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Why was the NBA started?

Updated: 8/22/2023
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9y ago

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Inventor of the NBAThe NBA was founded by owners of major Ice Hockey arenas in the northeastern United States. This was in 1946 and the league was initially named the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The name was changed to the National Basketball Association when they merged with the National Basketball League, another professional basketball league, in 1949. In 2012 the league officially changed its name to the SBA or the Scalabrine Basketball Association.
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12y ago
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16y ago

A group of team owners met on June 6, 1946, in New York to talk about a league they would name the Basketball Association of America. This meeting was the beginning of what we know today as the NBA. This group was mainly some members of the Arena Association of America. They controlled the sporting arenas in the major United States cities. They had experience with hockey, ice shows, circuses and rodeos, but never had basketball games been part of the picture.. Most of them had little experience with the game of basketball. World War II had recently ended, and the men felt that there would be lots of money available for entertainment purposes. They looked at the success of College Basketball at Madison Square Garden and in cities like Philadelphia and Buffalo. They agreed that a professional league would probably succeed if they continued to highlight college pros. As a result, on June 11, franchises were formed to compete in two divisions: East and West. The East consisted of the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Providence Steamrollers and Washington Capitols, as well as New York and Toronto. In the West were the Pittsburgh Ironmen, Chicago Stags, Detroit Falcons, St. Louis Bombers and Cleveland Rebels. The teams had to pay a $10,000 franchise fee, the money going for league operating expenses including a salary for Maurice Podoloff, who like the arena owners who hired him was experienced in hockey. Podoloff, a New Haven, CT lawyer who was President of the American Hockey League, agreed to also take on the duties of President of the new Basketball Association of America, which three seasons later, in a merger with the midwest-based National Basketball League, became the NBA. The salaries for beginning players was only $5,000 for the season.

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14y ago

The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by the owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers, which the NBA now regards as the first game played in the league's history.[3] Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, and the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. On August 3, 1949, the BAA agreed to merge with the NBL, creating the new National Basketball Association. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1954, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises, all of which are still in the league (the Knicks, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Royals/Kings, Pistons, Hawks, and Nationals/76ers). The process of contraction saw the league's smaller-city franchises move to larger cities. The Hawks shifted from "Tri-Cities" (the area now known as the Quad Cities) to Milwaukee (in 1951) and then to St. Louis (in 1955); the Royals from Rochester to Cincinnati (in 1957); and the Pistons from Fort Wayne to Detroit (in 1957). In 1960, the Lakers relocated to Los Angeles, and the Warriors moved to San Francisco, in 1963. The following year, the Nationals left upstate New York to bring basketball back to Philadelphia, changing their nickname from "Nationals" to "76ers." Thus far, out of the original eight franchises, only the Knicks and Celtics have not relocated. Although Japanese-American Wataru Misaka technically broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947-48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, 1950 is recognized as the year the NBA integrated. This year witnessed the addition of African American players by several teams, including Chuck Cooper with the Boston Celtics, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton with the New York Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. If a team does not attempt to score a field goal (or the ball fails to make contact with the rim) within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became the dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new records in scoring (100) and rebounding (55). Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the great individual rivalries in the history of American team sports. Through this period, the NBA continued to strengthen with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, and the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises. The Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) became the 9th NBA team in 1961. From 1966 to 1968, the league expanded from nine teams to fourteen, introducing the Chicago Bulls, Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), San Diego Rockets (who relocated to Houston four years later), Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. In 1967, the league faced a new external threat with the formation of the American Basketball Association. The leagues engaged in a bidding war. The NBA landed the most important college star of the era, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor). However, the NBA's leading scorer, Rick Barry jumped to the ABA, as did four veteran referees-Norm Drucker, Earl Strom, John Vanak, and Joe Gushue. added by Josiah Keas (nba expert)

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9y ago

The NBA was started in 1946 as the Basket Ball League of America but Arena owners. The owners were looking to capitalize on the post WWII peacetime entertainment need.

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9y ago

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was founded on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BBA).

They adopted the NBA name on August 3, 1949.

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Kayne Ernestine Soli...

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3y ago

june 6 1946 and it started at new york united states

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16y ago

When- August 3, 1949

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13y ago

NBA began in Texas.

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