1946–47 National Basketball League (United States) season

The 1946–47 NBL season was the twelfth overall season for the U.S.A.'s National Basketball League (NBL) and its tenth 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. This season also saw the NBL begin to operate itself as a proper, professional basketball league, as a key meeting they had on May 1946 had the league discussing key issues like major expansion, financing, a selective draft system for the NBL and set roster limits for each team, set schedules and exhibition matches, the possibility to have full-time officiating on board, and utilizing free agency for signing key players; many of these operating systems they utilized during this meeting would be key features for the future of professional basketball (primarily in the successor league known as the National Basketball Association) as we know it. Other professional or minor basketball leagues that were trying to get their footing back on track at the time (such as the American Basketball League, the New York State Professional Basketball League, and the New England Basketball League) had agreed to not infringe on each other's territories during this same meeting, though one new professional basketball league that was not a part of this meeting at the time was the Basketball Association of America, which would have greater long-term consequences for everyone involved. 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]

Entering this season, the NBL would see itself get to the highest number of teams it had since the inaugural NBL season under that league's name, with it seeing twelve teams competing in the league (with six teams being in both the Eastern Division and Western Division) due to the additions of the Anderson Duffey Packers, the Buffalo Bisons (later Tri-Cities Blackhawks, with this Bisons team not being related to the Buffalo Bisons team from the inaugural NBL season), the Detroit Gems, the Syracuse Nationals, and the Toledo Jeeps, with Syracuse effectively replacing the Cleveland Allmen Transfers this season in terms of team positioning only. As a result of the high number of teams participating in the NBL this season under a more structured organization, all twelve teams this season would play a league-high 44 games for this regular season, which was the highest number of scheduled games for an NBL season yet. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the NBL would add an extra round of playoffs in each division for the rest of its existence going forward, with this season utilizing what would be considered the modern-day playoff formatting with the best team in the division taking on the fourth-best team in the division and the second-best team taking on the third-best team in the division for the opening round in best of five matches before the two remaining teams from each division faced off against each other in what was considered to be the "Division Semifinals" for each division there in a best of three series before the two teams from each division competed against each other in a best of five series again for the NBL championship. For this season, the Chicago American Gears (who were ranked the #3 seed in the Western Division alongside the Sheboygan Red Skins despite having star center George Mikan on the team) upset the defending champion Rochester Royals 3–1 to win their first and only league championship, though the NBL's commissioner of the time, Ward Lambert, inexplicably considered the team that had the best regular season record for this season in the Rochester Royals to be the official NBL champions this season instead.^[2] That decision alongside a future decision regarding the NBL's President for the upcoming season would lead to the Chicago American Gears leaving the NBL to create their own rivaling professional basketball league in the Professional Basketball League of America.

Following its 12th season of existence as the NBL, the NBL and Basketball Association of America (the latter league not existing until just this upcoming season) 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 twelve NBL teams that competed in the league this season, eight of these teams (four from each division) would end up playing in what can be considered the modern-day NBA, with five of these teams still existing in the NBA to this very day (albeit under different names). After this season's conclusion, the Detroit Gems (who finished with the league's worst record in its more recent era with a 4–40 record) would have a hard reboot with the team being bought out and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to become the Minneapolis Lakers for the next season of play. After that season concluded for them, the Lakers alongside the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, Indianapolis Kautskys, and Rochester Royals all moved from the NBL to the BAA for the 1948–49 BAA season (though with the Fort Wayne and Indianapolis teams needing name changes as the Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets respectively due to them utilizing business sponsorships for their team names), with both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Toledo Jeeps trying and failing to switch leagues alongside them. Then after the 1948–49 season concluded for both the NBL and BAA, the two leagues would merge operations to form the National Basketball Association, which saw the Anderson Duffey Packers (who rebranded themselves to just the Anderson Packers by then), the Sheboygan Red Skins, the Syracuse Nationals, and Tri-Cities Blackhawks (who had grown more accustomed to their new home venue by then) join the other teams in the NBA as well (though it saw the Indianapolis Jets fold operations by the time of the merger, as well as saw the Oshkosh All-Stars renege on joining the NBA as well). Both Anderson and Sheboygan would only stay in the NBA to play for the 1949–50 NBA season before leaving the league to create their own rivaling professional basketball league (similar to what the Chicago American Gears had done to compete against the NBL) 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). After over a decade in the merger, every surviving NBL team would see themselves move operations within the NBA at least once, yet they'd all still survive to the present day, with the Detroit Gems/Minneapolis Lakers becoming the Los Angeles Lakers, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons becoming the Detroit Pistons, the Rochester Royals becoming the Sacramento Kings, the Syracuse Nationals becoming the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Buffalo Bisons/Tri-Cities Blackhawks becoming the Atlanta Hawks. As for every other NBL team by this time, while the Oshkosh All-Stars tried to enter the BAA/NBA multiple times and the Toledo Jeeps tried to enter the BAA once, the other four teams would not be around to enter the NBL's merger with the BAA for one reason or another.

