On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team joined together with 10 other franchises to start the Basketball Association of America, which would absorb the teams from the rival National Basketball League three years later to become the organization now known as the NBA.
The original teams on the league’s founding included the Washington Capitals, the (then) Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors, the New York Knicks, the Providence Steamrollers, and Toronto Huskies (both defunct) who joined Boston in the East. The Chicago Stags, St. Louis Bombers, Cleveland Rebels, Detroit Falcons, and Pittsburgh Ironmen (all defunct) populated the nascent league’s Western Conference.
Maurice Podoloff was named the league’s first president (the title later being changed to commissioner), and teams played either 60 or 61 regular-season games. The Warriors beat the Stags four games to one to secure the first BAA/NBA championship.
It is also the date of Boston’s 13th championship, won in an 87-80 win in Game 6 of the 1976 NBA Finals.
One game after the triple-overtime thriller since known as one of the greatest NBA Finals games ever played, a determined Phoenix Suns were certain they’d carry the day on their own home court.
They did not.
Big nights from guard Charlie Scott (25 points, 11 rebounds), center Dave Cowens (21 points, 17 boards), and point guard Jo Jo White (15 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists and a late run put the game — and series — away for good.
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