1950 NBA Playoffs

Last updated
1950 NBA Playoffs
Dates March 20–April 23, 1950
Season 1949–50
Teams 12
Champions Minneapolis Lakers (2nd title)
Runners-up Syracuse Nationals (1st finals appearance)
← 1949 1951 →
The 1949-50 NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers. 1950 Minneapolis Lakers.jpeg
The 1949-50 NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers.

The 1950 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the inaugural National Basketball Association 1949–50 season. The tournament concluded with the Central Division champion Minneapolis Lakers defeating the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men's professional basketball league in North America; composed of 30 teams. It is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.

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. The postseason tournament at its conclusion, the 1950 NBA Playoffs, ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.

The 1950 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the inaugural National Basketball Association 1949–50 season. The Central Division champion Minneapolis Lakers faced the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals in a best-of-seven series with Syracuse having home-court advantage.

Contents

Twelve teams qualified for the playoffs. Including tiebreaker games that preceded two of the six first-round series, they began play on Monday to Wednesday, March 20 to 22, and the best-of-seven Finals concluded in game six on Sunday, April 23. The champions played the greatest number of games, 13 in a span of 34 days, on a schedule including both back-to-back games and as many as six days off. [1]

Bracket

The NBA was created in 1949 by merger of two competing professional basketball leagues, the BAA and NBL. For its first season only, the NBA teams were arranged in three divisions: Eastern, comprising the five surviving BAA Eastern Division teams plus Syracuse from the NBL; Central, comprising the five surviving BAA Western Division teams; and Western, comprising all the NBL teams except Syracuse. [1] [2] Within each division the top four teams were matched in two rounds of short series to generate a champion, after which the three division champions contended for the NBA title. With three contenders the third round of the tournament comprised a bye for one and a best-of-three match between the other two. [1]

The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA and the National Basketball League (NBL) merged to create the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The National Basketball League (NBL) was a professional men's basketball league in the United States established in 1937. After the 1948–49 season, its twelfth, it merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to create the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Eastern Division
Semifinals Finals
      
1 Syracuse2
4 Philadelphia 0
1 Syracuse2
2 New York 1
2 New York2
3 Washington 0
Central Division
Semifinals Finals
      
1 Minneapolis2
4 Chicago 0
1 Minneapolis2
3 Fort Wayne 0
2 Rochester 0
3 Fort Wayne2
Western Division
Semifinals Finals
      
1 Indianapolis2
4 Sheboygan 1
1 Indianapolis 1
2 Anderson2
2 Anderson2
3 Tri-Cities 1
League Finals

The three Division Champions were seeded 1-3 based on their respective regular season records, with the top seed earning a bye into the NBA Finals.

 Semifinals  Finals
         
   1 Syracuse 2
  2Minneapolis 2   2Minneapolis 4
  3 Anderson 0 

Central Division tiebreakers

Rochester Royals vs. Minneapolis Lakers : Lakers win series 1-0

Fort Wayne Pistons vs. Chicago Stags: Pistons win series 1-0

Chicago Stags basketball team

The Chicago Stags were an original National Basketball Association franchise based in Chicago, Illinois from 1946 to 1950.

Minneapolis gets #1 seed, Rochester gets #2 seed, Fort Wayne gets #3 seed, Chicago gets #4 seed.

Division Semifinals

Western Division
Indianapolis Olympians basketball team

The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University--now known as Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The Sheboygan Red Skins were a professional basketball team based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin that was a National Basketball Association original franchise in 1949-1950.

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Olympians and Red Skins.

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Packers and Blackhawks.

Eastern Division

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Nationals and Warriors.

Last playoff meeting: [lower-alpha 1] 1949 Eastern Division Finals (Washington won 2-1)

Central Division

Last playoff meeting: [lower-alpha 1] 1949 Western Division Semifinals (Minneapolis won 2-0)

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Royals and Pistons.

Division Finals

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Olympians and Packers.

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Nationals and Knicks.

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Lakers and Pistons.

NBA Semifinals

(1) Syracuse Nationals have Division semifinals byes.

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Lakers and Packers.