• Before the new season began, new NBL commissioner (and former Purdue University head coach) Ward Lambert allowed for NBL President Leo Fischer to submit an "Official Bulletin" for all of the available clubs entering this season on May 1946 to prepare for a June 17 meeting in the league's headquarters up in Chicago, Illinois for what Fischer referred to "as the most important in our history."^[3] The June 17 meeting held the following noted items of interest on their agenda:
  • The NBL was set to expand itself out to at least ten teams for competition this season, with there being noted progress for applicants in areas like Toledo, Ohio; Syracuse, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; St. Louis, Missouri; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dayton, Ohio; and Anderson, Indiana, with unnoted progress also being made with Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan as well. While these new locations were willing to pay $1,500 to enter the NBL, Fischer recommended that the amount be increased to $2,500 (if not more than that, by up to $5,000 according to Danny Biasone) instead.^[3] This later resulted in the NBL expanding to what would be its highest point since its inaugural season with a higher than expected 12 teams around the start of their season with the additions of the Anderson Duffey Packers works team (who previously were named the Anderson Chiefs or Chief Anderson Meat Packers), the Buffalo Bisons (who aren't the same Buffalo Bisons team that first joined the MBC and NBL in their respective inaugural seasons), the Detroit Gems (who apparently existed some time before entering the NBL^[4]), the Syracuse Nationals (who got their team by accident as the last team to join this season since they originally wanted the Rochester Royals to compete in Syracuse for a match), and the Toledo Jeeps (who might have originally been the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets returning to action due to them previously being the Toledo White Huts, a team that competed in the 1946 World Professional Basketball Tournament^[5]), with the only subtraction being the Cleveland Allmen Transfers (who at one point in time had their history be misattributed as being a part of Syracuse's history) to join the now seven remaining teams in the league.^[6] The Midland Dow Chemicals works team by the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan also attempted to join the NBL this season, but failed to enter the league in time.^[7] The reason for the high amount of new teams this season was due to a combination of 12 million (mostly) male U.S. troops returning to civilian life from 1945 to 1947 (including a good chunk of NBL players and college players that joined the military that never began their professional basketball careers) and a booming economy without labor and business shortages where industries that had previously converted themselves to war purposes went back to their original domestic needs instead.^[5]
  • The next point related to financing for the league, with a proposed budget of $6,000 being in mind for them as a whole for the next season, with $3,000 going to commissioner Ward Lambert as his personal salary, $1,000 going to publicity, another $1,000 being for postage and printing expenses, $500 going to travel expenses, and another $500 being sent out to Lon Darling, the NBL's secretary-treasurer. Fischer proposed that the money should be generated by having the NBL receive $30 from each league game played this season.^[3]
  • The next item addressed the notion of implementing a selective draft system similar to the NFL draft that had been first created back in 1936, which would be done to not only keep salary costs under control, but also limit whom each team would have to outbid for players on teams outside of the NBL (primarily when they're coming out of college), especially following the new player limit of twelve players being allowed on each team at once (as it had originally been in the NBL before World War II began).^[5] However, as of 2025, no confirmed records of any NBL drafts held between 1946 and 1949 have been released publicly, to the point where they might be considered completely lost to time altogether (with the 1947 NBL draft record being especially odd to lose since it would occur immediately after the 1947 BAA draft happened^[8]).
