American Basketball in 20th century

First big successful national professional league is the American Basketball League ABL,
founded in 1925. The ABL was the top professional league in the United States for many years,
but soon ran into trouble because the majority of teams were run by promoters with little or no
money. A few of the more successful teams moved to the newly formed Basketball Association
of America BAA. However, this league also folded shortly after its creation. Despite the failure
of professional basketball leagues in the early 20th century, a few professional teams were
highly successful. The original Celtics were one of the greatest professionals in basketball
history. Founded in 1915 in New York City, the Celtics played as many as 150 games a season
and dominated their competition until 1936. The Harlem Globetrotters, team that specialized in
entertaining actions and expert ball handling, were also very successful shows throughout the
country. But regardless of the sport’s popularity, a professional basketball league wouldn’t be
sustainable until the establishment of the National Basketball Association NBA in 1946. NBA
professional league in the United States today, was the product of combination between the
National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America (1946). The Basketball
Association of America BAA field eleven teams. However, by the third season four of the
original eleven teams had folded. This opened the door for the union with the National
Basketball League, a move that would change the landscape of professional basketball in the
United States. The early years of the league saw a team from Minnesota called the Minneapolis
Lakers. The Lakers won five NBA titles between the years 1949-1954. For nearly two decades
after its founding, the NBA was the only professional basketball league in the United States.
However, in 1967 the formation of American Basketball Association ABA changed that. The ABA
was known both for its showy style of play and the red, white, and blue basketballs used during
competition. Despite the popularity of a few of its teams and superstars like Julius Erving the
league folded in 1976, only a decade after its creation. Several ABA teams joined the NBA.

Through this period, the NBA continued to make stronger with the shift of the Minneapolis
Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse
Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, and the St. Louis Hawks moving
to Atlanta. The Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) became the ninth NBA team in
1961. From 1966 to 1968, the league expanded from 9 to 14 teams, introducing the Chicago
Bulls, Seattle Supersonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), San Diego Rockets (who relocated
to Houston four years later), Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. In 1967, the league faced a
new outside threat with the creation of the American Basketball Association ABA. The leagues
occupied in a command war. The NBA landed the most important college star, Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor). On the other hand the NBA's leading scorer, Rick Barry,
jumped to the ABA. In 1969, Alan Siegel, who saw the design of Jerry Dior's Major League
Baseball logo a year prior, created the modern NBA logo inspired by the MLB's. It incorporates
the shape of the legendary West, The logo debuted in 1971 and would remain a fixture of the
NBA brand. The ABA succeeded in signing a number of major stars in the 1970s, including Julius
Erving of the Virginia Squires, because it allowed teams to sign college undergraduates. The
NBA expanded quickly during that period. Following the 1976 season, the leagues reached
a settlement that provided for the addition of four ABA franchises to the NBA, raising the
number of franchises in the league at that time to 22. The franchises added were the San
Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and New (now the Brooklyn Nets). Some of the
biggest stars of this era were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Dave Cowens, Julius Erving, Elvin
Hayes, Frazier, Moses, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel, and Pete Maravich. The end of
the decade, however, saw declining TV ratings, low attendance and drug related player issues
both professed and real that threatened to ruin the NBA. Three point field goal was added by
the league first time in 1979 to open up the game. That same year, Larry Bird and Magic joined
the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, initiating a period of significant growth in fan interest
in the NBA throughout the country and the world. In 1984 they played against each other for
the first time in the NBA Finals. Johnson became a Lakers leader to the finals . Also in the early
1980s, the NBA added one more expansion franchise, the Dallas, bringing the total to 23 teams.
Later on, Larry Bird won the first three, three point shooting contests. Michael Jordan entered
the league in 1984 with the Chicago Bulls, given that an even more popular star to support
rising interest in the league. This resulted in more cities tough teams of their own. In 1988 and
1989, four cities got their wishes as the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic,
and Minnesota Timberwolves made their NBA, bringing the total to 27 teams. In the first year
of the 1990s, the Detroit Pistons would win the second of their back to back titles.

The 1992 Olympic basketball Dream Team, the first to use current NBA stars, featured Michael
Jordan as the fix, along with Bird, Johnson, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Clyde
Drexler, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, and Christian Laettner.
Eleven players on the Dream Team have been introduced into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 1995, the NBA expanded to Canada with the addition of the Vancouver Grizzlies and
the Toronto Raptors. In 2001, the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, which left the
Raptors as the only Canadian team in the NBA.

Also an interesting time is when Basketball was performed on the Olympics for the first time as
an official Olympic sport at the 1936 Berlin Games. The tournament was played outdoors on a
sand and clay court in a transformed tennis stadium. The United States easily dominated the
competition in Berlin and continued to do so in following Olympic excursion, winning the gold
medal for basketball in every Olympic contest until 1972, when a controversial loss to the
Soviets snapped the Americans gold medal line. After the Munich games, the United States
once again returned to Olympic glory and won gold in both 1976 and 1984.