1945–46 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1945–46 NBL season was the eleventh overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its ninth season under that name after previously going by the Midwest Basketball Conference (a semipro or amateur precursor to the NBL) in its first two seasons of existence. Entering this season, the NBL would see itself get back to the highest number of teams it had since the 1939–40 NBL season, with it seeing eight teams competing in the league (with four teams being in both the Eastern Division and Western Division) due to not just the Indianapolis Kautskys returning to the NBL following World War II's conclusion, but also seeing the Rochester Royals and Youngstown Bears joining the NBL as well, with the latter team once being misattributed as the same Pittsburgh Raiders team from the previous season being moved to Youngstown, Ohio when it was just the Raiders leaving the NBL with the Bears taking on the players from the Raiders' franchise entering this season. As a result of the increasing number of teams following the conclusion of World War II, the NBL allowed for each team to play a total of 32-34 scheduled NBL games for their respective seasons. Because of the return of the divisional formatting in the NBL, the NBL Playoffs this season would see the two best teams in each division in the NBL (in this case, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Rochester Royals in the Eastern Division and the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Oshkosh All-Stars in the Western Division), with the NBL's championship series ending with the newly established Rochester Royals upsetting the Sheboygan Red Skins three games to none in a best of five series. An entire book focusing on the NBL's existence would be released in 2009 by historian and author Murry R. Nelson called "The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949", with an entire chapter being dedicated to this season of play.^[1]

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until this following season began) merged operations to create the National Basketball Association. Despite the NBL continuing to exist until the 1948–49 NBL season as the longer-lasting operation, the NBL would not recognize the twelve NBL seasons (nor the two MBC precursor seasons nor even the one National Professional Basketball League season that inspired the league's creation) as a part of its own history (outside of certain circumstances), sometimes without comment. As such, none of the previous twelve NBL seasons nor even the two MBC seasons would officially be recognized by the NBA, with the NBA recognizing the 1946–47 BAA season as its first official season of play instead.

Of the eight NBL teams that competed in the league this season, four of these teams would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA, with two of them still existing in the NBA to this very day (albeit under different names). Both the recent NBL champions in the Rochester Royals and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would move to the Basketball Association of America in the 1948–49 BAA season alongside the Indianapolis Kautskys, though two of those three teams would have to change their team names by the time they switched leagues from the NBL to the BAA due to them utilizing business sponsorships with their team names with Fort Wayne involving the Zollner Piston Company and Indianapolis involving Kautsky's Grocery store, with the Fort Wayne squad removing the Zollner name to just be the Fort Wayne Pistons and the Indianapolis squad renaming the Kautskys to the Indianapolis Jets. A few years after the BAA merged with the NBL to become the NBA, both the Royals and the Pistons would move out of their original home venues by the end of the 1956–57 NBA season, with the Rochester Royals now becoming the Sacramento Kings and the Fort Wayne Pistons now becoming the Detroit Pistons. Meanwhile, the fourth team that got involved, the Sheboygan Red Skins would only play for the 1949–50 NBA season before leaving the NBA to create their own rivaling professional basketball league called the National Professional Basketball League (which would not be related to the NPBL that the NBL had been inspired from, as well as ultimately lasted for only one season before being forced to close up operations early). While the two-time NBL champion Oshkosh All-Stars were also considered for the NBL-BAA merger that became the modern-day NBA, no other NBL team from this season would end up joining the NBA once the two leagues merged.