  • Other things brought up within the meeting included setting up exhibition games with other teams either inside of or outside of the NBL, the scheduling for each league in the league, and the officiating within the league, with their best-case scenario having them get a full-time officiating staff for their season.^[5] They later confirmed that each team would play a new league-high 44 games this season, with every team managing to do so despite one team having troubles surviving early on in the season.
  • The last point in the meeting that was written in bolded capital letters was a sentence that read "Sign your key men as soon as possible to binding contracts!"^[5] That sentence would prove to be a key factor in starting what would be the modern day era of free agency for basketball as we know it.
• In addition to the "Official Bulletin" sent out to the NBL's teams in May 1946, that same bulletin also implored for an agreement with other professional and minor basketball leagues alike (such as the rivaling American Basketball League, the New York State Professional Basketball League, and the New England Basketball League amongst other minor leagues mostly held within the general Great Lakes region that were either forming or reforming their operations by this point in time) in order to both not infringe on player contract rights within a certain team's territory and to help regulate both tournaments and exhibition games within the sport of basketball going forward (as before this attempt occurred, both professional and minor basketball leagues were more loose with how the professional game should be handled beyond the general rules of the sport). However, in addition to the West Coast-based Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League not being able to sign it due to their base of operations being to far away for the NBL to realistically worry about during this period of time, they would also see another newly created professional basketball league called the Basketball Association of America not sign it when most other leagues had done so since they had felt that there more than enough good players to go around for everyone, the arenas that involved both National Hockey League and American Hockey League teams would be available for the sport and wanted to be put into more use, and they felt that fans would come to any good sporting event in the euphoria of a post-World War II world. That would have great consequences to come throughout the season for many of the professional basketball leagues alongside the NBL and newly-created BAA, especially when the latter league had two teams held in the cities of Chicago and Detroit with the Chicago Stags (originally named Chicago Atomics and briefly the Chicago Basketball Club, Inc.) and Detroit Falcons when the NBL already had their own teams there with the Chicago American Gears and the newly created/joined Detroit Gems respectively.^[9]
• Before the season began properly, NBL teams were allowed to sign African American players on a more regular basis, months before Jackie Robinson would first famously sign up with the Brooklyn Dodgers in Major League Baseball. As such, not only did the defending champion Rochester Royals sign up Dolly King onto their roster, two other teams would also sign African American players onto their teams as well, with the Buffalo Bisons (later Tri-Cities Blackhawks) signing up Pop Gates and the Youngstown Bears signing Bill Farrow.^[10]
• The NBL would open the regular season on November 7, 1946 between the Toledo Jeeps and the Syracuse Nationals, with Toledo crushing Syracuse 57–43 in the opening match.^[7]
• In the NBL's regular season debut game on November 11 between the Detroit Gems and the Anderson Duffey Packers (where Anderson would ultimately win their game), the debut home game of the Anderson Duffey Packers would see many special guests appear there like Richard T. James (the Lieutenant Governor of Indiana); Buffalo Bisons (later Tri-Cities Blackhawks) team president Leo Ferris; Indianapolis Kautskys co-owners Frank Kautsky and Paul A. Walk; Oshkosh All-Stars head coach and NBL secretary-treasurer Lon Darling alongside every other member of the Oshkosh All-Stars, who were there to compete against the Indianapolis Katuskys for the upcoming match in Indianapolis the following night afterward (with that latter match ending with the Indianapolis Kautskys winning 51–47 over Oshkosh); NBL publicity directory Keith Brehm; Anderson mayor Clarence D. Rotruck and other city officials within the small city of Anderson.^[9]
• Despite opening their season in November like every other team has done, the Chicago American Gears would end up not playing a single (proper) home game for their regular season until December 11 due to the International Amphitheatre home venue that the American Gears played in hosting livestock exhibitions during that period of time instead.^[7]
• After a bunch of exhibition games against the Midland Dow Chemicals replacing what would have been their usual Eastern venue swings for the preseason period, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would win what was considered to be an "unimpressive" victory before a "near capacity crowd" at somewhere a bit less than 4,000 fans over the Youngstown Bears at the North Side High School Gym in Fort Wayne on November 17.^[7] (By comparison, the Madison Square Garden in the newly-created Basketball Association of America would draw in as many as 17,000, if not 18,000 people.)
