The 1946–47 NBL season was the twelfth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its tenth season under that name after previously going by the Midwest Basketball Conference (a semipro or amateur precursor to the NBL) in its first two seasons of existence. This season would see the NBL take some of its most serious measures possible to have itself become a serious professional basketball league yet, as noted by not just an offseason meeting informing both the current and future team owners of what would occur during this season and how they planned to have agreements with other professional basketball leagues of the time to not go after each other, but also by how they expanded their operations even further with twelve teams competing this season, which was both the most number of teams the NBL had since its first season under the NBL name and triple the number of teams that competed in the 1943–44 NBL season and most of the 1942–43 NBL season. The regular season began on November 7, 1946, and ran until March 15, 1947. The playoffs began on March 18, 1947, and concluded on April 9, 1947 (with the NBL Championship series occurring at the same time both the 1947 BAA playoffs and the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament were happening), with the Chicago American Gears winning their first and only championship by upsetting the defending champion Rochester Royals 3 games to 1 in the NBL Championship series before later defecting from the NBL to create their own short-lived rivaling professional basketball league to go up against the NBL for the following season.
Events of season This season also saw the NBL begin to operate itself as a proper, professional basketball league, as a key meeting they had in May 1946 had the league discussing key issues like major expansion, financing, a selective draft system for the NBL and set roster limits for each team, set schedules and exhibition matches, the possibility to have full-time officiating on board, and utilizing free agency for signing key players; many of these operating systems they utilized during this meeting would be key features for the future of professional basketball (primarily in the successor league known as the National Basketball Association) as we know it. Other professional or minor basketball leagues that were trying to get their footing back on track at the time (such as the American Basketball League, the New York State Professional Basketball League, and the New England Basketball League) had agreed to not infringe on each other's territories during this same meeting, though one new professional basketball league that was not a part of this meeting at the time was the Basketball Association of America, which would have greater long-term consequences for everyone involved. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence would be released in 2009 by historian and author Murry R. Nelson called "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949", with an entire chapter being dedicated to this season of play., pp. 158–177
Entering this season, the NBL would see itself get to the highest number of teams it had since the inaugural NBL season under that league's name, with it seeing twelve teams competing in the league (with six teams being in both the Eastern Division and Western Division) due to the additions of the Anderson Duffey Packers, the Buffalo Bisons (later Tri-Cities Blackhawks, with this Bisons team not being related to the Buffalo Bisons team from the inaugural NBL season), the Detroit Gems, the Syracuse Nationals, and the Toledo Jeeps, with Syracuse effectively replacing the Cleveland Allmen Transfers this season in terms of team positioning only. As a result of the high number of teams participating in the NBL this season under a more structured organization, all twelve teams this season would play a league-high 44 games for this regular season, which was the highest number of scheduled games for an NBL season yet. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the NBL would add an extra round of playoffs in each division for the rest of its existence going forward, with this season utilizing what would be considered the modern-day playoff formatting with the best team in the division taking on the fourth-best team in the division and the second-best team taking on the third-best team in the division for the opening round in best of five matches before the two remaining teams from each division faced off against each other in what was considered to be the "Division Semifinals" for each division there in a best of three series before the two teams from each division competed against each other in a best of five series again for the NBL championship. For this season, the Chicago American Gears (who were ranked the #3 seed in the Western Division alongside the Sheboygan Red Skins despite having star center George Mikan on the team) upset the defending champion Rochester Royals 3–1 to win their first and only league championship, though the NBL's commissioner of the time, Ward Lambert, inexplicably considered the team that had the best regular season record for this season in the Rochester Royals to be the official NBL champions this season instead., pp. 174–175 That decision alongside a future decision regarding the NBL's president for the upcoming season would lead to the Chicago American Gears leaving the NBL to create their own rivaling professional basketball league in the Professional Basketball League of America.
Eastern DivisionBuffalo Bisons/Tri-Cities Blackhawks Buffalo, New York/Moline, IllinoisFort Wayne Zollner Pistons Fort Wayne, IndianaRochester Royals Rochester, New YorkSyracuse Nationals Syracuse, New YorkToledo Jeeps Toledo, OhioYoungstown Bears Youngstown, OhioWestern DivisionAnderson Duffey Packers Anderson, IndianaChicago American Gears Chicago, IllinoisDetroit Gems Detroit, MichiganIndianapolis Kautskys Indianapolis, IndianaOshkosh All-Stars Oshkosh, WisconsinSheboygan Red Skins Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Connections with Basketball Association of America While the NBL would not view the recently created Basketball Association of America as a serious threat early on in its existence, by the end of the season, the NBL would view it as just as seriously of a rivaling competitive league as the American Basketball League has been throughout the NBL's existence at the time by the end of the season. Following what would later become three mixed years of truces and strenuous competition against each other, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until just this season) eventually merged operations by August 3, 1949, to create the present-day National Basketball Association. Despite the NBL continuing to exist up until the 1948–49 NBL season as the longer-lasting operation, the NBL would not recognize the twelve NBL seasons (nor the two MBC precursor seasons nor even the one National Professional Basketball League season (with scant few connections there) that helped inspire the league's creation) as a part of its own history (outside of certain circumstances), sometimes without comment. As such, none of the previous twelve NBL seasons nor even the two MBC seasons would officially be recognized by the NBA, with the NBA recognizing the 1946–47 BAA season as its first official season of play instead.
Of the twelve NBL teams that competed in the league this season, eight of these teams (four from each division) would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA, with five of these teams still existing in the NBA to this very day (albeit under different names). After this season's conclusion, the Detroit Gems (who finished with the league's worst record in its more recent era with a 4–40 record) would have a hard reboot with the team being bought out and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to become the Minneapolis Lakers for the next season of play. After that season concluded for them, the Lakers alongside the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, Indianapolis Kautskys, and Rochester Royals all moved from the NBL to the BAA for the 1948–49 BAA season (though with the Fort Wayne and Indianapolis teams needing name changes as the Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets respectively due to them utilizing business sponsorships for their team names), with both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Toledo Jeeps trying and failing to switch leagues alongside them. Outside of the eight teams that eventually joined the BAA/NBA and the two teams that later failed to join the BAA, the only two NBL teams that would not have any connections to the BAA/NBA at all from this season were the new NBL champion Chicago American Gears (due to them already defecting from the NBL to create their short-lived rivaling Professional Basketball League of America) and the Youngstown Bears, who folded operations entirely following this season's conclusion.
+Coaching changesOffseason Team 1945–46 coach 1946–47 coachChicago American GearsSwede RoosDavey BanksFort Wayne Zollner PistonsCarl BennettBobby McDermott (player-coach)Indianapolis KautskysNat HickeyErnie AndresSheboygan Red SkinsDutch DehnertDoxie MooreYoungstown BearsPaul BirchFrank ShannonIn-season Team Outgoing coach Incoming coachAnderson Duffey PackersMurray MendenhallIke Duffey (interim)Chicago American GearsDavey BanksHarry Foote (interim)Bruce Hale (interim player-coach)Harry Foote (interim)Bruce Hale (interim player-coach)Bobby McDermott (player-coach)Detroit GemsJoel MasonFred CampbellFort Wayne Zollner PistonsBobby McDermott (player-coach)Carl BennettCarl BennettCurly Armstrong (interim player-coach)Indianapolis KautskysErnie Andres (player-coach)Bob Dietz and Herm Schaefer (interim player-coaches)Syracuse NationalsBennie BorgmannGeorge Mingin (interim)George Mingin (interim)Jerry Rizzo (player-coach)
Final standings Eastern Division
Western Division
Playoffs