The 1947–48 Minneapolis Lakers season was the inaugural season for the Lakers in Minneapolis following its relocation from Detroit where it played as the Detroit Gems the previous season. This season would be considered a hard reboot for the franchise, to the point where some fans and sports historians claim that the Detroit Gems and Minneapolis Lakers exist as two separate franchises due to the myriad of ways the franchise reset itself from the past in Detroit to the way it became what it was out in Minneapolis. During this season, on February 19, 1948, the Lakers would play a notable exhibition game against the Harlem Globetrotters to decide which of the two teams were considered the best team of the two at that time; while the Globetrotters would stun the Lakers with a 61–59 defeat for the Lakers due to a buzzer-beating 30-foot shot by Ermer Robinson, the game itself would be a catalyst for not just many more exhibition matches between the two teams for a few years afterward once the Lakers entered the BAA and then the NBA (which saw Harlem winning their first rematch before the Lakers won the rest of their subsequent match-ups not long afterward), but also helped see the end of racial segregation in the sport of basketball as well. The Lakers won the National Basketball League championship against the Rochester Royals. George Mikan led the team with 21.3 points per game and was the league's MVP. After this season ended for the NBL, both the Lakers and Royals would leave the NBL to join the newly rivaling Basketball Association of America (BAA) along with two other longstanding NBL clubs, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautskys, though Fort Wayne and Indianapolis would rebrand themselves as the Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets respectively in order to join properly due to the BAA not allowing for teams to have brand promotions as a part of their team names on display.
After talks of a 1948 championship series between the champions of the National Basketball League (which were the Minneapolis Lakers) and the newly-rivaling Basketball Association of America (which were formerly the older rivaling American Basketball League's own Baltimore Bullets, which was also the BAA's original Baltimore Bullets franchise) ultimately never came to fruition, it was decided that the Lakers would also participate in what would ultimately become the final World Professional Basketball Tournament ever held., p. 179 In the final tournament ever held, the Lakers would crush the original American Basketball League's Wilkes-Barre Barons (who were the only non-NBL professional team competing in that event) 98–48 in the quarterfinal round and barely held on against the Anderson Duffey Packers with a 59–56 win in the semifinal round before winning the final championship over the independent New York Renaissance with a 75–71 victory that year, with the championship match having them being led behind George Mikan's tournament record and (MVP performing) 40 points scored that night.
Draft picks The Minneapolis Lakers would participate in the 1947 NBL draft, which occurred right after the 1947 BAA draft due to a joint agreement the National Basketball League and the rivaling Basketball Association of America had with each other during the offseason period. However, as of 2026, no records of what the Lakers' draft picks might have been for the NBL have properly come up (assuming they entered this draft as the Minneapolis Lakers instead of their original Detroit Gems team name at the time), with any information on who those selections might have been being lost to time in the process.
Roster
Note: Warren Ajax, Ted Cook, Bill Durkee, Ken Exel, Bob Gerber, Joe Patanelli, and Jack Rocker were not on the playoff roster this season.
National Basketball League Regular season Does not include exhibition games played either within the NBL or by other teams outside of the NBL that did not count towards Minneapolis' official NBL record for this season, such as the famous 1948 Globetrotters–Lakers exhibition game involving the world famous (all-black) Harlem Globetrotters. While the Lakers would initially struggle with getting fully acclimated with George Mikan's presence at first (to the point of having a low starting point of a 4–6 record early on), once they got used to working with him properly, they would become a near unstoppable force going forward by December 20, with them being fully undefeated against NBL teams during the month of February 1948. An official database created by John Grasso detailing every NBL match possible (outside of two matches that the Kankakee Gallagher Trojans won over the Dayton Metropolitans in 1938) would be released in 2026 showcasing every team's official schedules throughout their time spent in the NBL. As such, these are the official results recorded for the Minneapolis Lakers during their second and final season (or first and only season if the season played as the Detroit Gems isn't included in their history) within the NBL before moving on to play in the BAA (now NBA) for their following season of play. # Date Opponent Score Record 1 November 1 @ Oshkosh W 49–47 1–0 2 November 9 @ Tri-Cities L 58–66 1–1 3 November 13 Tri-Cities W 57–41 2–1 4 November 17 Sheboygan W 58–43 3–1 5 November 20 @ Sheboygan L 41–56 3–2 6 November 23 Indianapolis W 67–56 4–2 7 November 27 @ Syracuse