National Basketball Association history

The BAA subsequently raided the original Baltimore Bullets from the American Basketball League (ABL) to bring their ranks back up to eight teams for the 1947-48 season, while the NBL fielded 11 squads that year.

His major moves in the 1948 offseason were a pair of signings that deprived the BAA of top-flight talent.

In the spring of 1949 came Ferris’s most daring move, one that has been largely forgotten but should not be underestimated.

The incorporation of African American players, beginning in 1950 with Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols, further enhanced the level of play and improved the league's image in progressive circles.

Only a point-shaving scandal that rocked the college game in January of 1951 allowed the NBA a chance to grab the attention of basketball fans nationwide.

Public disenchantment was crystallized by a nationally televised contest between the Knicks and the Boston Celtics in 1954, from which the network cut away in the final minutes because the action was so enervating.

Auerbach retired in 1966 as coach and became president and general manager of the Celtics.

Auerbach was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.

Unwilling to change its own game to emulate the upstart league, the NBA instead entered into prolonged negotiations for a merger that was finally consummated in 1976.

By 1981, a majority of NBA teams were losing money, and the league itself seemed at a loss for a solution to the crisis.

The league soon rebounded under the leadership of David Stern, NBA commissioner from 1984, who helped transform it into an international entertainment company.

Building on the Magic/Bird rivalry, he negotiated a new television contract with NBC prior to the 1990-91 season, with instructions to the network to promote the league's emerging stars.

While Jordan's departure from the league to pursue a baseball career briefly derailed the NBA juggernaut in 1993, his return two years later only seemed to raise his mystique to another level.

The Bulls set an all-time single-season record for wins in 1995-96, en route to the first of three consecutive world championships.

A new collective bargaining agreement ponderously favorable to the league was signed in January of 1999, further solidifying Commissioner Stern's status with league owners and paving the way for sustained profits ad infinitum.

Owned by Bob Douglas, an African American immigrant from St Kitts, the Renaissance was also the only Black-owned franchise in the NBA, BAA or NBL until Robert Johnson’s ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004.

28, 2006, Washington, D.C.), American professional basketball coach whose National Basketball Association (NBA) Boston Celtics won nine NBA championships and 885 games against 455 losses.