History of the NBA

History of the NBA

NBA National Basket Associations is a men’s professional league in North America was started back in June 6, 1946 in New York and was known as BAA. They later merged with their rivals NBL to form NBA on 9th August 1949. The owners of ice hockey arenas in North eastern, Midwestern United States and Canada are the ones that founded and merged to form this league. Though the names changed from BAA to NBA the management was the same.

The NBA consists of 29 clubs that are found in United States and 1 in Canada making a total of 30 franchised member clubs. It is an active member of USA Basketball and its being recognized by FIBA as national governing body for basketball in US.

The name NBA came after there were fears that their might develop legal complications in future. The NBA has changed since its formation and during all this time the new league has been reducing. It first reduced to seventeen franchises and they were distributed in small as well as large cities.

The NBA further froze to eleven franchises later in 1950 and the process further continued until they reached to the smallest size of eight franchises. This was from 1953 through 1954. This freezing further saw the small cities moving to larger cities.

Slowly NBA has undergone several changes since it started. They had tried to play in several leagues without success. But when they merged NBA is considered to have played in major cities.

1n 1947 - 1948 the color barrier was broken in this league. This is where a Japanese- African played for New York Knicks who who entered the league and history was made. Later in the years other black players were featured.

Through the years the league has introduced so many rules which continue to change as it grows. It has continued to strengthen and the ninth franchise member who are known as the Chicago Packers in 1961 as they became Chicago Zephyrs 1962-63, spent several seasons in Baltimore as the Baltimore Bullets 1963-73, and than the Capitol Bullets 1973-74, finally landed in Washington, as the Washington Bullets, in 1974 and then finally became Washington Wizards 1997-Present. In 1966 – 1967 there other teams that joined to form a total of 14. These teams are Chicago Bulls, San Diego Rockets, Seattle Supersonics, Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks.

The league has faced several challenges that have threatened its existence. In 1967, the formation of ABA almost shook NBA. It saw four of its referees move to the ABA as well as their top scoring player. But this came with some light because it also benefited from getting the best college star of that era.

The formation of this other league made the NBA to be aggressive which made them to continue recruiting until they reached around 18 franchises.

Their logo was formed in 1969. It was supposed to honor one of the legendary Jerry West but members felt it was not good to individualize that since NBA was a team work.

All through the years, NBA has continued to grow and play in various leagues with other teams that have been formed. This is proven by the fact that in 2010 the NBA played in Cowboy Stadium and the field had the biggest crowd of 108,713 that has never been seen before.

There are four major North American Professional sports leagues and NBA is one of them. Their players are the best paid worldwide with an annual salary for each player.