• By the end of November, every team would play at least one game for their season, though the American Gears would only play three road games by the end of the month. The best teams of each division at that point in time were the Anderson Duffey Packers of the Western Division with a 5–1 record and the Rochester Royals of the Eastern Division with a 4–2 record (though Rochester would only recently lose their first game of the NBL season at home to the Chicago American Gears by one point in a 65–64 defeat), while the worst teams in each division were the Detroit Gems for the Western Division with a 1–5 record and the Youngstown Bears for the Eastern Division with a 1–6 record.^[11]
• The annual match between the College All-Stars (a team composed of the best players who were on college basketball teams the previous season) and the champions of the World Professional Basketball Tournament held on November 30 would involve a doubleheader that first saw the world famous Harlem Globetrotters go up against the Anderson Duffey Packers before the College All-Stars team that included Chicago American Gears center George Mikan go up against the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons as the main match held at the Chicago Stadium (home of the Chicago Stags of the BAA) in front of 23,778 people (according to Jim Enright of the Chicago Herald-American).^[12] The doubleheader would end with the Anderson Duffey Packers upsetting the world famous Harlem Globetrotters with a close 56–52 victory, while the College All-Stars would upset the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in a close 57–54 overtime match that saw almost all of the College All-Stars who decided to play professionally during this season go and play in the NBL this season over any other basketball league like the original rivaling ABL or the new rivaling BAA.^[10]
• After giving the Rochester Royals their first loss of the NBL season with a 65–64 victory for the Chicago American Gears, the Chicago squad would later play a couple of matches against the Syracuse Nationals, with one key match they had in Moline, Illinois that they lost three days after that first match they played against Syracuse in Syracuse proving to be a deciding factor for the Buffalo Bisons' long-term future on what they would plan on doing as a franchise going forward.^[10]
• The first home match the Chicago American Gears would have this season would be held on December 11, which disappointingly ended in a close 44–41 loss to the Oshkosh All-Stars. The following day after that, star center George Mikan would announce his retirement from playing basketball, claiming that "his heart isn't in the game under present conditions." There were reports that his head coach, former Original Celtics star player Davey Banks, and the rest of the team, including Mikan himself, "weren't hitting it off well."^[13] Team owner Maurice White would also try to get George Mikan onto a deal worth $6,500 per year contract instead of the $12,000 per year deal that he was originally worth since White was later revealed to have monetary issues, which later caused White to waive four of the American Gears' players on the team this season (including Mikan's older brother, Joe Mikan, as well as Charlie Butler, Jim Cominsky, and Bob Rensberger^[14]), as well as for George Mikan to sue the team and Maurice White for both breach of contract and the unilateral nature of the original of Mikan's contract in question.^[15]
• After starting the season out with a 4–4 record, the Chicago American Gears would fire Davey Banks as the head coach both for a lower-quality start to their season and for monetary problems being involved since it was claimed he was hired for $7,500, but he was later told he was hired for a 52-week contract instead of a contract where the season and agreement ended on March 9 for his end outside of their potential play for the 1947 NBL Playoffs and the potential 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament spot as well.^[16] Chicago American Gears player Dick Triptow mentioned that Bruce Hale would handle the head coaching duties of the team for the next three weeks as a player-coach until the team acquired key Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons guard Bobby McDermott (who had once considered playing for either the Cleveland Rebels or the New York Knickerbockers in the newly-rivaling Basketball Association of America when his original Fort Wayne contract wasn't picked up by any of the other NBL teams) on January 2, 1947, who became their new player-coach for the rest of the season,^[17] but general manager Harry Foote was considered the official head coach during that time, with the previous season's head coach, Swede Roos, being their (unofficial) assistant coach during that ime as well. That meant for three weeks (specifically from December 15-29, 1946 in terms of dates that the Chicago American Gears had for NBL games played), the Chicago American Gears team would be without any official head coach helping out the team alongside the lack of their biggest star player being around the team by this time as well.^[13]
