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    by admin in Basketball History | Comments Off on History of Basketball Leagues

    With the passage of time, the level of interest in basketball was bound to increase, therefore commencement of so many professional basketball leagues was not a surprise indeed.

    National Basketball  League

    In 1898, the first professional basketball league NBL was formed.  National Basketball League announced its arrival on  December 1, 1898 with a game between Trenton Nationals and Hancock Athletic Association. Six teams came to play in the first season, three teams from Philadelphia(German town Nationals, Clover Wheelman, Hancock Athletic Association)and three teams froms New Jersey(Camden Electrics, Trenton Nationals, Millville Glass Blowers). Team Trenton Nationals was the champion of the inaugural season.

    Each year, new teams were added, but the league could not sustain its popularity and gradually  started to show the signs of decline. NBL lasted for only five years and dissolved in 1904 due to controversies and internal issues.

    After a long interval of 33 years, NBL was reintroduced in1937. The league made its comeback with 13 teams owned by three corporations  General Electric, Fire Stone and Good Year. The pioneer league of NBL made a very significant contribution to the success and development of professional basketball and paved the way for emerging basketball leagues.

    American Basketball League

    In 1925 , Joseph Carr president of National Football League made an attempt to establish a genuine professionl basketball league with the name of ABL. The league was made up of top nine teams from East and Midwest region. Team Cleveland Rosenblums was the champions of the first season 1925-26. Although league had some big teams like Brooklyn Celtics, Boston Whirlwinds and Philadelphia SPHAs in its disposal but struck quite badly by financial problems and could not continue its operation in 1931 and 1932.

    ABL was regrouped in 1933, functioned as a East Coast Minor League for another two years but lost popularity when NBL came in the lime light again in 1937 and eventually ceased in 1955.

    Basetball Association of America

    BAA was a professional basketball league, organised in New York city by Walter A, Brown owner of Boston Garden. The league started its function on June 6, 1946 and officially disbanded in 1949. Within three years the league achieved quite a bit . It came across as a major basketball league in United States and became the first league manage to play most of its games  in big courts of major cities. The league started its journey with 11 teams, first league game was held in Toronto between Toronto  Huskies and New York knickerbockers on November 1, 1946. The season ended with the win of  Philadelphia Warriors. Before the start of second season, 4 teams were left out from BAA. In that season, Baltimore Bullets emerge as the winner and Minneapolis Lakers became the champions of the final season.

    On August 3, 1949 BAA and another contemporary basketball league NBL decided to merge with mutual consent and formed a new professional basketball league NBA , the most popular basketball league of all time.

    National Basketball Association

    Two professional basketball leagues NBL and BAA came together and produced  a new basketball league called NBA. The new  league kicked off  with a bang and soon bacame a dominant force in the world of basketball league . The league started up its first season on August 3, 1949 with 17 teams situated in various small and large areas. In the first season, Minneapolis Lakers became the champion of NBA.

    Prior to the start of second season, six teams dropped out and the league reduced to 11 teams. Each year less and less teams participated in the league until 1954 when only 8 teams remained in the league, that state continued for further few years. In 1961, a new team Chicago Packers joined the NBA, thus league started to expand and grow. In 2004 the league reached to its largest size of 30 teams.

    A number of big players was the part of  NBA like George Mikan and Bill Russell, both won 5 and 11 titels for their clubs  respectively. In 1967 NBA had to face a major problem in the form of a rival league called ABA. NBA lost its few key players as well but the league continued to grow  in stature. In 1976 , the rival league came to an end, thus all 4 remaning teams of ABA were forced to join NBA. Individual popularity of some big players like Earvin Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in early 80s and later on, Michael Jordon in late 80s helped in the revival of  NBA.

    Today NBA is the most popular, lucrative and highly competitive basketball league in United States of  America.




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