• Following the end of World War II, the players that left the NBL to serve for the U.S. military were being released from military service either immediately after the Allied forces won the war by autumn 1945 or were scheduled to be released from military service and expected to return to play professional basketball once again in the very near future, which spelled out very positive news for the NBL's future at the time.^[2]
• Before this season began, the NBL would not only see the Indianapolis Kautskys return to the league under Frank Kautsky's ownership with Paul A. Walk as the new team co-owner instead of Abe Goldsmith, but it would also see the new additions of the Rochester Royals (formerly known as the Rochester Seagrams, Rochester Eber Seagrams (being sponsored by both the Eber Brothers and Seagram as opposed to just Seagram in a time where Rochester was a part of a dry county), and the Rochester Pros (following pressure by Gannett newspapers representing the dry county Rochester was in during the time with Democrat and Chronicle) under more recent years, including their purchase point of $25,000 to enter the NBL and their early practices in November before settling on using the Rochester Royals name in time for the start of the season and later eventually became the Sacramento Kings in the NBA) and the Youngstown Bears (a team from Youngstown, Ohio who would officially replace the Pittsburgh Raiders (and at one point were misattributed to be a continuation of the Pittsburgh Raiders^[3]) going forward) to see the league get to their highest number of teams since the 1939–40 NBL season with eight teams playing in their league this season.
• Also before the start of the season, the NBL agreed to play a new league-high 34 games into the season, with 17 home and road games being played for each team along the way.^[4] However, two of these teams in the Cleveland Chase Brassmen and the Youngstown Bears would be forced to play only 33 games in this season, while the returning Indianapolis Kautskys would only play 32 games for this season instead, leaving yet another season where not every team would meet the planned number of games played for their season.
• Starting with this season, some professional basketball players like Andrew Levane were able to make around $5,000 per year while with the NBL, with those same players feeling like they were millionaires in the process of it all.^[5] That being said, despite the growing success of the NBL on the surface level, some of the newer players that were returning to the league after World War II ended still saw themselves holding onto other jobs outside of playing professional basketball within the league, with labor demands being made a lot more common after that war ended.
• At the regular season debut on November 22, 1945, the Sheboygan Red Skins would defeat the Chicago American Gears at home 53–49, with both Sheboygan center Ed Dancker and Chicago guard/forward Stan Patrick both scoring 17 points each, with the key difference being free-throws between Sheboygan having 13/17 free-throws made and Chicago only having 11/27 free-throws made.^[5]
• A day after that regular season debut, the Indianapolis Kautskys would upset the Chicago American Gears in their home debut match with a 40–35 final score, with 43 year old player-coach Nat Hickey (the oldest player in the league's history) scoring 15 of Indianapolis 40 total points that night.^[6]
• A day after that match, on November 24, the Rochester Royals would win their debut (NBL) game despite neither Andrew Levane nor Red Holzman playing much that night with a close 53–52 home victory over the Sheboygan Red Skins (with former Buffalo Bisons guard Al Cervi leading Rochester this time around over Dick Schulz),^[5] while the Oshkosh All-Stars would crush the Indianapolis Kautskys with a 65–47 victory.^[6]
• By the end of November, the Western Division saw teams like Oshkosh, Sheboygan, and Chicago play three or four games against each other already, while the Eastern Division saw teams play either only one or zero games against other teams by this point in time.^[7] The two-time defending dual champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would especially be notable for it due to them playing exhibition games for the start of their season against teams like the Midland Dow Chemicals works team, the rivaling American Basketball League's defending champions in the Philadelphia Sphas, and the Chicago Collegiates college basketball team that basically featured college players from the Chicago area going up against professional players in non-official play (which was something done to help make sure college players remained college eligible due to NCAA regulations during that time), which was slated to be something the Fort Wayne squad would come to regret doing later on by the end of the season.^[8]
• Following an exhibition game that the two time defending dual champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons had against the College All-Stars where 23,912 people in Chicago, Illinois saw the Zollner Pistons beat the College All-Stars 63–55 live on November 30, 1945, the NBL would have Purdue University head coach Ward Lambert be named a new commissioner for the rest of this NBL season.^[7][9]
