- The Warriors won the first NBA championship in 1947.
- Joe Fulks averaged 26.2 points per game in the Finals.
- Eleven teams were in the NBA in its first season.
Only 11 teams existed in the inaugural season of the NBA, which effectively gave each team better NBA odds to win a championship.
The Warriors are consistently high on basketball betting lines in today’s world, but they also took care of business nearly eight decades ago while representing a completely different city.
Let’s take a look at the first team ever to win an NBA championship.
Who Won the First NBA Championship?
The Philadelphia Warriors defeated the Chicago Stags 4-1 in 1947, becoming the first team to win an NBA championship.
On this date in 1947, the Warriors captured the first title in NBA history 🏆 pic.twitter.com/T9g8MUxHAq
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 22, 2020
The NBA began operations in 1946 and was known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) until 1949 when it rebranded to the National Basketball Association.
Joe Fulks averaged 26.2 points per game to help lead the Warriors to the Finals victory. The Hall of Famer was the scoring champ that season, a two-time All-Star, and four-time All-BAA/NBA Team selection.
The BAA had just 11 teams during the 1946-1947 season, with six of them in the Eastern Division, and five in the Western Division.
The Washington Capitols, Warriors, New York Knicks, Providence Steamrollers, Boston Celtics, and Toronto Huskies were all in the East.
The Stags, St. Louis Bombers, Cleveland Rebels, Detroit Falcons, and Pittsburgh Ironmen were all in the West.
The Warriors stayed in Philadelphia before moving to San Francisco in 1962. After moving to Oakland and rebranding as the Golden State Warriors, they moved back to San Francisco in 2019.
The Stags folded in 1950, but basketball eventually revived in Chicago. First, the Zephyrs/Packers came to Chicago from 1961 to 1963, but they’re now the present-day Washington Wizards.
The Bulls came to the Windy City in 1966, and they have since stuck around. Chi-town was treated to some amazing basketball during the Michael Jordan era, winning six championships during the 1990s.
BAA players generally earned between $4,000 and $5,000 during that season, but there were some exceptions.
Tom King, who played for the Falcons, earned $16,500 because he worked in the front office as the team’s publicity director and business manager.
Fulks made $8,000 for leading the league in scoring with 23.2 points a game.
Players who won the championship between 1946 and 1947 earned a $2,000 bonus, which was nearly half of their salary.
Only about 3,000 fans were in attendance per game during the 1946-1947 season. However, the Finals games that took place in Philly got as many as 8,221 fans to attend.
The first NBA game took place in Toronto on Nov. 1, 1946, as the Knicks took down the Huskies 68-66. Ossie Schectman scored the first basket in NBA history.