1949–50 NBA season

1949–50 NBA season
LeagueNational Basketball Association
SportBasketball
Duration
  • October 29, 1949 – March 19, 1950
  • March 20 – April 6, 1950 (Playoffs)
  • April 8–23, 1950 (Finals)
Games62-68
Teams17
Draft
Top draft pickHowie Shannon
Picked byProvidence Steamrollers
Regular season
Top seedSyracuse Nationals
Top scorerGeorge Mikan (Minneapolis)
Playoffs
Eastern championsSyracuse Nationals
  Eastern runners-upNew York Knicks
Central championsMinneapolis Lakers
  Central runners-upFort Wayne Pistons
Western championsAnderson Packers
  Western runners-upIndianapolis Olympians
Finals
Venue
ChampionsMinneapolis Lakers
  Runners-upSyracuse Nationals

The 1949–50 NBA season was the inaugural season of the National Basketball Association, after the merger of the 3-year-old BAA and 12-year-old NBL.[1][2] The 1950 NBA playoffs ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals in 6 games in the NBA Finals.[3]

1949–50 is counted as the fourth season in league history, as it recognizes the three BAA seasons (1946–47, 1947–48 and 1948–49) as part of its own history, sometimes without comment.[4][5] As for the previous 12 seasons involving the NBL, with scant few exceptions involved, the NBA would not recognize the older league's records by comparison, despite it being the more established league of the two by comparison.

Notable occurrences

  • The Indianapolis Jets and Providence Steamrollers folded after the 1948–49 season, leaving the BAA with 10 teams. Excluding the Jets, three of those teams (Fort Wayne, Minneapolis, and Rochester) had joined the BAA from the National Basketball League (NBL) one year before.
  • Six NBL franchises – (Anderson, Denver, Sheboygan, Syracuse, Tri-Cities, and Waterloo) and one expansion team (Indianapolis Olympians) – joined with the ten surviving BAA teams to create the National Basketball Association with 17 teams. Originally, an eighteenth team (a seventh team that played in the NBL in its last season) in the Oshkosh All-Stars were slated to join the NBA as well to make an even 18 teams for two divisions that reflected the old two leagues similar to what Major League Baseball had done for the National League and American League (though the Oshkosh franchise would have moved to Milwaukee, with Green Bay being an alternative location to move, with a potential name change to something like the Milwaukee Shooting Stars (since previous reported rumors of the era suggested the All-Stars would merge with Milwaukee's independent team called the Shooting Stars after the final NBL season ended[6]) being had for the team as well), with one division comprising the former BAA teams playing 70 total games and the other comprising the former NBL teams (including the expansion Olympians team) playing a total of 69 games. However, when the Oshkosh franchise decided to withdraw from the newly created NBA and essentially fold operations not long afterward by September and October 1949, the NBA would abort that planned idea and hold the only season in league history where they had three divisions involved in the Eastern, Western, and temporarily created Central divisions (Central later being a permanent division for the NBA in future seasons) all playing a total of at least 62 games (30 home games for each team), with the Central Division having only five teams with the BAA's teams from the previous season (the prior three surviving NBL transfers into the BAA from the previous season alongside Chicago and St. Louis), the Eastern Division having six teams with mostly BAA teams from the prior season alongside Syracuse, and the Western Division having the remaining six teams from the former NBL, including the Olympians expansion team.[7]
Coaching changes
Offseason
Team 1948–49 coach 1949–50 coach
Fort Wayne Pistons Curly Armstrong Murray Mendenhall
Washington Capitols Red Auerbach Bob Feerick

Final standings

In this inaugural NBA season only, the ten surviving teams from 1948–49 BAA season played a heavy schedule of games with each other and a light schedule with the seven NBL participants in the merger that created the league, and vice versa.[8]

Eastern Division

Eastern Division
 W L PCT GB Home Road Neutral Div
x-Syracuse Nationals 51 13 .797 – 31–1 15–12 5–0 9–1
x-New York Knicks 40 28 .588 13 19–10 18–16 3–2 20–6
x-Washington Capitols 32 36 .471 21 21–13 10–20 1–3 13–13
x-Philadelphia Warriors 26 42 .382 25 15–15 8–23 3–4 9–17
Baltimore Bullets 25 43 .368 26 16–15 8–25 1–3 8–18
Boston Celtics 22 46 .324 29 12–14 5–28 5–4 11–15