• On December 12, Les Harrison and his Rochester Royals would outbid both the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Youngstown Bears in acquiring former 1942 College All-Star Game MVP, Seton Hall College All-American, and Naval Station Great Lakes military basketball team member Bob Davies onto their team. Not only that, but both Andrew Levane and Red Holzman would decline good job offers in New York City despite both of them living there at the time since they both thought Rochester, New York was an acceptable place for them both to commute to on a regular basis.^[8]
• On December 16, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers signed recent NFL champion team player Bob Shaw from the Cleveland Rams from what would be their last season under that team name before that Rams team moved to Los Angeles, California the following season afterward, with Shaw playing his first game for the Allmen Transfers in a loss to the Sheboygan Red Skins with 16 points scored on his end for the intent of replacing the scoring deficit lost from star player Mel Riebe, who left the team after a few games played with them in this season alongside his brother Hank Riebe to join the United States Navy (with Mel being in the Naval Station Great Lakes base from 1945 until 1946 when he ended up joining the Cleveland Rebels in the newly created Basketball Association of America).^[10]
• On December 21, former St. John's University and Philadelphia Sphas guard Jack Garfinkel would end up joining the Rochester Royals as well, with him also travelling from New York City to Rochester, New York alongside new teammates Red Holzman and Andrew Levane (who was also a teammate of his back when they were at St. John's University).^[11]
• By the time 1945 was nearing its end, the Eastern Division saw the Rochester Royals be at first place at 8–1 and Fort Wayne be at second place at 9–2 with both the Cleveland Allmen Transfers and Youngstown Bears having below average records to their names, while the Western Division saw the Sheboygan Red Skins and their 11–5 ahead of the Oshkosh All-Stars with their 7–5 record, while the Chicago American Gears and the Indianapolis Kautskys also had below average records (though in the case of the Kautskys, their record was the worst of the lot with only one win in eleven games played).^[10] The Royals would not face another loss until December 29 against the Zollner Pistons.^[11]
• Despite the growing success of the NBL on the surface level, some of the newer players that were returning to the league after World War II ended still saw themselves holding onto other jobs outside of playing professional basketball within the league, with labor demands being made a lot more common after that war ended. By the start of 1946, strikes had occurred in the largest, most prominent labor workers up in the East, Midwest, and lower Great Plains regions of the U.S.A., with some of the most affected workers involving thousands of glassworkers, steelworkers, Western Union employees, oil refinery workers, and autoworkers, and electrical workers. Notably, by the end of January 1946, 1,292 steel industry plants had shut down operation with 750,000 workers going on strike within that industry alone, which saw economic danger suddenly become a real possibility for the NBL and its players who just got out of World War II only recently.^[10]
• At some point during the season, the Chicago American Gears' owner, Maurice White, implemented a system where, if his team won the game they played in the NBL, players would gain an extra $6 for each made basket scored and an extra $3 for every made free-throw attempt, with an extra $3 added for assists being recorded later on within their season as well. While the players tried to pool the extra cash in and split it amongst themselves by the end of the season, they ultimately couldn't come up with an agreement on their ends to do such a thing together. The end results of the incentive system were mixed in that while the team barely ended up missing out on the playoffs this season, it did get teams both noticing and even commenting on the incentive system in question.^[11]
• On January 5, 1946, the Rochester Royals would have the biggest blowout in NBL history over the Youngstown Bears by crushing them with a 70–27 beatdown for the ages.^[12][13]
• By the official halfway point of the season, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons had a half-game edge over the Rochester Royals in the Eastern Division with their 15–3 record barely being over Rochester's 13–2 record, while the Western Division saw the Sheboygan Red Skins be in first place with a 14–8 record and both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Chicago American Gears compete for second place in their division with a 9–8 record and 9–9 record respectively, leaving every other team as afterthoughts by comparison.^[14]
• After the Cleveland Allmen Transfers lost ten of their last eleven games to get a 3–15 record, the owner of the team would end up fining Bob Shaw $50 for listless play before later waiving him altogether. Shaw would later play one more game for the Youngstown Bears in this season before playing for the following season out in Toledo, Ohio for the NBL afterward before deciding to stay with the NFL for good.^[15]
