Friday, December 9, 2016

1947-48

With the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America in the books, the league looked to the 1947-48 season with a few changes. The schedule was scaled back from 60 to 48 games. The league also dropped from 11 teams to 8, as the Toronto Huskies, Cleveland Rebels, Pittsburgh Ironmen and Detroit Falcons all folded, and the Baltimore Bullets joined the league from the American Basketball League. The league continued to battle with the ABL on the east coast, the National Basketball League in the midwest, and to a lesser extent, the Pacific Coast Basketball league out west, for the finest talent in the country. The New York State league was entering its final season, and the Eastern League headed into their second season. Also at this time, two other smaller leagues, the Southern Basketball League and the Professional Basketball League of America, took their steps towards a piece of the American basketball pie, trying to capitalize on the post-war economic boom that the sporting world was witnessing. The Pacific league ceased operations by the end of the season, the 16-team PBLA lasted only weeks into their first season, and the Southern League collapsed after two years. Basketball's popularity was on a torrid increase, and the competition for players was beginning to get fierce. In the next few years, the sport would begin to congeal into one dominant major league.

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