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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2230290, member: 289"] 1947-48 The firmament was in even greater turmoil the next year. The only good team in the ABL, the Baltimore Bullets, jumped to the BAA. In a much less noticed transaction the defunct Detroit Gems franchise of the NBL was purchased by two Minneapolis businessmen, Ben Berger and Morris Chalfen, who renamed the team the “Lakers”, since Minnesota was the “The Land of 1,000 Lakes”. (LA is the land of 1,000 swimming pools). But the most ambitious plan was that of Maurice White, owner of the Chicago American Gears and thus of the contract of George Mikan, the #1 drawing card in the game. He announced the Gears were leaving the NBL for the Professional Basketball League of America, a new organization White created with no less than 24 teams, (finally reduced to 16), ALL OF WHICH HE OWNED. This folly lasted all of 8 games, (per team: the Gears went 8-0 by an average of 16 points as MIkan averaged 24.1 and McDermott 17.5). The league disbanded and all its players were distributed among NBL teams in a special draft and the Lakers wound up with Mikan, largely due to the awfulness of the Detroit Gems the previous year. But he wasn’t the only Lakers star. Jim Pollard, who had led Stanford to the 1942 NCAA title, had been playing AAU ball but joined the team for the 1947-48 season. The 6-4 Pollard was known as the “Kangaroo Kid” for his jumping ability. He’s noted as the first pro basketball player with an “above the rim” game. Mikan was six inches taller but if you look at the old films, you never see him dunking. It’s hook shots, lay-ups and tip-ins and old fashioned pivot play at the top of the key. They also picked up a good point guard from Indianapolis, Herm Schaefer, who knew how to get the ball to the two stars. Coach John Kundla was able to shape the beginnings of a dynasty with these three players. And he was to add even more later. Mikan led the league in scoring at 21.3 and Pollard scored 12.9. We still didn’t have assists in this league yet but Schaefer must have gotten a lot of them. Rebounds didn’t become a stat until 1950-51 but Mikan surely dominated the boards. The league’s second leading scorer was Arnie Risen, now with Rochester, a 6-9 200 string bean who scored 14.5 against the league’s other centers but had no answer for the much stronger Mikan. Still, the Royals had an impressive team with their three guard line-up of Bob Davies, the cleverest ballhandler in the league, (famous for his behind-the-back dribble), high scoring Al Cervi, (13.4) and Red Holzman, (much later the coach of the champion Knicks). They also had another fine guard, Bobby Wanzer, coming off the bench. They actually had the best regular season record in the league at 44-16 to the Lakers’ 43-17, (which would have been better if they’d had Mikan from the beginning). But the East, (where the Royals were), was the stronger division with the Anderson Duffy Packers going 42-18 behind a sizzling fast break and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, despite having lost key players like Bobby McDermott and Buddy Jeanette, still had a 40-20 record despite a less than stellar line-up. It’s a team sport. The Syracuse Nationals picked up another piece to their own puzzle in 19 year old Paul Seymour, whom they picked up from the Baltimore Bullets, who had been in the ABL but had jumped to the BAA for that loop’s second season. It was his fourth team in three leagues in two years. He would never play for anyone else once he came to Syracuse. He joined already strong backcourt of Jerry Rizzo and John Chaney, (not the later Temple coach). 6-5 220 Jim Homer added some bulk and led the team in scoring at 12.5ppg, its only player in double figures. But “The team showed a lack of tall men and will have to have them”, wrote Bud Vander Meer of the Herald Journal, who would cover them for all 17 years of their Syracuse existence. The team limped to a dismal 24-36 record. The actually beat the mighty Lakers twice but lost to them the other four times and went 0-12 against Rochester and Fort Wayne. They were 6-0 against the Flint Dow AC’s, (the former Midland Dows, avenging their poor performance against that team in the previous year’s WPBT). The AC’s, (not sure what it stands for) were 8-46 against everybody else. The Nats lost to Anderson in a three game sweep in the first round of the playoffs. Rochester beat Fort Wayne in four games. And the Lakers beat Oshkosh, (which