National Basketball League

Shortly before the start of World War I, the NCAA and the Amateur Athletic Union disputed control of the regulation. Following the entry of the United States into the conflict, in 1917, the American armed forces contributed to the spread of basketball on European soil, thanks to the significant presence of sports coaches present with the troops. Naismith himself spent two years in France with the YMCA at this time.

The first professional match took place in 1896, in Trenton, and in 1898 the first professional league was founded, called the National Basketball League, consisting of six teams. The first champions were the Trenton Nationals, followed by the New York Wanderers, the Bristol Pile Drivers and the Camden Electrics. This league only lasted until 1904.

During the following years, other regional leagues were organized, during which time the original spirit of the game was not respected, and it often became violent, not only by the players but also by the players. Of the spectators.

The leading professional leagues emerged from the 1920s: the Metropolitan Basketball League appeared in 1921, and the American Basketball League in 1925. Also in 1922 was founded the team of the Dayton Rens, composed exclusively by African-Americans.

They were the Original Celtics, known as the fathers of basketball and presented as the world champions of the discipline. Like the Harlem Globetrotters, created in 1926, the Celtics organized tournaments across the country in the manner of a circus show and dominated the basketball sport in the United States between 1922 and 1928, date of its dissolution.

On June 6, 1946, the Basketball Association of America was created, known by the acronym BAA. In the first match, the Toronto Huskies played at home and the New York Knicks, and after three seasons in 1949, the league merged with the National Basketball League founded in 1937 to form the National Basketball Association.

In the 1950s, the first sports stars emerged, such as George Mikan and Bob Cousy. The Lakers of Minneapolis, who settled in Los Angeles in 1960, and the Boston Celtics dominated the NBA with sixteen titles between the two between 1949 and 1970 and ten matches in the final between 1959 and 1987.

In the 1960s they left their legendary mark players: The Lakers guard Jerry West; the base Oscar Robertson; Celtics center Bill Russell, eleven-time NBA champion who revolutionized the practice of defense, and Wilt Chamberlain, who still holds several NBA records decades later, on March 2, 1962, scored 100. Points in a game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks.

In 1967, the American Basketball Association was created to rival the NBA, which had reached a peak of popularity. The new league sparked public interest with its proposal of a unique style of game and different rules; He introduced a tricolor ball-red, white and blue-a more aggressive and spectacular game and the three-point shot.

Julius Erving was the most famous player, thanks to a high style where the jump and the game over the board were as crucial as the baskets. However, the meager revenues and the progressive decline of the league caused its absorption by the NBA; its four best teams - the New York Nets, the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs - joined the NBA, which also retained some triple-bottomed elements, and since 1970, the NBA has been incontestably the most crucial league, both in terms of popularity and budget and level of play.