• After losing a 50–38 home match on December 16 against the Sheboygan Red Skins and then going on a road trip that saw two of their originally scheduled home games get cancelled on them (a Christmas Day December 25 game against the Chicago American Gears and a December 30 game against the Indianapolis Kautskys^[18]) while also seeing them lose $25,000 as a franchise following their first six home games played since they averaged a total of 2,500 fans per game at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium when 3,600 per game was needed to break even, the second version of the Buffalo Bisons NBL team would end up moving to the Wharton Field House held in Moline, Illinois to officially become the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (with the Tri-Cities location representing what was known as the "Tri-Cities" area at the time of Moline, Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa, though not officially being named the Blackhawks until New Year's Day in 1947 due to their name the team contest being two weeks long following the team selling 40 out of 100 team shares to the Moline (Tri-Cities) locals for $375) for the rest of not just this season, but the rest of their existence in the NBL going forward. Originally, the Bisons had considered moving to either Minneapolis or Milwaukee alongside the smaller city of Moline before choosing Moline as their final location to relocate the franchise (albeit with the "Tri-Cities" naming location in mind) due to the December 6 game between the Syracuse Nationals and the Chicago American Gears at Moline drawing in 4,000 fans at that same arena in question.^[13] Despite their relocation to what was seen as the furthest western city in the league (in terms of the general competition there at the time), the now-renamed Tri-Cities Blackhawks would still compete in the Eastern Division for the rest of the season going forward.^[19]
• Following a December 20 loss to the Syracuse Nationals on the road where the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons continued playing uninspired basketball on their ends (to the point of having an average 7–7 record on their ends, with them dropping six of their last seven games after starting out the season relatively well on their ends), star guards Bobby McDermott and Charley Shipp alongside rookie power forward/center Milo Komenich would get into an argument over a craps game aboard the New York Central Railroad's overnight sleeper.^[20] From there, a fight ensued, which caused head coach and general manager Carl Bennett to awaken from the cabin he was sleeping in just to break up the altercation between the three, which led to him hearing from the three players explaining their sides of the story to Bennett in separate manners before he told team owner Fred Zollner about it, which led to Zollner himself suspending the three players in an indefinite basis for "insubordination to [the] team's management" a day later.^[21] Ben Tenny from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel would later comment that "fans here never took the long-shot artist to their hearts" with regards to the fan treatment of star guard Bobby McDermott and that he would be "one of the paradoxes of local sports history." While Milo Komenich would later be reinstated with the team properly, star guard Charley Shipp would end up getting sent off to the Anderson Duffey Packers, while primary star guard Bobby McDermott was given an outright release in order to make his own deal after all the other NBL teams decided not to take on the original contract the Zollner Pistons first gave him. While he initially entertained the idea of signing up with the Cleveland Rebels and the New York Knickerbockers of the newly-created Basketball Association of America (which would have made him the first and only high school freshman player to enter what would later officially be the National Basketball Association), he ended up signing a new contract with the Chicago American Gears on January 2, 1947 in order to be their player-coach for the rest of the season.^[19]
• George Mikan's case against Maurice White and the Chicago American Gears would not conclude until January 29, 1947, with him not playing for them again until January 31, 1947 in a close 62–60 victory over the Syracuse Nationals (with him scoring 22 points in his return with the team), meaning the American Gears would be without their star center for six whole weeks. Mikan would be represented by Stacy Osgood and labor lawyer turned future Associate Justice for the Supreme Court judge (and U.S. Ambassador for the United Nations) Arthur Goldberg, while White and the American Gears were represented by David Fisher, who was the son of Judge Harry Fisher, who heard the case in question. While the two sides were encouraged to find an amicable settlement by Judge Harry Fisher and had looked to get there by the middle of January 1947, they originally fell apart with future hearings being covered on a regular basis on local newspapers akin to their sports games before agreeing to a settlement in a very quiet manner by January 29.^[20]