• With three weeks left to go in the regular season, on February 20, a prescient article by Ben Tenny from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel questioned if Fort Wayne would be resilient enough to get past Rochester's strength as a team since they compared more to the rough style of play that consisted of "kneeing, pushing," and even an "occasional fist" that the NBL appeared to moving more toward (and away from what was considered the style of "high-powered offenses, clean-cut players and good competition" from the earlier seasons) akin to the rivaling American Basketball League when it first existed before on a temporary hiatus due to the Great Depression (though the article claimed the style of play the ABL had ended up tiring the fans out before causing the ABL to fizzle out the first time around in 1931), which Rochester has utilized beforehand since their franchise has existed as far back as 1923 back when they were the Rochester Seagrams. However, a counter response would be mentioned days later on February 23 by George Beahon from the Democrat and Chronicle up in Rochester where they mentioned that if anybody was the resident "bad boy" of the NBL, it was Ed Dancker of the Sheboygan Red Skins due to him fouling out in half of the games he played for them by this point in the season.^[15]
• On February 28, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would waive the likes of Bob Synnott, Whitey Dienelt, and Herm Schaefer from the team while adding Bob Tough onto the roster in order to not only get their team to what was considered to be a "workable size" at the time (though all three of them were still allowed to work at Fred Zollner's Zollner Piston Company if they wanted to do so), but also was done in an attempt to compete against the Rochester Royals once the NBL Playoffs begin after Rochester added power forward/center Bob Fitzgerald to their roster in the middle of February.^[16]
• On March 3, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would secure their fourth straight division (and by extension for this season's case, regular season) championship by defeating the Sheboygan Red Skins with a close 53–49 victory after Fort Wayne previously beat the Cleveland Allmen Transfers in a game where Mel Riebe returned from the Naval Station Great Lakes area to put up 20 points in a loss for Cleveland a day earlier.^[16]
• At some point in March, while waiting for the regular season to end (with the hope of playing in the NBL Playoffs once again due to aforementioned NCAA eligibility rules), the Chicago American Gears would outbid both the Rochester Royals and the independently ran Midland Dow Chemicals works team for DePaul University's star center George Mikan with a contract worth $60,000 for five years, according to team owner Maurice White. However, because the Chicago American Gears ultimately failed to reach the Oshkosh All-Stars' record near the end of the season (with Oshkosh already being 19–15 and Chicago being 17–16 despite the American Gears having five straight victories (including one against the regular season champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons) before they lost their final game of the season to the Youngstown Bears), Mikan would not make his Chicago debut until the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament essentially began, with his NBL debut coming the following season afterward.^[17]
• One other interesting player note in mind near the end of the season and entering the playoff period involved Bob Davies of the Rochester Royals being hired to take on both Seton Hall College's sports teams he played for there, which were their baseball and basketball teams, on March 15 (succeeding his old mentor and head coach there, Honey Russell), which would be during the NBL Playoffs this year.^[16]
• After the Youngstown Bears played their final game of the season against the Chicago American Gears, their starting center, former All-NBL Second Team member Huck Hartman, would end up getting ill with pneumonia and never recovered from the illness, tragically becoming the first and only NBL player to die while playing in the league (with the death being announced during a match the Chicago American Gears themselves were playing in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament against the Pittsburgh Raiders on March 25^[18]) throughout its existence under the name it used during this time.^[19]
• This season would be the final NBL season where the NBL playoff format would just end up having the two best teams of each division competing against each other (in this season's case, a best of five series) before the remaining best teams would go against each other to determine the championship of the entire NBL (which also would be in a best of five series in this case). While the NBL would never expand to the same amount of teams that they had in the 1937–38 NBL season, they would expand to just enough teams in the following seasons onward to help expand their playoff format for their final three seasons of play after this one.
