On November 1, 1946, Toronto and New York played the first game in BAA/NBA history

Friday, November 1, 1946, Toronto. The theater of the first game in the history of the BAA (the ancestor of the current NBA, which was formed in 1949 during the merger with the NBL), Maple Leaf Gardens welcomed about 7,090 people on this fall evening in the province of Ontario. Everyone piles into the hallways of the Canada Hall, which is usually used for ice hockey games, to watch this historic poster (the only one on the schedule that day) between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knicks.

These are two of the league’s original eleven franchises, along with the St. Louis Bombers, Washington Capitols, Boston Celtics, Detroit Falcons, Pittsburgh Ironmen, Cleveland Rebels, Chicago Stags, Providence Steamrollers and Philadelphia Warriors. Divided into two divisions (West and East) and gathering 160 players (all white), they all played 60 matches during this inaugural exercise in 1946/47.

The first professional basketball league to organize its meetings in the big cities of the Midwest and Northeast of the United States (and Canada), under the leadership of the owners of the big halls, and then under the direction commissioner Maurice Podoloff (until 1963), who then lent his name to the current MVP trophy, the BAA therefore chose the Huskies and Knicks to participate in the first meeting in its history.

The Knicks, the first winners in history

History records, in any case, that the Knicks won on the field of the Huskies, after 48 minutes (divided into four quarters), with the final score now achieved in the space of at most three quarters (if not two): 68-66!

Led in particular by Leo Gottlieb (14 points), the New York franchise was able to withstand 18 points from Ed Sadowski (Toronto coach/player!), as well as 16 units from George Nostrand. Note that Italy’s Hank Biasatti became the first non-American to step on a BAA (or NBA) floor.

History also remembers that Ossie Shechtman, the leader of New York at the time, scored the first basket in the league. Little did they know that this would be the first in a long, very long list, as more than five million baskets have been registered to date!

« Back then, none of us could have imagined what this league would become », congratulations to Ossie Schectman and 2010three years before his death. ” We didn’t know if it would work, if it would achieve anything. »

Free ticket for “giants”!

For a little anecdote, know that anyone taller than Husky center George Nostrand (2m03) could get in… for free (!) at Maple Leaf Gardens, but no spectators appeared tall enough to take advantage of the offer, while the pipe band that still exists that night performed: the 48th Highlanders of Canada Pipes & Drums. Otherwise, you had to pay between $0.75 and $2.50 for a ticket, or between $10 and $35 today, adjusted for inflation.

A completely different era. This is evidenced by the fact that salaries were so low that the players had to work in the off-season, and the accounts of all teams were quickly in the red.

However, that didn’t stop it Warriors by Joe Fulks to win, at the end of the campaign, the first title in history, against deer (4-1). Just before the BAA listed only eight franchises in its ranks, at the start of the 1947/48 financial year, mainly due to the disappearance of the Huskies (only one short season in the league). The Huskies who, despite their defeat and rapid extinction, still remain an iconic team, thanks to their participation in this first ever meeting.

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Photo: DR