• By the time George Mikan returned to the Chicago American Gears, the Western Division saw the Rochester Royals leading their division considerably with a 20–5 record, while the Toledo Jeeps and Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons were neck-and-neck for second place with respective 16–12 and 15–12 records, and the three teams closer to last place than they were the final open playoff spot for the Western Division were the Syracuse Nationals at 9–16, the former Buffalo Bisons now turned Tri-Cities Blackhawks at 9–17, and the Youngstown Bears at 9–21. As for the Eastern Division, where Chicago was at, they saw the Indianapolis Kautskys (who had been last place in their division the previous season) surprise people at first place by this point in time with a 19–7 record, with the longstanding Oshkosh All-Stars catching up to them with a 16–9 record, followed by the new Anderson Duffey Packers not being too far behind them at 16–13, then the Sheboygan Red Skins at 14–12 for the last playoff spot in the Western Division, followed by the Chicago American Gears with a losing 13–14 record, with the Detroit Gems being dead last in the entire league with a 4–22 record (with them winning all four of their games at home and unbeknownst to them getting all of their wins as a team by that point in time since they would end the season with a massive 18-game losing streak for a wretched 4–40 record).^[20]
• On February 16, 1947, one interestingly close game that originally ended with a buzzer-beating shot favoring the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons to have them win with a 57–56 final score over the Syracuse Nationals at first would be protested by Syracuse due to them stating that due to the shot technically being made after the final buzzer rang through, the last shot in question should not have counted. Interestingly, unlike in the present-day era where buzzer-beating shots would count so long as the ball left the shooter's hands before the clock struck 0 seconds in the game, the NBL ruled the protest in favor of Syracuse a week later (with a newspaper article on February 24 confirming the changed results at hand), meaning the official score for that game would end with the Syracuse Nationals winning with a close 56–55 final score over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons where a buzzer-beating shot by Fort Wayne that normally would have counted in the present-day era was ultimately rescinded by the NBL instead.^[22] This would end up affecting the final standings a decent bit later on (though not by too much) once the regular season concluded and the NBL Playoffs began.
• The Rochester Royals would secure the best record in the Eastern Division by seeing the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons losing to the Toledo Jeeps 60–54 in Toledo on February 23.^[23]
• On February 25, when the Tri-Cities Blackhawks would end their seven-game winning streak by losing 53–47 to the Syracuse Nationals, a fight would break out in the last five minutes of the match between Pop Gates of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Chick Meehan of the Syracuse Nationals that had Gates end up becoming the instigator due to Gates first pushing Meehan for the loose basketball, where Meehan went straight to the floor where he "hit his face hard and made a noise like a bowling ball striking a pin" before it later turned into a brawl that included other players and fans that ended with Gates being surrounded by police and being rushed out by the authorities. While Gates later sent Meehan an apology letter dated back to March 11, 1947, and while they both mentioned the bout had nothing to do with race whatsoever, the incident led to fans thinking that continued usage of African American players could be bad for the NBL, which later led to there being no African American players being added for the 1947–48 NBL season (though the NBL would later make up for that issue the following season after that one).^[23]
• Also on February 25, the NBL would utilize a sudden-death overtime format that wasn't utilized beforehand for a double-overtime match between the Chicago American Gears and the Rochester Royals that ended with the Royals winning that match with a 41–39 score. However, the American Gears would end up protesting that sudden-death overtime format's usage in that double-overtime game by requesting a rematch for what would be their new regular season finale on March 13, which saw the Royals pummel the American Gears with a 75–55 beatdown without the need of any overtime tricks in mind.
