NBA Founded
The Basketball Association of America and National Basketball League merged to form the NBA
August 03, 1949
Basketball Gets a Professional Home
The National Basketball Association was founded on August 3, 1949, when the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The BAA had been formed in 1946 by the owners of large hockey arenas on the East Coast who wanted to fill their buildings on nights when hockey wasn't being played. The NBL was an older league with roots in the Midwest that had stronger ties to the best players and smaller-city markets. After three years of competing for players and fans, the two leagues agreed to merge, creating the NBA with 17 teams — a number that has since grown to 30 franchises spanning the United States and Canada.
Early Struggles to Find an Audience
The early NBA was far from the polished, globally marketed league it is today. Teams folded, moved, and merged in the first years. The game itself was rougher and lower-scoring than the modern version — shot clocks, three-point lines, and other rules that opened up the game came later. Player salaries were modest by any standard, and many players worked second jobs in the off-season. The league's fortunes began to change in the late 1950s and 1960s as larger personalities like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain raised the level of play and drew bigger audiences. The 1960s rivalry between the Boston Celtics and other contenders gave the league its first sustained narrative.
A Global Game
The NBA's transformation into a global enterprise accelerated dramatically in the 1980s with the arrival of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan, who made basketball must-see entertainment. The 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team" — featuring Jordan, Johnson, Bird, and other NBA stars — introduced the league to audiences worldwide and sparked international interest that fueled the growth of basketball in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Today, the NBA is one of the most globalized sports leagues in the world, with players from over 40 countries competing and games broadcast to hundreds of nations. What began as a merger of struggling professional leagues in 1949 has become a multi-billion-dollar global sport.