• This season also marked the last of five straight seasons where Bobby McDermott of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons was named the National Basketball League's Most Valuable Player, with his honor surpassing that of even Leroy Edwards from the Oshkosh All-Stars, who had received three of the first ever league's MVP awards ever given out alongside Ben Stephens being the only other player to receive the honor by this point in time (outside of the potential tie with Mel Riebe in one of McDermott's MVP seasons).
• On March 13, the same day the Rochester Royals tied their Eastern Division Playoff series with the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons by a 58–52 victory in Fort Wayne, it was announced that the same Rochester Royals would not participate in the 1946 version of the World Professional Basketball Tournament (an event they had previously competed in twice as the Rochester Seagrams) due to team owner Les Harrison failing to get a good deal down with both the WPBT's promoter (Harry Harrin) and the WPBT's co-sponsor who was both an editor of the Chicago Tribune and a former president of the NBL itself (Leo Fischer) with regards to his players being paid for the potential matches involved in the tournament since "the business office refused to accept the deal, the whole thing was off". It wasn't seen as a major loss at the time since the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons were still a major pull for the tournament and there wasn't a real incentive to get the Royals into the WPBT at that point in time since the NBL Playoffs were still to be determined. Following the championship series, however, the Rochester-based Democrat and Chronicle column written by Elliot Cushing both praised Les Harrison's conviction for building his team from what felt like basically nothing and blasted the organizers of what they described as the "pseudo champion Professional Tournament" coming up next with how they mishandled the Rochester Royals franchise, with Cushing also tearing into Anderson Chiefs co-owner Ike W. Duffey's derogatory comments made about the Royals franchise (before the Anderson franchise ironically joined the NBL a few months later for the following season, albeit under a new team name in the Anderson Duffey Packers) before deriding the Chicago American Gears franchise on asking $2,500 to come to Rochester for the "Royals Appreciation Game" to close out their season since half of that same amount was deemed unacceptable for the WPBT organizers out in Chicago.^[20]
• With two straight home victories in Rochester on March 15 and 16, the Eastern Division's #2 seeded Rochester Royals would upset the Eastern Division's #1 seeded Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, denying them the chance of being three-time NBL champions to close out the season. The Zollner Pistons would claim that the heavy amount of exhibition games they played throughout the season ended up costing them in the playoffs since they had "nothing left for the last three games won by the Royals." Instead, the technically new Rochester Royals franchise would win their first ever professional basketball championship (as well as their only NBL championship) by sweeping the Western Division's #1 seeded Sheboygan Red Skins (who themselves barely survived 3–2 against the Western Division's #2 seeded Oshkosh All-Stars) 3–0.^[21]
• Before the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament began properly, the Chicago American Gears would play two exhibition games against the Anderson Chiefs and Detroit Mansfields on March 19 and March 20 (which would both be victories on Chicago's ends with respective 68–60 and 59–48 final scores), which would be considered the official debut matches of George Mikan for his time spent with the American Gears franchise. Mikan would also note the immediate differences between collegiate play and professional play with those two games before entering the WPBT as well.^[21]
• Following the final championship series matchup between Sheboygan and Rochester, six of the NBL's eight teams (only the aforementioned Rochester Royals and Youngstown Bears would either decline entry into or otherwise were not accepted for the 1946 WPBT) would end up competing in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament, which would be the first and only year to have the championship and third place consolation prize match-up to now have a best of three series be involved instead of having it be a winner takes all format like the rest of the tournament has been beforehand for the longest period of time in its history from March 25 to April 8, 1946. Once again, the hometown Chicago American Gears (who would now have George Mikan added onto their roster) alongside the two-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the Sheboygan Red Skins, the Oshkosh All-Stars, the Indianapolis Kautskys, and the Cleveland Allmen Transfers all competing in a 14 team tournament that primarily saw other independent teams (most of them being properly independent like the all-black New York Renaissance, with two teams being considered works teams