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1948–49 Indianapolis Jets season
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| team | Indianapolis Jets |
| league | BAA |
| end_year | 1949 |
| wins | 18 |
| losses | 42 |
| division | Western |
| division_place | 6 |
| coach | Bruce Hale (4–13) |
| Burl Friddle (14–29) | |
| owner | Paul A. Walk |
| gm | William Hale |
| arena | Hinkle Fieldhouse |
| radio | WXLW |
| playoffs | Did not qualify |
| bbr_team | INJ |
| no_nextseason | 1 |
Burl Friddle (14–29) The 1948–49 BAA season was the Jets' 1st and only season as the Jets in the NBA/BAA, as well as their eighth professional season including their time spent in the NBL (eleventh if you include their seasons in the short-lived NPBL and MBC leagues) and 14th (17th if you include brief cameos in the World Professional Basketball Tournament as the Indianapolis Pure Oils and Indianapolis Oilers) and final season as a franchise after previously going by the Indianapolis Kautskys, named under original team owner Frank Kautsky's local grocery store. After the season ended and they participated in the 1949 BAA draft, the NBL would merge with the BAA to form the NBA. However, before the merger officially happened, the Jets' owner, Paul A. Walk, wanted to sell the team off to the owners of the rivaling NBL's final champions ever, the Anderson (Duffey) Packers (in brothers Ike W. Duffey and John B. Duffey, with Ike being the primary brother of interest for Walk) due to the Jets going into receivership with $20,000 in debt and rookie George Glamack seeking $50,000 in damages from the Jets franchise (later being joined by Walt Kirk and Leo Mogus for each of them seeking a total of $4,662.51 owed in a lawsuit by them the following month), but the BAA's commissioner, Maurice Podoloff, rejected the sale of the team to a rivaling league's team owner, which subsequently led to them folding operations soon afterward on June 20 that year. As a result, the Jets ceased operations and were subsequently replaced by the Indianapolis Olympians, who were originally meant to be a part of the NBL before the merger occurred.
Draft
Main article: 1948 BAA draft
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | George Kok | C | United States | Arkansas |
| 2 | 14 | Ray Lumpp | G | United States | NYU |
| 3 | 26 | Dick Wehr | F | United States | Rice |
| 4 | 38 | Alex Hannum | F/C | United States | USC |
| 5 | 50 | Reede Berg | – | United States | Oregon |
| 6 | 62 | Andy Kostecka | F | United States | Georgetown |
| 7 | 73 | Jack Coleman | – | United States | LSU |
| 8 | 83 | Norman Kohler | – | United States | North Carolina |
| 9 | 93 | Bob Paxton | – | United States | North Carolina |
| 10 | 102 | Jack Phoenix | – | United States | Idaho |
Roster
Regular season
Season standings
Game log
| 60 | March 15 | [Providence](1948-49-providence-steamrollers-season) | W 90–84 | Walt Kirk (17) | 18–42 |
|---|
Buyout by the NBA
Initially, the Indianapolis Jets planned on continuing to play for another season like every other Basketball Association of America team had done at the time, as noted by the 1949 BAA draft showcasing the Jets participating in that event, with them notably selecting Alex Groza from the University of Kentucky, Leo Barnhorst from the University of Notre Dame, Mac Otten from Bowling Green State University, Bob Evans from Butler University, Charlie Mass from Butler University, Don Boven from Western Michigan University, Jim O'Halloran from the University of Notre Dame, and J. L. Parks from Oklahoma State University as the last selections they'd ever have for the second and final BAA draft that they would ever participate in. However, after the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) officially merged to become the National Basketball Association (NBA) on August 3, 1949, the newly formed NBA would purchase up the players from both the BAA's defunct teams (the Indianapolis Jets and Providence Steamrollers) as a means of buying out both of the BAA's teams that didn't make it to the new merger into the NBA. Unlike the Steamrollers, who at least saw seven of their players get bought out and dispersed to the Boston Celtics over a week later, none of the Jets' players would really end up being utilized in a dispersal draft properly since the Jets franchise had already been considered bankrupt beforehand on June 20, 1949, though Mac Otten was slated to have been traded to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Don Boven was slated to have been traded to the Waterloo Hawks by the start of what can officially be considered the first proper NBA season. Not only that, but the Jets' first selection in the 1949 draft, Alex Groza, was also previously selected by the NBL's own Indianapolis expansion team that would end up taking the Jets' place once the merger happened, the Indianapolis Olympians, one month before the BAA's draft occurred; the Olympians would end up lasting for four seasons before folding due to Groza's involvement in the CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1951, despite the Olympians being a playoff team for every single season they played in the NBA.
References
References
- https://www.retroseasons.com/teams/indianapolis-kautskys/
- https://www.retroseasons.com/players/william-hale/
- [https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/INJ/1949.html 1948-49 Indianapolis Jets]
- Nelson, Murry R.. (2009). "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949". McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
- https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/past_drafts/1949
- https://www.apbr.org/baaminutes.html
- Bradley, Robert D.. (2013). "The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts". Scarecrow Press.
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