Want To Impress Your Friends With Some Pro Basketball History?
Pro basketball history facts that you can share with everyone
Knowing pro basketball history is a sure fire way to impress your friends and family. And if you’re already a fan, you can always stand to learn a little more pro basketball history. By learning the roots of pro basketball history, you’re sure to know where basketball is headed.
Starting it all out
Pro basketball history in the United States can be traced to a YMCA in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1896.
There was a dispute between members of a YMCA team and the YMCA official.
The angry players decided to form a professional team that would play for money. And two years later, a group of New Jersey newspaper sports editors decided to found the National Basketball League (NBL).
Thus began pro basketball history.
On it goes
The first two successful teams in pro basketball history were the Buffalo Germans and the Original Celtics.
The first major national professional league was the American Basketball League. And the league included the New York Renaissance and the Harlem Globetrotters.
Following the 30s of pro basketball history, the Minneapolis Lakers dominated the 40s as well as the 50s.
The Lakers were coached by John Kundla, winning five NBA championship titles.
But it was the Celtics who dominated the pro basketball history from 1957 to 1969.
The team won 11 NBA titles, including a streak of eight in a row. Bill Russell was the star player making pro basketball history with the Celtics. But we also can’t forget about Wilt Chamberlain of Philadelphia Warriors during that time.
Next in pro basketball history is the dominance of UCLA which produced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In 1967, the ABA started a league in order to rival the NBA, but it disbanded in 1976 and the NBA absorbed these teams. And thus is just the beginning of pro basketball history.
Pro basketball history also includes the first women’s team in 1997 after many failed starts.