1948 BAA draft

The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 season. In this draft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the NBL, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. Originally, this BAA draft was meant to be a joint draft venture with the NBL similar to what had meant to occur in the BAA's inaugural league draft (as well as what the National Football League would later do in the late 1960s with the American Football League). However, on May 9, the day before the draft was meant to begin for both leagues, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (who were a part of the NBL at the time) would sign consensus All-American prospect and NCAA scoring champion Murray Wier from the University of Iowa, which caused BAA commissioner Maurice Podoloff to object to the Blackhawks' early signing attempt and endangered what was already a strenuously held truce between the two leagues. Before the draft officially began on May 10, the Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, and Indianapolis Kautskys announced they were leaving the NBL for the BAA (albeit with the Fort Wayne team officially dropping the "Zollner" part of the Pistons name and the Indianapolis team renaming the Kautskys to the Indianapolis Jets in order for both of them to be admitted in since the BAA did not allow for teams to promote local businesses as team names); the desertion of those four NBL teams led to the planned joint draft to be withdrawn on the NBL's end and subsequently led to the NBL breaking off all relations with the BAA at the time. As such, each league would conduct their own draft instead, with the BAA officially selecting 113 collegiate players and the NBL being slated to have chosen 125 total collegiate players themselves.

Draft

Position	Guard	Forward	Center

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality	Team	School / club team
1	1		G	United States	Providence Steamrollers	Marshall
1	2	#	C	United States	Indianapolis Jets	Arkansas
1	3	#	C	United States	Boston Celtics	Harvard
1	4	^	F/C	United States	New York Knicks	NYU
1	5		F/C	United States	Chicago Stags	DePaul
1	6		F/C	United States	Baltimore Bullets	Columbia
1	7	#	G/F	United States	St. Louis Bombers	Cornell
1	8		F	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Indiana
1	9	#	–	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	California
1	10	^	G	United States	Rochester Royals	Rochester Royals (NBL)
1	11		F/C	United States	Philadelphia Warriors	Western Kentucky
1	12		F/C	United States	Washington Capitols	Washington

Other picks

The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one BAA/NBA game.

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality	Team	School / club team
–	–		G/F	United States	Boston Celtics	Fordham
–	–		G/F	United States	New York Knicks	Marquette
–	–		F	United States	Baltimore Bullets	Humboldt State
–	–		G	United States	St. Louis Bombers	Illinois
–	–		F/C	United States	Baltimore Bullets	East Texas State
–	–	+	F/C	United States	Providence Steamrollers	Louisville
–	–		G	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Wisconsin
–	–		F	United States	Chicago Stags	North Carolina
–	–		G/F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Utah
–	–	+	G/F	United States	Rochester Royals	Syracuse
–	–	^	F/C	United States	New York Knicks	Northeast Missouri
–	–		F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	DePauw
–	–		G/F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Western Kentucky
–	–		F/C	United States	Indianapolis Jets	USC
–	–		F	United States	Boston Celtics	Tennessee
–	–		F	United States	Baltimore Bullets	Kentucky
–	–		G	United States	Chicago Stags	DePaul
–	–		G	United States	Washington Capitols	NC State
–	–		G	United States	Boston Celtics	NYU
–	–		F	United States	Indianapolis Jets	Georgetown
–	–		G	United States	Baltimore Bullets	Georgetown
–	–		G	United States	Baltimore Bullets	Rider
–	–		G/F	United States	Rochester Royals	Bowling Green
–	–		G	United States	Indianapolis Jets	NYU
–	–		F	United States	Rochester Royals	Seton Hall
–	–		G	United States	New York Knicks	Arkansas
–	–		C	United States	Boston Celtics	Sam Houston State
–	–		F	United States	Minneapolis Lakers	Beloit
–	–		G/F	United States	St. Louis Bombers	Texas Wesleyan
–	–		G	United States	Washington Capitols	Kentucky
–	–		C	United States	New York Knicks	Cornell
–	–		F/C	United States	Philadelphia Warriors	SMU
–	–		G	United States	New York Knicks	Eastern Kentucky
–	–		G	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Kentucky
–	–		G	United States	New York Knicks	Ohio
–	–		G	United States	Chicago Stags	Western Kentucky
–	–		F/C	United States	Providence Steamrollers	BYU
–	–		F	United States	Indianapolis Jets	Rice
–	–		G	United States	Fort Wayne Pistons	Iowa
–	–		G	United States	St. Louis Bombers	Saint Louis