still had the by now ancient Cowboy Edwards at center). Tri Cities, who had Don Otten, actually the league’s tallest player at 7-0, beat the Kautskys, who had no answer for him without Risen, also in four games. Even Otten was no match for Mikan, whose team swept the Blackhawks in the semis, outscoring them by 43 points. They Royals beat Anderson in their final game 74-48 behind a blinding display of passing. Unfortunately Risen suffered a fractured jaw from a swinging elbow. Holzman’s leg was hurting and Cervi had a bad knee. The Royals shocked the Lakers in game three, winning 74-60 in Minneapolis despite 32 points from Mikan. But the Lakers won the other three games by a total of 33 points. After the season, Mikan won the MVP vote 240-0. Unlike the last two NBL champions, the Lakers decided to go for the double and played in what turned out to be the last World Professional Basketball Tournament. Anderson, Indianapolis, Tri-Cities and Fort Wayne followed them to Chicago. The Lakers annihilated a team from Wilkes-Barre 98-48 in the first round. Then they nipped Anderson 59-56 in the semi-finals. In the finals they faced the New York Rens, and their new star, Sweetwater Clifton, and subdued them 75-71 for the title, behind a 40 point performance from Mikan. It was quite an exclamation point to end a dominant season, the first of many for the Lakers. “The Sports Encyclopedia: Pro Basketball” entitles their article on the 1947-48 Basketball Association of America season “A Dull and Nameless Champion”. That would be the Baltimore Bullets who came over from the sinking ship of the ABL to join the BAA to help replace four franchises that had folded. With 8 teams instead of 11, Maurice Podoloff reduced the schedule from 60 to 48 games. The competition was at least close. The St. Louis Bombers went 29-19 while Baltimore, Chicago and Washington all went 28-20. The Philadelphia Warriors went 27-21 and the New York Knicks 26-22. The Boston Celtics had one of only two losing records at 20-26. Obviously, someone had to be very bad and that would be the Providence Steamrollers, who got steamrolled 42 times. 6-2 Max Zaslofsky of Chicago gave Jumping Joe Fulks a run for the scoring title but came up short in average at 21.0ppg to 22.1. But Fulks missed five games and Max scored more total points 1007-949. Bob Ferrick was still the star for the Caps at 16.1. Red Auerbach was still their coach. 6-9 185 Red Rocha was emerging at center for St. Louis and scored 12.7, one of four double figure scorers for that team. Player coach Buddy Jeannette was one of four double figure scorers for the Bullets at 10.7. Their lead scorer was 6-9 235 center Kleggie Hermsen. (Mikan was not the only big guy around – just the best.)The Knicks were led by their two forwards, 6-5 Carl Braun at 14.3 and 6-4 Bud Palmer at 13.0. Braun set a league scoring record with 47 points against pitiful Providence. The handsome Palmer later became a sports broadcaster of considerable note. In another weird playoff set up, of the three teams tied for second in the western division, Baltimore was “in” and Chicago and Washington played a single elimination, which the Stags won. Then the first, second and third teams in each division played their counterpart at the same level, meaning that the two “pennant winners” played each other in the first round. That was a weird seven game series with the decider a huge blow out, Philadelphia winning over a St. Louis team dealing with several injuries 85-46. The second place team, New York and Baltimore, played a best of 3 series, which Baltimore won 2-1. Chicago then beat the Celtics by the same margin. The Bullets swept the Stags in two games. Then came a best of seven series between the Bullets and Warriors. The defending champion Warriors won the first game in in Philadelphia and led the second game at the same venue 41-20 at halftime. It seemed like a coronation was taking place. But the Bullets kept playing, got back into the game and eventually won it 66-63. That turned the series completely around. They won both games in Baltimore 72-70 and 78-75 to take a commanding 3-1 lead. The Warriors won game 5 back in Philly, 91-82, (notice the more modern-looking scores). But the Bullets won the finale in Baltimore 88-73. The Sports Encyclopedia: “With the Bullets, a dull club to watch and one without any big-name players as reigning champions, the BAA couldn’t honestly hold up its champions the best pro basketball had to offer.” [/QUOTE]

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