National Basketball League (United States)

The National Basketball League was a professional basketball league in the United States. As Midwest Basketball Conference took the league in 1935 their game mode. The game operating this league lasted two years and ended with the 1936-1937 season. Then the owner of the league changed the name because the Midwest Conference basketball too easy with the Big Ten Conference, a well known college Division ( whose teams from the Midwest come ), was confused. Furthermore, expanded the league and to the East, ie teams from the Eastern U.S. were included in the league. The league was founded by the three present-day large corporations General Electric, Firestone and Goodyear. The teams came primarily from the vicinity of the Great Lakes or were associations of industrial enterprises. The League took over gradually the rules of college basketball, increasing the attractiveness of professional basketball. Some of the NBL teams also had African American players under contract, bringing the NBL in this respect also took on a pioneering role. End of the 40s the league was struggling with financial problems and was eventually swallowed up in 1949 by the League competition BAA. Give the appearance of a merger of equal partners To top it all, the new league was called the National Basketball Association.

Five of the 30 NBA teams today can trace their roots to the NBL. These are the Los Angeles Lakers (as Minneapolis Lakers ), the Detroit Pistons (as Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons ), the Sacramento Kings (as Rochester Royals ), the Philadelphia 76ers (as Syracuse Nationals ) and the Atlanta Hawks (as Tri -Cities Blackhawks ).

History

The league was initially not very well organized. The clubs were the scheduled make up with each other and the playing time ( 4x10 minutes or 3x15 minutes) was determined by the home team. There were two divisions and the two best teams reached the play-offs. The winners then played, as in the play-offs in the best-of -three mode, in the final against each other.

The first years

In the first years of the NBL was dominated by one team, the Oshkosh All-Stars. Although the first title won the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, but the All-Stars always achieved in the first five years the final and won it twice the Championship. Were led the All-Stars from their center and star player Leroy Edwards, the three consecutive years (1937-1940) was the leading scorer NBL. But the Akron Firestone Non- Skids won two times in a row the championship, but presented in 1941 the game mode, a.

The early 1940s

1941 occurred in the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, led by their star player Bobby McDermott, the NBL. The Pistons were twice second (1942, 1943) and then two times champion (1944, 1945). The biggest challenger to the Pistons were the Sheboygan Red Skins, who reached the final five times in six years. In 1941 she lost to Oshkosh in 1943 they won against the Pistons, but lost in 1944 and 1945 against them. In 1946 she lost her last final series against the new team from Rochester.

The last years

From 1947 the NBL was dominated by one player, from George Mikan. In his rookie season he played for the Chicago American Gears, with which he was directly Champion. After that, the team owner of the Gears founded his own league, the National Professional Basketball League. This attempt failed and Mikan joined the Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers, he led in 1948 with Jim Pollard for the Championship. After this season, the Lakers and three other teams (Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Rochester ) of the Basketball Association of America joined. In the last season the Anderson Duffey Packers were champion. Then the NBL merged with the BAA to a League and the National Basketball Association was founded.

NBL teams 1937-49

  • Akron Firestone Non- Skids ( 1937-41 )
  • Akron Goodyear Wingfoots ( 1937-42 )
  • Anderson Duffey Packers ( 1946-49 )
  • Buffalo Bisons ( 1937-38 )
  • Chicago Bruins ( 1939-42 )
  • Chicago Studebaker Flyers ( 1942-43 )
  • Chicago American Gears ( 1944-47 )
  • Cleveland Chase Brassmen ( 1943-44 )
  • Cleveland Allmen Transfers ( 1944-46 )
  • Columbus Athletic Supply ( 1938-39 )
  • Dayton Metropolitans ( 1937-38 )
  • Denver Nuggets ( 1948-49 )
  • Detroit Eagles ( 1939-41 )
  • Detroit Gems ( 1946-47 )
  • Detroit Vagabond Kings / Dayton Rens ( 1948-49 )
  • Flint Dow A. C. ' s / Midland Dow A. C. ' s ( 1947-48 )
  • Fort Wayne General Electric ( 1937-38 )
  • Hammond Ciesar All-Americans ( 1938-41 )
  • Hammond Calumet Buccaneers ( 1948-49 )
  • Indianapolis Kautsky ( 1937-48 )
  • Kankakee Gallagher Trojans ( 1937-38 )
  • Minneapolis Lakers ( 1947-48 )
  • Oshkosh All-Stars ( 1937-49 )
  • Pittsburgh Pirates ( 1937-39 )
  • Pittsburgh Raiders ( 1944-45 )
  • Richmond King Clothiers / Comellos Cincinnati ( 1937-38 )
  • Rochester Royals ( 1945-48 )
  • Sheboygan Red Skins ( 1938-49 )
  • Syracuse Nationals ( 1946-49 )
  • Toledo Jim White Chevrolets ( 1941-43 )
  • Toledo Jeeps ( 1946-48 )
  • Tri -Cities Blackhawks ( 1946-49 )
  • Penn Warren ( 1937-38 )
  • Penn Warren / Cleveland White Horses ( 1938-39 )
  • Waterloo Hawks ( 1948-49 )
  • Whiting Ciesar All-Americans ( 1937-38 )
  • Youngstown Bears ( 1945-47 )
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