in the Anderson Chiefs and the Midland Dow Chemicals and one team being a military-based team in the Dayton Mickeys (who were based off of Wright Field)) alongside the rivaling American Basketball League's newest champion in the Baltimore Bullets going up against each other in a winner takes all format on a round-by-round basis before the championship match (and third place consolation prize round) turns the rest of the tournament into a best of three series, with the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Sheboygan Red Skins being the teams to get first round byes this time around due to them having the best records in their divisions this season. This tournament would see both the Cleveland Allmen Transfers and Indianapolis Kautskys be eliminated in the first round to the two works teams competing in the WPBT this year in the Midland Dow Chemicals (sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company out in Midland, Michigan) and the Anderson Chiefs (sponsored by Duffey's Incorporated (a meat packing company) out in Anderson, Indiana) respectively, the Sheboygan Red Skins be eliminated in the quarterfinal round by the Chicago American Gears (by one point), the Chicago American Gears get eliminated in the quarterfinal round by the Oshkosh All-Stars due to them fouling out key Chicago players in the second half (with Chicago later securing a 2–0 sweep over the rivaling ABL's new champions in the Baltimore Bullets to secure third place and having George Mikan be named the WPBT MVP this year despite him being a very new addition to their team and Chicago failing to reach the championship round), and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons being three-time WPBT champions over the Oshkosh All-Stars with a 2–1 series win despite Fort Wayne losing their first game to Oshkosh by two points (meaning Oshkosh would be the champions had this been like any other WPBT instead) due to Fort Wayne winning their second game by nine and their third game by 16 afterward.^[22]
• This season would turn out to be the last NBL season where the NBL teams that started out the season would remain intact with their locations throughout the entire season before the eventual merger with the soon-to-be-created Basketball Association of America in 1949 to become the present-day National Basketball Association happened.

For the second straight season in a row, following the return of divisional implementation within the NBL, the formatting of the NBL Playoffs for this season would return to the format used in the previous season's NBL Playoffs with the two best teams in each division competing against each other first (albeit in a best of five series this time around instead of a best of three series) before the remaining two teams from each series would compete against each other for the championship round in another best of five series, similar to the previous year's championship series. The two best teams in the Eastern Division were the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, who were a works team that were also the previous season's champions, and the Rochester Royals (who finally decided to enter the NBL after previously considering the idea of entering the Midwest Basketball Conference precursor league back when they used to be the Rochester Seagrams during that precursor league's existence), while the two best teams in the Western Division represented the state of Wisconsin with cityside rivals in the Sheboygan Red Skins and the Oshkosh All-Stars (who returned to playoff action once again after missing the previous season's playoffs) competing against each other for the fifth time in their NBL playoff history (which would also be considered the tiebreaker series between these two teams). The Eastern Division would see quite a surprise go down with the new Rochester Royals squad surprisingly upset the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in a 3–1 series win, while the Sheboygan Red Skins would get the tiebreaking series win between the two Wisconsin-based teams with a close 3–2 series win resulting in Sheboygan having a chance to get their second NBL championship against a newer team that joined the NBL out in Rochester, New York. Unfortunately for the Red Skins, the Royals would end up sweeping Sheboygan with a 3–0 series sweep, thus making the Rochester Royals become champions of the league under their first official professional basketball season ever played after previously existing as an independent team from as far back as 1923. This would also later be their only championship won in the NBL, as following a 1951 NBA Finals championship victory while still using the Rochester Royals name, the new NBL champions would fail to get another championship to their franchise's name as of 2025 after eventually becoming the present day Sacramento Kings.

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 NBA season, league leaders in points were determined by totals rather than averages. Also, rebounding and assist numbers were not recorded properly in the NBL like they would be in the BAA/NBA, as would field goal and free-throw shooting percentages.

