1949–50 NBA season

Notable occurrences

• The Indianapolis Jets and Providence Steamrollers folded after the 1948–49 season, leaving the BAA with 10 teams. Excluding the Jets, three of those teams (Fort Wayne, Minneapolis, and Rochester) had joined the BAA from the National Basketball League (NBL) one year before.
• Six NBL franchises – (Anderson, Denver, Sheboygan, Syracuse, Tri-Cities, and Waterloo) and one expansion team (Indianapolis Olympians) – joined with the ten surviving BAA teams to create the National Basketball Association with 17 teams. Originally, an eighteenth team (a seventh team that played in the NBL in its last season) in the Oshkosh All-Stars were slated to join the NBA as well to make an even 18 teams for two divisions that reflected the old two leagues similar to what Major League Baseball had done for the National League and American League (though the Oshkosh franchise would have moved to Milwaukee, with Green Bay being an alternative location to move, with a potential name change to something like the Milwaukee Shooting Stars (since previous reported rumors of the era suggested the All-Stars would merge with Milwaukee's independent team called the Shooting Stars after the final NBL season ended) being had for the team as well), with one division comprising the former BAA teams playing 70 total games and the other comprising the former NBL teams (including the expansion Olympians team) playing a total of 69 games. However, when the Oshkosh franchise decided to withdraw from the newly created NBA and essentially fold operations not long afterward by September and October 1949, the NBA would abort that planned idea and hold the only season in league history where they had three divisions involved in the Eastern, Western, and temporarily created Central divisions (Central later being a permanent division for the NBA in future seasons) all playing a total of at least 62 games (30 home games for each team), with the Central Division having only five teams with the BAA's teams from the previous season (the prior three surviving NBL transfers into the BAA from the previous season alongside Chicago and St. Louis), the Eastern Division having six teams with mostly BAA teams from the prior season alongside Syracuse, and the Western Division having the remaining six teams from the former NBL, including the Olympians expansion team.

Teams

• Note: Team logos were not necessarily used by the teams on their jerseys.
• Any logo displaying offensive or racist images are only represented here for historical accuracy.

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

Main article: 1950 NBA 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, Indianapolis Olympians
  • George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers
  • Jim Pollard, Minneapolis Lakers
• All-NBA Second Team:
  • Ralph Beard, Indianapolis Olympians
  • Frank Brian, Anderson Packers
  • Al Cervi, Syracuse Nationals
  • Fred Schaus, Fort Wayne Pistons
  • Dolph Schayes, Syracuse Nationals

References

General source: 1949–50 NBA Season Summary basketball-reference.com. Retrieved August 31, 2010.

References

1. (4 August 1949). "NBL, BAA merge, end pro net war". The Republic.
2. (November 16, 2009). "NBA is born".
3. (24 April 1950). "Lakers win, 110-95, for third title". [[Star Tribune]].
4. (July 24, 2019). "NBA Season Recaps: 1946–2019".
5. (21 January 2022). "How the NBA’s 75th anniversary sweeps away its early history". [[The Washington Post]].
6. Nelson, Murry R.. (2009). "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949". McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
7. Nelson, Murry R.. (2009). "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949". McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.