The1946–47 BAA season was the inaugural season of theBasketball Association of America. The league launched with 11 teams playing a 60-game schedule. Thepostseason tournament (the1947 BAA Playoffs) at its conclusion, ended with thePhiladelphia Warriors becoming the first BAA Champion, beating theChicago Stags 4 games to 1 in theBAA Finals.

Following its third, the 1948–49 season, the BAA andNational Basketball League merged to create theNational Basketball Association or NBA.^[1] The NBA recognizes the three BAA seasons as part of its own history, sometimes without comment,^[2] so the 1946–47 BAA season is sometimes considered the first NBA season.

By 1951, only three original BAA teams were still in the NBA: theBoston Celtics,New York Knicks and Philadelphia Warriors (now in San Francisco as theGolden State Warriors). All members of the inaugural Western Division had folded by 1950, with three of them lasting one season (Detroit Falcons,Pittsburgh Ironmen,Cleveland Rebels). In addition, theToronto Huskies also folded following the season, making a total of four teams folding before the BAA's second season.

• On November 1, 1946, in the inaugural game of the new league, theNew York Knicks beat theToronto Huskies 68–66 in front of 7,090 spectators atMaple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.Ossie Schectman scored the opening basket for the New York Knicks against Toronto. In 1949, the BAA helped create the National Basketball Association by merger, and Schectman's shot may be considered the first basket in NBA history.^[3][4][5] The NBA recognizes the three BAA seasons as part of its own history, sometimes without comment.^[2]

There were no byes. Western and Eastern champions Chicago and Washington immediately played a long semifinal series with Washington having home-court advantage. Chicago won the sixth game in Washington one day before Philadelphia concluded its two short series with other runners-up.^[6]

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 season, league leaders in points and assists were determined by totals rather than averages.

• All-BAA First Team
  • GMax Zaslofsky,Chicago Stags
  • FBones McKinney,Washington Capitols
  • FJoe Fulks,Philadelphia Warriors
  • CStan Miasek,Detroit Falcons
  • FBob Feerick, Washington Capitols
• All-BAA Second Team
  • GJohn Logan,St. Louis Bombers
  • GErnie Calverley,Providence Steamrollers
  • CChick Halbert, Chicago Stags
  • GFrankie Baumholtz,Cleveland Rebels
  • GFred Scolari, Washington Capitols

• List of NBA regular season records

• Rosen, Charley (2008).The First Tip-Off: The Incredible Story of the Birth of the NBA. McGraw Hill.ISBN 9780071487856. This book is dedicated to detailing the 1946–47 season out, including the first meeting that the BAA had when establishing operations, the trials and tribulations each team had during their first season of operations, and what caused commissionerMaurice Podoloff to claim this season was a good one publicly at the time, only to later admit that it was a complete failure to the point where desperate changes had to be made for the league to survive years later.

• 1946–47 BAA season

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