• NBL Most Valuable Player: Bobby McDermott, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons
• NBL Coach of the Year: Eddie Malanowicz, Rochester Royals
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Red Holzman, Rochester Royals

For reasons ultimately unknown, the 1945–46 NBL season would join the 1940–41 NBL season as the only two NBL seasons to have both the All-NBL First and Second Teams to list out a total of six different players instead of the usual five, as had been intended for most other NBL seasons.^[30]

For the eighth World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of fourteen teams competing in the event held in Chicago on March 25–April 8, 1946, with most of the teams competing being seven independently ran teams going up against six of the eight NBL teams that entered the event this season (missing only the Rochester Royals and Youngstown Bears) alongside the original Baltimore Bullets team that was recently dubbed the newly crowned champions of the rivaling American Basketball League. It also became the only WPBT event to have both the championship series and third place series be held in a best of three series instead of a winner-takes-all single game format like it was done in every other WPBT ever held. In any case, of the NBL teams competing in this specific event, the local home team of the event in the Chicago American Gears would defeat the former Pittsburgh Raiders NBL team with a 69–56 victory, the Cleveland Allmen Transfers would end up seeing their leave from professional basketball entirely with a 59–46 loss to the Anderson Chiefs works team (who would soon become the Anderson Duffey Packers following the conclusion of this WPBT event and then the Anderson Packers a few years after that), the Indianapolis Kautskys would continue to see their WPBT drought extend to another year with a 72–59 loss to the independently ran Midland Dow Chemicals works team owned and operated by the Dow Chemical Company, and the Oshkosh All-Stars would crush the Detroit Mansfields with a 60–32 blowout win to enter the first round that was held on March 25 and 27. As for the quarterfinals held on March 29, the Oshkosh All-Stars would upset the all-black New York Renaissance (who had previously beaten the Toledo White Huts with an 82–39 beatdown) with a 50–44 victory, the local Chicago American Gears barely survived against the Sheboygan Red Skins (who were given one of two byes in the first round this year due to their best NBL record in the Western Division) with a 52–51 upset victory in their favor, and the two-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (who were given the other first round bye in the WPBT) barely survived against the Midland Dow Chemicals works team with a 65–62 victory in their favor. Entering the semifinals held on April 3, Fort Wayne would once again barely survive their opposing rival, this time being the ABL's Baltimore Bullets (who had previously beaten the Dayton Mickeys military team representing Wright Field in Riverside, Ohio that technically were the runner-up Dayton Acmes from the previous WPBT event 61–58 and then beat the Anderson Chiefs works team 67–65, both in close matches themselves), with a close 50–49 victory while the Oshkosh All-Stars would utilize the necessary tricks of fouling out key Chicago American Gears players George Mikan and Dick Triptow during the second half to help ensure that Oshkosh would upset the local Chicago team with a 72–66 victory to ensure that the All-Stars would go up against the Zollner Pistons in the championship series and the Chicago American Gears went up against the ABL's Baltimore Bullets in a best of three third place finish. For third place, Chicago would sweep the ABL's Baltimore Bullets 2–0 by first beating them in a close-looking 59–54 bout on April 5 before finishing them for good a day later with a 65–50 beatdown to win the third place series. As for the championship series, if it were like any other series, the Oshkosh All-Stars would have been deemed the victors on April 5 due to them winning a close 61–59 match over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons; however, because of the best of three formatting for this particular event, Fort Wayne would bounce back the following night to win 56–47 before concluding with a beatdown on Oshkosh with a 73–57 victory to give the Zollner Pistons a 2–1 series win for their third straight WPBT championship. Despite them being three-time WPBT champions, however, none of Fort Wayne's or even Oshkosh's players would win the WPBT's MVP award this season, as it would go to Chicago American Gears center George Mikan (who joined as a late addition for their team this season primarily since he was only for the WPBT this time around) due to him proving how valuable he in particular was to his team above all other players in the event.

• National Basketball League (United States)

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1945–46 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com