The NBA’s 2021-22 season is billed as its 75th anniversary season.
The league says it was founded in 1946 when the Basketball Association of America (BAA) began operation. Certainly, the BAA is a part of the NBA’s history, but so is the National Basketball League (NBL), which was founded in 1937. After three years of acrimonious competition in the late 1940s, the BAA and the NBL merged Aug. 3, 1949, to form the NBA. Thus the league’s true 75th anniversary season doesn’t begin until 2024.
By using the 1946 founding date, the NBA has neglected NBL records, all while incorporating BAA statistics into the official NBA record book; altered the histories of five of its extant franchises; and missed out on important progress toward racially integrating the hardwood made by the NBL.