NBA Finals

This was the first playoff meeting [lower-alpha 1] between the Nationals and Lakers.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Notes identifying the "last playoff meeting" (latest previous meeting) or "first playoff meeting" between two teams refer to BAA and NBA playoffs only—for this inaugural NBA season, that is, only to the BAA playoffs of 1946–47 to 1948–49. (This follows NBA recognition of BAA history as part of its own.) [3] All of the Western teams were new to the NBA; so was Syracuse, which participated in all but one of the Eastern playoff matches. [1] [2] As Syracuse advanced from the East, two of the three division champions who composed the two-round League Finals were new to the NBA. Furthermore, only Chicago among the three Central Division playoff teams had been a member of the BAA for more than one season (compare 1947–48) [4] as the other three had moved from NBL to BAA in 1948.

Related Research Articles

The National Basketball Association Conference Finals are the Eastern and Western championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league currently consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and 1 in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs. At the end of the playoffs, the top two teams play each other in the Conference Finals, to determine the Conference Champions from each side, who then proceed to play in the NBA Finals.

Mike Novak American basketball player

Michael Donald Novak was an American professional basketball player. He played in the NBL, BAA, and NBA from 1939 to 1954. A 6'9" center from Loyola University Chicago, he was one of the first prominent "big men" to play professional basketball, averaging 8.5 points per game over the course of his career as a member of the Chicago Bruins, Chicago Studebaker Flyers, Sheboygan Red Skins, Syracuse Nationals, Rochester Royals, and Philadelphia Warriors.

The World Professional Basketball Tournament was an invitational tournament held in Chicago and sponsored by the Chicago Herald American. The annual event was held from 1939 to 1948, and the winner was generally acknowledged as the World Champions of basketball. Many teams came from the National Basketball League, but it also included the best teams from other leagues and the best independent barnstorming teams such as the New York Rens and Harlem Globetrotters. Games were played at various sites including Chicago Coliseum, International Amphitheater and Chicago Stadium.

The 1957 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1956-57 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics defeating the Western Division champion St. Louis Hawks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

The 1956 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1955-56 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia Warriors defeating the Western Conference champion Fort Wayne Pistons 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.

The 1955 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1954-55 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Syracuse Nationals defeating the Western Conference champion Fort Wayne Pistons 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

The 1954 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1953–54 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Minneapolis Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion Syracuse Nationals 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

The 1953 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1952–53 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Minneapolis Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.

The 1952 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1951–52 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Minneapolis Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

The 1951 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association 1950–51 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Division champion Rochester Royals defeating the Eastern Division champion New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

The 1949–50 Minneapolis Lakers season was the second season for the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Lakers repeated as NBA Champions, defeating the Syracuse Nationals in six games in the NBA Finals, making it the only franchise to win the championship in each of its first two NBA seasons.

The 1952-53 Minneapolis Lakers season was the fifth season for the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Lakers continued to be the dominant force in the league as they won the Western Division with a 48–22 record. In the playoffs, the Lakers would sweep the Indianapolis Olympians in 2 straight. In the Western Finals, the Lakers would win the first 2 games at home. Against the Fort Wayne Pistons, the Lakers were pushed to a 5th game. The series returned to Minneapolis, where the Lakers won the 5th game 74–58. In the Finals, the Lakers vanquished the New York Knickerbockers for their 2nd straight Championship, and 4th Championship overall in the franchise's first five seasons in the NBA.

Western Conference (NBA) conference of the National Basketball Association

The Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of two conferences that makes up the league, the other being the Eastern Conference. Like the Eastern Conference, the Western Conference is made up of 15 teams, organized in three divisions.

The 1949–50 NBA season was the second season for the Fort Wayne Pistons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and ninth overall as a franchise.

The 1949–50 NBA season was the only season for the Anderson Packers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The 1949–50 NBA season was the first season for the Indianapolis Olympians in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The 1952-53 NBA season was the Pistons' fifth season in the NBA and 12th season as a franchise.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1949–50 NBA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
      Select "Previous Season" from the heading for 1948–49, and so on. Select "Finals" from League Playoffs for the daily schedule of the final series, and so on.
  2. 1 2 "1948–49 BAA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  3. ↑ "NBA Season Recaps". NBA History (nba.com/history). July 1, 2014. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
  4. ↑ "1947–48 BAA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.