Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks was an American professional basketball player. The NBA's first scoring champion, he was sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
The Providence Steamrollers were a Basketball Association of America team based in Providence, Rhode Island. As of 2024, the Steamrollers were the last professional sports franchise from one of the Big Four leagues to be based in Rhode Island.
The Cleveland Rebels were a basketball team in the Basketball Association of America (BAA), a forerunner of the modern National Basketball Association (NBA), based in Cleveland.
John Albert Kundla was an American college and professional basketball coach. He was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL), serving 12 seasons, from 1947 to 1959. His teams won six league championships, one in the NBL, one in the BAA, and four in the NBA. Kundla was the head basketball coach at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul for one season in 1946–47, and at the University of Minnesota for ten seasons, from 1959 to 1968. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
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 1950 NBA playoffs ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Syracuse Nationals in 6 games in the NBA Finals.
The 1946–47 BAA season was the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America. The league launched with 11 teams playing a 60-game schedule. The postseason tournament at its conclusion, ended with the Philadelphia Warriors becoming the first BAA Champion, beating the Chicago Stags 4 games to 1 in the BAA Finals.
Ernest A. Calverley was an American professional basketball player. He was an All-American while playing for the University of Rhode Island. He played professionally with the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America for three seasons from 1946 to 1949. Calverley led the league in assists and was an All-BAA Second Team selection in his first season in the league.
Kenneth Lloyd Sailors was an American professional basketball player active in the 1940s and early 1950s. A 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) guard, he is notable for inventing the jump shot as an alternative to the two-handed, flat-footed set shot.
Howard Shannon was an American basketball player and coach. He played professionally in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the early years of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He later coached at the high school and college levels.
The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to become the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 season. In this draft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the NBL, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players.
Thomas Francis Callahan was an American professional basketball player. He played collegiately for Rockhurst University. Callahan played for the Providence Steamrollers in the BAA for 13 games during the 1946–47 season.
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 merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Richard Fitzgerald was an American professional basketball player.
Robert Edward Faught was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Cleveland Rebels of the Basketball Association of America.
Irwin Paul Rothenberg was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Cleveland Rebels, Washington Capitols, Baltimore Bullets, St. Louis Bombers, and New York Knicks of the Basketball Association of America. Rothenberg also played in the American Basketball League for the Philadelphia Sphas, New York Gothams, and Paterson Crescents.
Raymond A. Wertis was a professional basketball player. He played for the Cleveland Rebels, Toronto Huskies, and Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America.
John Melvin Thurston was an American professional basketball player. Thurston played for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks between 1946 and 1948 when they were still in the National Basketball League, then played for the Providence Steamrollers of the Basketball Association of America during the second half of the 1947–48 BAA season.
Elmore Robert Morgenthaler was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Providence Steamrollers and the Philadelphia Warriors in the Basketball Association of America (BAA), among other franchises and leagues. Standing at 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m), Morgenthaler is officially recognized as the first seven-foot player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
