20 games in the 48-game season except the Providence Steamroller, who went 6 – 42. This is the least amount of wins a team has ever gotten in an NBA Season. Yikes! Starting in 1947, NBA Champions were awarded Walter A. Brown Trophy (Now known as the Larry O’Brien trophy).

One common thing back in the early years of the League was player-coaches, the team member who was doing both the head coach and player duties in the game. They were players who served as head coaches. The first ever coach in NBA/BAA history was Ed Sadowski, a player-coach for the Toronto Huskies in the League’s inaugural season. Buddy Jeannette was the first player-coach to win a title as he was the Player-coach for the Baltimore Bullets in the 1948 season. The only other player-coach to win a championship was the legend himself, Bill Russell. RIP. He won the NBA championship as a player-coach two times later on. Russell was considered the game’s earliest Superstar along with George Mikan. A fun fact about Nat Hickey, a player-coach for the Providence Steamrollers, is that he holds the record for the oldest player to play the game at 45 Years and 36 Days old. The last player-coach in the League was Dave Cowens, who did it for the Celtics in 1967. Eventually, the NBA instituted a Collective Bargaining Agreement after the 1985 season, which prevented the usage of player coaches from avoiding the League’s salary cap, in which the coaches’ salaries were not counted.

The 1949 season was the BAA’s last season, with 12 teams, each playing 60 games. 4 teams (Fort Wayne Pistons, Indianapolis Jets, Rochester Royals, and Minneapolis Lakers were now added to the League. The season ended with Minneapolis Lakers defeating the Washington Capitols in 6 games in the Finals. After this season, the Providence Steamroller and the Indianapolis Jets folded, leaving the BAA with 10 teams. Several current teams had their initial roots in this League. The Minneapolis Lakers eventually became the Los Angeles Lakers; The Rochester Royals became the Sacramento Kings, while the Fort Wayne Pistons became the Detroit Pistons. Also, the Syracuse Nationals later became the Philadelphia 76ers, while the Tri-Cities Blackhawks became the Atlanta Hawks. Later that year, with its 10 teams, BAA merged with NBL and its 7 teams to create the National Basketball Association (NBA). During this time, the NBL established many new rules that made the game smoother such as the Three-Second Rule, which is still in use today. Technically the 1949-50 Season was the inaugural NBA season, in which 17 teams played between 62 and 68 games, even though the previous three years are still considered a part of NBA History. Players such as Bill Russell and George Mikan were considered the first 2 superstars in NBA History. In the 1950 NBA Finals, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by the growing star George Mikan, lifted the NBA championship, defeating the Syracuse Nationals in 6 games. 3 All-NBA Teams (First, Second, and Third) consisting of 5 players represented the season’s best players voted upon by a panel of broadcasters and sportswriters.

During 1946 – 1949, there was an intense battle between NBL and BAA to see who could come out on top to become the superior basketball league in America. However, the two leagues learned a valuable lesson about Capitalism. Instead of fighting year after year, fighting your competitors, you should always try to merge and make all the money together. This led to the creation of the National Basketball Association or NBA. There is some controversy today on whether or not this was an expansion of the NBL. This was the league merger since the NBL was much more prominent then. However, the records show that this was an expansion and the NBA now adapts the History of the BAA. The reason why the NBA now considers itself founded in 1946 instead of when it was established in 1949 remains to be discovered. This caused controversy among the players that used to play for the NBL, who then transferred to the BAA or NBA, in which their stats in the NBL were not counted for in the NBA. One of those players was George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers. The League of the NBA has now been established, and we’ll see how it all played out, which players and teams came into the League, and how it shaped the NBA the way it is today.

During this time, the NBL made rules for the sport that made the game smoother and easier. One of these was the Three-Second Rule which limited offensive players to spend too much time standing under the basket.