L 66–72 4–3 8 November 29 @ Rochester L 53–56 4–4 9 December 1 @ Flint (Midland) L 68–75 4–5 10 December 2 @ Toledo L 57–59 4–6 11 December 3 @ Fort Wayne W 68–58 5–6 12 December 4 N Fort Wayne W 56–42 6–6 13 December 6 N Anderson W 88–67 7–6 14 December 7 Oshkosh L 38–44 7–7 15 December 10 Toledo W 49–46 8–7 16 December 12 N Fort Wayne L 55–60 8–8 17 December 13 @ Oshkosh W 67–57 9–8 18 December 14 Anderson W 60–49 10–8 19 December 17 Anderson L 53–57 10–9 20 December 18 N Toledo W 66–56 11–9 21 December 21 Tri-Cities W 68–62 12–9 22 December 22 Sheboygan W 61–52 13–9 23 December 27 Toledo W 55–52 14–9 24 December 28 Indianapolis W 58–48 15–9 25 January 2 Fort Wayne L 41–46 15–10 26 January 4 Flint W 75–50 16–10 27 January 5 Flint W 80–42 17–10 28 January 8 @ Syracuse W 68–59 18–10 29 January 10 @ Flint (Midland) W 66–49 19–10 30 January 11 @ Tri-Cities L 35–44 19–11 31 January 13 @ Indianapolis W 64–45 20–11 32 January 17 @ Syracuse L 65–71 (OT) 20–12 33 January 18 @ Rochester W 75–73 21–12 34 January 19 @ Flint (Midland) W 85–72 22–12 35 January 22 N Rochester W 69–64 23–12 36 January 24 Fort Wayne W 69–52 24–12 37 January 26 Rochester W 76–58 25–12 38 January 28 Rochester L 50–53 25–13 39 February 1 Indianapolis W 85–55 26–13 40 February 4 Syracuse W 70–55 27–13 41 February 5 Syracuse W 95–75 28–13 42 February 8 Oshkosh W 78–56 29–13 43 February 12 @ Sheboygan W 68–57 30–13 44 February 14 Toledo W 65–50 31–13 45 February 16 @ Anderson W 63–54 32–13 46 February 17 @ Indianapolis W 66–58 33–13 47 February 22 Oshkosh W 85–58 34–13 48 February 23 Tri-Cities W 57–48 35–13 49 February 25 Anderson W 60–54 36–13 50 February 29 N Syracuse W 66–56 37–13 51 March 2 @ Indianapolis L 63–83 37–14 52 March 4 @ Anderson L 70–73 37–15 53 March 6 @ Oshkosh W 69–67 38–15 54 March 7 @ Sheboygan W 68–67 39–15 55 March 8 Sheboygan W 65–55 (OT) 40–15 56 March 13 Fort Wayne W 92–64 41–15 57 March 14 Flint/Midland W 80–54 42–15 58 March 16 @ Rochester L 63–66 42–16 59 March 17 @ Toledo W 60–56 43–16 60 March 20 @ Tri-Cities L 61–65 43–17
Western Division standings
NBL Playoffs NBL Western Division Opening Round (1W) Minneapolis Lakers vs. (3W) Oshkosh All-Stars: Minneapolis wins series 3–1 Game 1: March 23, 1948 @ Minneapolis: Minneapolis 80, Oshkosh 68, p. 423 Game 2: March 24, 1948 @ Minneapolis: Minneapolis 88, Oshkosh 65 Game 3: March 26, 1948 @ Oshkosh: Oshkosh 69, Minneapolis 51 Game 4: March 27, 1948 @ Oshkosh: Minneapolis 61, Oshkosh 55https://www.retroseasons.com/leagues/NBL/1948/playoffs/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oshkosh-northwestern-61-55/187032999/
This would be the first and only playoff meeting the Lakers would ever have with the Oshkosh All-Stars, as the Oshkosh franchise would decide to not join up with the other teams in entering the BAA/NBA in later seasons (first unintentionally before later doing so intentionally through concerns involving the All-Stars team potentially moving to Milwaukee in order to find success in the new NBA league).
NBL Western Division Semifinals (1W) Minneapolis Lakers vs. (2W) Tri-Cities Blackhawks: Minneapolis wins series 2–0 Game 1: March 30, 1948 @ Moline, IL (Tri-Cities): Minneapolis 98, Tri-Cities 79 Game 2: March 31, 1948 @ Minneapolis: Minneapolis 83, Tri-Cities 59
This would be the first official playoff meeting the Lakers would ever have with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, who are now known as the Atlanta Hawks. They would have more meetings in the NBA Playoffs until 1970, when divisional realignment limited potential playoff meetings between them to just the NBA Finals going forward.
NBL Championship (1W) Minneapolis Lakers vs. (1E) Rochester Royals: Minneapolis wins series 3–1
Game 1: April 13, 1948 @ Minneapolis: Minneapolis 80, Rochester 72 Game 2: April 14, 1948 @ Minneapolis: Minneapolis 82, Rochester 67 Game 3: April 15, 1948 @ Rochester: Rochester 74, Minneapolis 60 Game 4: April 18, 1948 @ Rochester: Minneapolis 75, Rochester 65
Interestingly, this championship series would occur after the 1948 World Professional Basketball Tournament was played (which the Lakers would participate in) as opposed to during or before the World Professional Basketball Tournament like the NBL had done in previous years whenever the WPBT had existed as a tournament, which brought further criticism upon NBL commissioner Ward Lambert (this time upon the Royals' end after the Lakers and other NBL teams criticized Lambert earlier on when he allowed for Rochester to do a late buyout trade for center Arnie Risen from the Indianapolis Kautskys) and later led to his subsequent resignation after the season's conclusion once the Lakers, Royals, Kautskys, and Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (alongside failed attempts by the Oshkosh All-Stars and the Toledo Jeeps) all left the NBL for the rivaling BAA (with everyone but the Indianapolis team still being active to this day in the NBA in terms of teams that successfully switched leagues)., pp. 198–201 Also, this would become the first official playoff meeting the Lakers would ever have with the Rochester Royals, who are now known as the Sacramento Kings, with them continuing to have a rivalry to this very day.
Awards and records George Mikan, NBL MVP, All-NBL First Team, All-Time NBL Team Jim Pollard, All-NBL First Team1947-48 NBL Season Summary
World Professional Basketball Tournament