Syracuse played a heavy schedule of 44 games against Western Division teams: on average just over seven games each, same as they played each other (35 to 37 games against five Western rivals). The Western Division teams were generally weaker on the court; none of the teams there won half of its games played outside the division. Yet Syracuse won at the same 80% rate against the East and Central (16–4) as they did against the West (35–9).[8]

Central Division

Central Division
 W L PCT GB Home Road Neutral Div
x-Minneapolis Lakers 51 17 .750 – 30–1 18–16 3–0 16–8
x-Rochester Royals 51 17 .750 – 33–1 17–16 1–0 15–9
x-Fort Wayne Pistons 40 28 .588 11 28–6 12–22 – 14–10
x-Chicago Stags 40 28 .588 11 18–6 14–21 8–1 11–13
St. Louis Bombers 26 42 .382 25 17–14 7–26 2–2 4–20

To define first and third place, the Lakers played one game against the Royals, while the Stags played one against the Pistons, preliminary to the 1950 NBA playoffs.

The five Central Division teams and five Eastern teams beside Syracuse — that is, the ten former BAA teams – uniformly played 68 games: six games in each pairing among themselves (54) and two games each against each of the Western teams and Syracuse (14).[8]

Western Division

Western Division
 W L PCT GB Home Road Neutral Div
x-Indianapolis Olympians 39 25 .609 – 24–7 12–16 3–2 26–9
x-Anderson Packers 37 27 .578 2 22–9 12–18 3–0 25–12
x-Tri-Cities Blackhawks 29 35 .453 10 20–13 6–20 3–2 20–17
x-Sheboygan Red Skins 22 40 .355 17 17–14 5–22 0–4 15–20
Waterloo Hawks 19 43 .306 20 16–15 2–22 1–6 13–22
Denver Nuggets 11 51 .177 28 9–16 1–25 1–10 8–27

The six Western Division teams and Syracuse—that is, the seven NBL participants in the merger—uniformly played two games each against every one of the ten BAA 1949 teams, the East and Central teams except Syracuse (20 games each). They played seven or nine games in each pairing among themselves (at least 42 games).[8]

x – clinched playoff spot
See also: 1950 NBA playoffs

Playoffs

Main article: 1950 NBA playoffs
Division SemifinalsDivision FinalsNBA SemifinalsNBA Finals
E1Syracuse*2
E4Philadelphia0
E1Syracuse*2
Eastern Division
E2New York1
E3Washington0
E2New York2
C1Minneapolis*2
C4Chicago0
C1Minneapolis*21Syracuse2
Central Division
C3Fort Wayne03Anderson02Minneapolis4
C3Fort Wayne2
2Minneapolis2
C2Rochester0
W1Indianapolis*2
W4Sheboygan1
W1Indianapolis*1
Western Division
W2Anderson2
W3Tri-Cities1
W2Anderson2
  • * Division winner
  • Bold Series winner

Statistics leaders

Category Player Team Stat
Points George Mikan Minneapolis Lakers 1,865
Assists Dick McGuire New York Knicks 386
FG% Alex Groza Indianapolis Olympians .478
FT% Max Zaslofsky Chicago Stags .843

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 season, league leaders in points and assists were determined by totals rather than averages.

NBA awards

See also

References

General source: 1949–50 NBA Season Summary basketball-reference.com. Retrieved August 31, 2010.

  1. ^ "NBL, BAA merge, end pro net war". The Republic. UP. August 4, 1949. p. 11. Retrieved June 21, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "NBA is born". History. November 16, 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  3. ^ Glen Gaff (April 24, 1950). "Lakers win, 110-95, for third title". Star Tribune. pp. 1, 27. Retrieved June 24, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "NBA Season Recaps: 1946–2019". NBA.com. July 24, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  5. ^ Curtis Harris (January 21, 2022). "How the NBA's 75th anniversary sweeps away its early history". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  6. ^ Nelson, Murry R. (2009). The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-4006-1., p. 216
  7. ^ Nelson, Murry R. (2009). The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-4006-1., pp. 222–224
  8. ^ a b c d "Expanded Standings". "1949–50 NBA Standings". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-04.
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