The1948 BAA draft was the second annualdraft of theBasketball Association of America (BAA), which later merged with theNational Basketball League (NBL) to become theNational Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the1948–49 season. In thisdraft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the NBL, took turns selecting amateur U.S.college basketball players. Originally, this BAA draft was meant to be a joint draft venture with the NBL similar to what had meant to occur in the BAA's inaugural league draft (as well as what theNational Football League would later do in the late 1960s with theAmerican Football League). However, on May 9, the day before the draft was meant to begin for both leagues, theTri-Cities Blackhawks (who were a part of the NBL at the time) would sign consensus All-American prospect and NCAA scoring championMurray Wier from theUniversity of Iowa, which caused BAA commissionerMaurice Podoloff to object to the Blackhawks' early signing attempt and endangered what was already a strenuously held truce between the two leagues. Before the draft officially began on May 10, theMinneapolis Lakers,Rochester Royals,Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, andIndianapolis Kautskys announced they were leaving the NBL for the BAA (albeit with the Fort Wayne team officially dropping the "Zollner" part of the Pistons name and the Indianapolis team renaming theKautskys to theIndianapolis Jets in order for both of them to be admitted in since the BAA did not allow for teams to promote local businesses as team names); the desertion of those four NBL teams led to the planned joint draft to be withdrawn on the NBL's end and subsequently led to the NBL breaking off all relations with the BAA at the time. As such, each league would conduct their own draft instead, with the BAA officially selecting 113 collegiate players and the NBL being slated to have chosen 125 total collegiate players themselves.[1]
^Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according toFIBA rules.
^abcBradley, Robert D. (2013).The Basketball Draft Fact Book: A History of Professional Basketball's College Drafts. Scarecrow Press.ISBN9780810890695., pg. 6
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