Pro Hoops before the NBA

[neo_prankster]

Is there a reason why the NBA does not count the history or statistics from the National Basketball League which lasted from 1937 until 1949?

[kimball]

16 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

Is there a reason why the NBA does not count the history or statistics from the National Basketball League which lasted from 1937 until 1949?

 

I'm not entirely sure, but I wonder if it is because the BAA was looked upon as the "winner" of the merger. Though they do count the three BAA years before the inaugural NBA season in 1949. 

 

I'm interested in digging a bit deeper in this subject too. I'll be following. 

[dfwabel]

http://blog.cleveland.com/andone/2009/06/history_of_the_nbl_an_intervie.html

 

Quote

Q. The NBA tells us they evolved from the Basketball Association of America (BAA, 1946 - 1949) and celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1996. The history section of NBA.com only contains information dating back to 1946. Many people do not realize the National Basketball League (NBL) began in 1935, ran concurrently with the BAA and merged with them in 1949 to create the NBA. Would you speak to why you think the NBA does not acknowledge the NBL as part of its history?

 

A: I cannot be sure on this, but my guess is that the snub is more related to the founders of the BAA and their later supporters than anything else. Maurice Podoloff, Walter Brown, Eddie Gottlieb all have iconic status in the history of the NBA as founders of the league and their "descendants" may see their status diminished if their pioneer status is shared with the NBL founders or the NBL gets to be seen as the real beginning of the NBA. Since, as Napoleon said, history is written by the victors, the BAA owners, who ended up controlling the new NBA, have revised history to suit their historic purposes.

    Their successors in the NBA have perpetuated the mythology because it continues to serve their purposes as they view them, probably from an economic, marketing and historic perspective.