On
Nov. 1, 1946, professional basketball was officially born.
The
Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern
and Midwestern
United States and Canada.
On
Nov. 1, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted
the New York
Knickerbockers at Maple
Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now regards as the first played in its
history.
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 1953–54, when the league reached its
smallest size of eight franchises, all of which are still in the league (the New York
Knicks, Boston Celtics,
Golden
State Warriors, Los Angeles
Lakers, Royals/Kings,
Detroit
Pistons, Atlanta
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,
Missouri (in 1955); the Royals
from Rochester,
New York to Cincinnati
(in 1957); and the Pistons from Fort Wayne,
Indiana to Detroit
(in 1957).
Since the NBA has been formed the
Boston Celtics have won the most titles with 17.
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