World Professional Basketball Tournament
The World Professional Basketball Tournament was an American invitation tournament for professional basketball teams that was held once a year between 1939 and 1948. Teams from different basketball leagues took part in the tournament. During the most popular times of the World Professional Tournament, its winners were generally considered to be the best team in the world.
history
The World Professional Tournament was sponsored by the local Chicago Herald-American newspaper . A member of the sports department came up with the concept of the invitational tournament, which was then organized by Arch Ward . In the first year of the tournament, twelve teams took part, mostly from the National Basketball League . At that time, only teams with cadres made up of white players played in this league. The only two teams with African American players to compete in the 1939 World Professional Basketball Tournament were the New York Renaissance and the Harlem Globetrotters . The matches were scheduled in such a way that a final with these two teams was excluded due to the tournament mode. The invitation of the two nationally known teams was understood by the audience as a sign of the high quality of the field of participants.
In the 1939 finals, the New York Renaissance defeated the Oshkosh All-Stars and became the winner of the premier tournament. It had a record number of viewers and a previously unknown media presence. In the ten years that the tournament was played, both things increased until the merger of the NBL and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) into the National Basketball Association (NBA) brought the end of the World Professional Basketball Tournaments with it.
Tournament winner
| year | Winning team |
|---|---|
| 1939 | New York Renaissance |
| 1940 | Harlem Globetrotters |
| 1941 | Detroit Eagles |
| 1942 | Oshkosh All-Stars |
| 1943 | Washington Bears |
| 1944 | Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons |
| 1945 | Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons |
| 1946 | Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons |
| 1947 | Indianapolis Kautskys |
| 1948 | Minneapolis Lakers |
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dave Quinn, John Duxbury, Steven Brainerd, William F. Himmelman, Steve Dimitry, Robert Bradley: World Professional Basketball Tournament 1939-48. On: Association for Professional Basketball Research website; 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
- ^ NN: Leroy Edwards - World Professional Basketball Tournament - On: Big Blue History - University of Kentucky Wildcats fan website; 1996-2013. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (in English).
- ↑ World Professional Basketball Tournament (Hoopedia) ( Memento from February 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Claude Johnson: New York Ren's Won First World Pro Basketball Tournament On Today's Date. On: Black Fives Foundation website; Washington, DC, March 28, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (in English).