The National Basketball Association, or as we all call it the NBA, is the most popular sports league in the United States and probably in the world. The league was established in 1949 when the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merged to form the NBA.

The BAA was founded in 1946, nine years after the NBL. The new league immediately got a lot of attention mainly because it was established in larger cities than the NBL which existed only in small Midwestern cities like Akron or Fort Wayne. The NBL games were played in small school gyms while the newly established BAA was present in the largest major-market arenas such as Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden.

It didn’t take much time until the BAA started to attract the best players in the country and by the end of the 1948-49 season, four NBL teams, Rochester, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis, decided to join the BAA.

George Mikan, the best basketball player at the time, who in 1997 was selected as one of the 50 greatest players in the history of the league, also defected to the new league joining the Minneapolis Lakers.

Luckily for everyone, representatives of both leagues were interested in a merge. The merge officially happened on August 3, 1949, at New York’s Empire State Building. Maurice Podoloff, head of the BAA since its inception was elected head of the new NBA league. The new league was made of 17 teams from both large and small cities but that number quickly decreased to eight by the end of the 1954-55 season.

The league had financial troubles at the beginning and managed to keep its existence mainly because of the owner of the Fort Wayne Pistons, called Frank Zollner.

After the rough start, the league quickly developed as the fans’ interest grew.

In 1954 the 24-second shot clock was introduced which made the game much faster and dynamic. The average scoring per game immediately increased which made the game more fun for the fans.

The Minneapolis Lakers, led by Mikan, were the first great team in the history of the league winning five of the first six championships.

Shortly after, Bill Russell joined Bob Cousy in Boston and the Celtics took over the league, winning 8 consecutive championships, something that no team has ever come close to.

The Celtic’s dominance lasted until the mid-1960s when Wilt Chamberlain came into the league and became one of the most dominant players ever.

The 1970s will be remembered for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who started his career with the Milwaukee Bucks where he won one championship and move to the Los Angeles Lakers where he won five more. Abdul-Jabbar is still the player who has scored the most points in the history of the NBA.

The New York Knicks won two NBA championships in the 1970s and, unfortunately for every Knicks fan out there, they haven’t won another one till this day.

The 1980s will be remembered for Magic Johnson and Larry Bird who revived the Lakers-Celtics rivalry. Both players dominated the decade with Magic winning five championships with the Lakers while Bird won three with the Celtics. The Philadelphia 76ers managed to win a title in this decade as well as the Detroit Pistons which won two.

The 1990s is the decade when the NBA reached its global popularity. The game that so far was watched mostly in the USA spread through the entire globe, opening its doors for many international players. The ‘90s will be remembered for Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player ever, who led his Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.

After Jordan’s retirement from the Bulls, his head coach Phil Jackson moved to the Lakers where he won his third three-peat with guys named Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

In 2003 LeBron James entered the league but he had to wait for his turn because San Antonio Spurs were the best team at the time.

LeBron was at his prime at the beginning of the 2010s when he won two championships with Miami and later one with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Lakers. He would have won more if Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors didn’t change the game with their “small-ball” style of play which brought them three championships.

And here we are at the beginning of the 2020s. The NBA is most definitely the most popular league in the world. The league has 30 teams from the USA and Canada and international players from all over the world. The league is organizing games in Europe, Asia, and Africa every year which brings the opportunity to fans all over the world to witness the magic of the NBA.

Only time will show how the league will develop. The league somehow manages to give the fans the feeling that the present season is the most exciting ever which is the main reason why we love this game.

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A brief history of basketball- How & When the game was invented