NBA Origins – How it All Started

Basketball is a fairly young sport but thanks to its popularization, it already has a colorful culture surrounding it. It is the only major sport invented in America and it has a huge crowd of fans and fanatics.

But the coming to greatness wasn’t always a bed of roses. Only the smart moves of entrepreneurs and innovative ideas of people connected to the sport helped to elevate basketball to the professional level.

The National Basketball Association is a huge success, dare I say, it’s the most popular professional basketball league in the world. People from many countries tune in to watch the NBA championship broadcast and it can’t be farther from where it started. To understand how the NBA came to be and basketball became an international phenomenon, we have to get back to their humble beginnings.

American Basketball League

American Basketball League, founded in 1925, was the first attempt at making basketball a professional sport. The teams were divided into Eastern and Western Divisions, with two of the teams of each division making the playoffs and two of the playoff winners battling it out in the championship.

The American Basketball League didn’t last for long due to restless times of the Great Depression and gathering clouds of war but it made an impact on future ventures. One of the most significant influences was that it paved the way for contract signings in later times. ABL players had trouble committing to one team, so the owners made them sign a contract, for which they would get a monetary payment.

National Basketball League

Ten years later another league was created. The National Basketball League was even less professional than its predecessor. It started in 1935 as a Midwest Basketball Conference and changed its name in 1937 to sound more inclusive and professional. Despite the glorious name, the National Basketball League was more like an after-work club for employees of three major companies situated in the Great Lake Area.

The NBL gave birth to teams that we know and love. For example, the founding fathers of the Los Angeles Lakers were NBL’s Detroit Gems, and Philadelphia 76ers – Syracuse Nationals. Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons we know as Detroit Pistons, and the Rochester Royals are now Sacramento Kings.

Basketball Association of America

The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946. NBA officially recognises this date as the creation of NBA, but a few more years had to pass, to BAA become NBA.

BAA founders were more creative with their enterprise. They recognized that basketball won’t become a respected sport if it will continue to be played in school gymnasiums.

Walter Brown was the owner of the Boston Garden in New York City. He figured that the empty hockey arena can be used as a basketball court. It would give the audience a more pleasurable experience, rather than cramping in a smelly old school.

The idea turned out to be successful and soon the NBL teams started to transfer to the BAA. In 1949, Basketball Association of America swallowed the National Basketball League completely. The new league was called the National Basketball Association, but it didn’t organize the championship under this name until 1950.

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association consisted of 17 franchises, which were later integrated into 11. This process was repeated through the ’50s, making the teams from smaller towns join into bigger franchises. At some point, there were only 8 NBA teams: New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and Syracuse Nationals.

First NBA Championships

The first championships under the NBA name were held in 1950. The winners were the Minneapolis Lakers (now Los Angeles Lakers), starting a Lakers era. The Lakers dominated the NBA finals in the first part of the ’50s, falling to the Boston Celtics a few years later.

NBA History: Shot Clock

One of the most important additions to the rules was made by Danny Biasone, the owner of Syracuse Nationals. Despite team mergers and using areas that could accommodate bigger audiences, basketball still wasn’t as popular as one might think. One of the reasons, for the lack of public interest, was the incredibly slow pace of the game. Players used to stall and the game happened sometimes without making attempts on the basket.

Biasone enjoyed watching some of the games but was exhaustingly bored during others. He recognized that those he liked, had at least 60 shot attempts from each team. Both teams combined to make about 120 shots during the game, which comes out to 2800 seconds. When the time is divided by the number of shots, it becomes obvious that one shot should be taken every 24 seconds while team possession lasts, thus the 24-second rule was established.

Popularity of NBA

During ’60 and ’70 the National Basketball Association had its ups and downs. With the growth of cable television, the games started to bring more audiences. Unfortunately, coming into the ’80s, the franchises were dying out and the basketball games weren’t so popular again. The television ratings were declining and the league needed to rebuild its image.

Happily, the ’80 were also the emergence of new talents. The NBA bounced back thanks to players like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and mostly Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls superstar and NBA Champion, Jordan, managed to give the NBA a new identity. Watching the Bulls go through the season and earning NBA titles was like watching an underdog movie. The league’s history, earlier dominated by the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, had it’s new rising star. This was a great marketing opportunity. It was fully utilized by NBA Commissioner David Stern, who saw advertising potential in NBA media ventures.

NBA Now

Many of the teams which we love and support now were with the BAA from the beginning. Some of them like San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets and Brooklyn Nets who were part of the American Basketball Association, joined the NBA more recently in 1976.

Now, the NBA consists of 30 teams, 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. No matter if you are a Golden State Warriors fan or if you root for the Los Angeles Lakers, a short lesson in basketball history teaches you that the NBA is a real world champion when it comes to professional basketball leagues.

Who were the original NBA teams?

The original 11 teams were the Boston Celtics, Providence Steamrollers, New York Knickerbockers, Philadelphia Warriors, Pittsburgh Ironmen, and Washington Capitols were the East Division and Cleveland Rebels, Detroit Falcons, Toronto Huskies, Chicago Stags and St. Louis Bombers were the West Division.

Who is the oldest NBA team?

The Sacramento Kings are the oldest franchise in the NBA. The Kings were founded in 1923, before the NBA was even established.