1949–50 NBA season
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The 1949–50 NBA season was the inaugural season of the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...
, which was created in 1949 by merger of the 3-year-old BAA and 12-year-old NBL. The 1950 NBA playoffs ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals in 6 games in the
NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is a ...
. Commonly 1949–50 is counted as the fourth NBA season. It recognizes the three BAA seasons ( 1946–47, 1947–48 and 1948–49) as part of its own history, sometimes without comment.


Notable occurrences

* The
Indianapolis Jets The Indianapolis Jets were a Basketball Association of America (BAA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded as the Indianapolis Kautskys and used that name until the team joined the BAA. They played for one year in the BAA and then ceased o ...
and Providence Steamrollers folded after the 1948–49 season, leaving the BAA with 10 teams. Excluding the Jets, three of those teams had joined the BAA from the National Basketball League (NBL) one year before. * Six NBL franchises – ( Anderson,
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Sheboygan,
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
,
Tri-Cities Tri-Cities most often refers to: *Tri-Cities, Tennessee, United States *Tri-Cities, Washington, United States Tri-City, Tricity or Tri-Cities may also refer to: Populated places Americas Canada *Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of Co ...
, and Waterloo) and one expansion team (
Indianapolis Olympians The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as H ...
) – joined with the ten surviving BAA teams to create the National Basketball Association with 17 teams.


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.


Eastern Division

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).


Central Division

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).


Western Division

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). :x – clinched playoff spot


Playoffs


Statistics leaders

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


NBA awards

* All-NBA First Team: ** Max Zaslofsky, Chicago Stags ** Bob Davies, Rochester Royals **
Alex Groza Alex John Groza (October 7, 1926 – January 21, 1995) was an American professional basketball player from Martins Ferry, Ohio. Resulting from the CCNY point shaving scandal, Groza was banned from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for l ...
,
Indianapolis Olympians The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as H ...
** George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers **
Jim Pollard James Clifford Pollard (July 9, 1922 – January 22, 1993) was an American professional basketball player and coach. As a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Pollard was considered one of the best forwards in the 1950s and was k ...
, Minneapolis Lakers *All-NBA Second Team: ** Ralph Beard, Indianapolis Olympians ** Frank Brian, Anderson Packers **
Al Cervi Alfred Nicholas Cervi (February 12, 1917 – November 9, 2009) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of ...
, Syracuse Nationals ** Fred Schaus,
Fort Wayne Pistons A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''face ...
** Dolph Schayes, Syracuse Nationals


References

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