1949–50 NBA season

1949–50 NBA season
League	National Basketball Association
Sport	Basketball
Duration	October 29, 1949 – March 19, 1950 March 20–April 6, 1950 (Playoffs) April 8–23, 1950 (Finals)
Number of games	68
Number of teams	17
Draft
Top draft pick	Howie Shannon
Picked by	Providence Steamrollers
Regular season
Top seed	Syracuse Nationals
Top scorer	George Mikan (Minneapolis)
Playoffs
Eastern champions	Syracuse Nationals
Eastern runners-up	New York Knicks
Central champions	Minneapolis Lakers
Central runners-up	Fort Wayne Pistons
Western champions	Anderson Packers
Western runners-up	Indianapolis Olympians
Finals
Champions	Minneapolis Lakers
Runners-up	Syracuse Nationals
NBA seasons
← 1948–49 1950–51 →

The 1949–50 NBA season was the inaugural season of the National Basketball Association, which was created in 1949 by merger of the 3-year-old BAA and 12-year-old NBL.^[1] The postseason tournament (the 1950 NBA Playoffs) at its conclusion, ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.

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.^[2]

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 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.

Coaching changes

Offseason
Team	1948–49 coach	1949–50 coach
Fort Wayne Pistons	Curly Armstrong	Murray Mendenhall
Washington Capitols	Red Auerbach	Bob Feerick

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.^[3]

Eastern Division[]

Eastern Division v t	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
x-Syracuse Nationals	51	13	.797	–	31–1	15–12	5–0	9–1
x-New York Knicks	40	28	.588	13	19–10	18–16	3–2	20–6
x-Washington Capitols	32	36	.471	21	21–13	10–20	1–3	13–13
x-Philadelphia Warriors	26	42	.382	25	15–15	8–23	3–4	9–17
Baltimore Bullets	25	43	.368	26	16–15	8–25	1–3	8–18
Boston Celtics	22	46	.324	29	12–14	5–28	5–4	11–15

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).^[3]

Central Division[]

Central Division v t	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
x-Minneapolis Lakers	51	17	.750	–	30–1	18–16	3–0	16–8
x-Rochester Royals	51	17	.750	–	33–1	17–16	1–0	15–9
x-Fort Wayne Pistons	40	28	.588	11	28–6	12–22	–	14–10
x-Chicago Stags	40	28	.588	11	18–6	14–21	8–1	11–13
St. Louis Bombers	26	42	.382	25	17–14	7–26	2–2	4–20

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).^[3]

Western Division[]

Western Division v t	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
x-Indianapolis Olympians	39	25	.609	–	24–7	12–16	3–2	26–9
x-Anderson Packers	37	27	.578	2	22–9	12–18	3–0	25–12
x-Tri-Cities Blackhawks	29	35	.453	10	20–13	6–20	3–2	20–17
x-Sheboygan Red Skins	22	40	.355	17	17–14	5–22	0–4	15–20
Waterloo Hawks	19	43	.306	20	16–15	2–22	1–6	13–22
Denver Nuggets	11	51	.177	28	9–16	1–25	1–10	8–27

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).^[3]

x – clinched playoff spot

Playoffs[]

Division Semifinals

Division Finals

NBA Semifinals

NBA Finals

E1

Syracuse*

2

E4

Philadelphia

0

E1

Syracuse*

2

Eastern Division

E2

New York

1

E3

Washington

0

E2

New York

2

C1

Minneapolis*

2

C4

Chicago

0

C1

Minneapolis*

2

3

Anderson

0

1

Syracuse

2

Central Division

C3

Fort Wayne

1

2

Minneapolis

2

2

Minneapolis

4

C3

Fort Wayne

2

(Division Final winners were re-seeded based on their regular season win-loss record.)

C2

Rochester

0

W1

Indianapolis*

2

W4

Sheboygan

1

W1

Indianapolis*

1

Western Division

W2

Anderson

2

W3

Tri-Cities

1

W2

Anderson

2

* Division winner
Bold Series winner

Statistics leaders[]

Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points	George Mikan	Minneapolis Lakers	1,865
Assists	Dick McGuire	New York Knicks	386
FG%	Alex Groza	Indianapolis Olympians	.478
FT%	Max Zaslofsky	Chicago Stags	.843

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

NBA awards[]

References[]

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

External links[]

• NBA History at NBA.com
• 1949–50 NBA Season Summary at Basketball-Reference.com