• Near the end of this season, the Eastern Division would see the Rochester Royals have a significant lead over the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, while the Toledo Jeeps, Syracuse Nationals, and Tri-Cities Blackhawks were all within a game of each other for the final two playoff spots in the new NBL Playoff format for this season. The Western Division, meanwhile, would see both the Oshkosh All-Stars and Indianapolis Kautskys competing for the top spot of the Western Division, with the remaining teams competing for a playoff spot in that division in the Chicago American Gears, Anderson Duffey Packers, and Sheboygan Red Skins all being close behind, within a game of each other. Either way, both of the divisions had the main fights of interest involving the fights for the fourth and final spots of each division for the new format of the NBL Playoffs for this season.^[23]
• For the scoring race during this period of time, Al Cervi of the Rochester Royals was considered the leading scorer in both points scored and points per game with the average totals there at 13.9 points per game, with both rookie Hal Tidrick and George Sobek of the Toledo Jeeps being second and third respectively, followed by Arnie Risen of the Indianapolis Kautskys and then Red Holzman of the Rochester Royals.^[23] Interestingly, while George Mikan of the Chicago American Gears was 20th in points by this time due to him playing in 17 fewer games this season, he actually led the league in points per game averages with 17.3 points per game by that time.^[24] Not only that, but Leroy Edwards of the Oshkosh All-Stars would still average 9.4 points per game despite being in what would be considered an unusually long (at the time) tenth season in the NBL (twelfth season overall if you include his two seasons in the MBC beforehand as well).^[25]
• By the end of the regular season, despite the Chicago American Gears losing what would be a redo game to the Rochester Royals for their new season finale on March 13, they would end up making it as one of the four Western Division teams to compete in the new NBL Playoffs alongside the Sheboygan Red Skins (who tied with Chicago for third place), the Indianapolis Kautskys for second place, and the Oshkosh All-Stars for first place (meaning the Anderson Duffey Packers would join the Detroit Gems as the only other unlucky team to miss out on the NBL Playoffs in the Western Division this season), while the Eastern Division saw both the Toledo Jeeps and Syracuse Nationals finish with below-average records that had them both tied for third place in their division as well (meaning the former Buffalo Bisons turned Tri-Cities Blackhawks would join the Youngstown Bears as the only other unlucky team to miss out on the NBL Playoffs in the Eastern Division this season), with the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons works team being in second place for their division and the Rochester Royals being in first place for not just the Eastern Division, but the entire NBL as a whole.^[25]
• Instead of announcing their NBL honors during the NBL Playoffs, the league decided to announce their honors by the end of the regular season and before the start of the playoffs for a change of pace, with their announcement also including the NBL All-Rookie Team for this season.^[25]
• Due to the number of teams added into the NBL this season, the NBL Playoffs would also be expanded out this season to include an extra round of play as well. That means that in order for a team to be named the champion of the NBL this season, they would have to first win what would be deemed the divisional semifinal round in a best of five series first before going up into a divisional final round that would be a best of three series there before seeing the two winning teams from each division go head to head in the championship round in what would be a best of five series once again. This season also marked the first time the NBL Playoffs would compete directly against the BAA Playoffs as well, especially since one of the locations involved also had a team competing for a professional basketball championship as well in the Chicago Stags for the 1947 BAA Finals.^[26]
• Interestingly, for the first time in the NBL's history, the NBL Playoffs would not conclude in a timely manner for the World Professional Basketball Tournament to begin its play properly. Not only that, but the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament would see itself face direct competition from not just the 1947 NBL Finals going on between the Chicago American Gears and the Rochester Royals, but also the Chicago Stags and the Philadelphia Warriors as well, thus likely seeing more limited interest in the WPBT this time around by comparison to previous events from other years beforehand.^[27]
• Due to the competition going on for both the 1947 NBL Finals and the 1947 BAA Playoffs (including the 1947 BAA Finals), which both coincidentally featured teams competing within the Chicago area that the event was being held in, the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament saw eight of the NBL's twelve teams (excluding the two 1947 NBL Finals teams in the Chicago American Gears and the Rochester Royals, neither the Detroit Gems nor the Youngstown Bears would join in for the event) compete against not just the other NBL teams in the event with the three-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, Oshkosh All-Stars, Sheboygan Red Skins, Indianapolis Kautskys, Anderson Duffey Packers, Syracuse Nationals, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and Toledo Jeeps all competing in a 14 team tournament from April 7–11, 1947 that primarily saw other independent teams (most of them being properly independent like the all-black New York Renaissance, with one team being a works team in the Midland Dow Chemicals that's owned and operated by the Dow Chemical Company out in Midland, Michigan) alongside both the rivaling American Basketball League's repeat regular season champions in the Baltimore Bullets (who had a 34–3 record for their regular season) and the Portland Indians in the newly created (yet ultimately short-lived) Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League, with this tournament seeing both the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and (interestingly enough) the Indianapolis Kautskys being the last two teams to ever receive byes in the WPBT's history. In the first round, every NBL team would end up making it to the quarterfinal round outside of the Syracuse Nationals, as they would get blown out by the Midland Dow Chemicals works team (who was slated to join the NBL themselves the following season), which signified how strong the NBL had become as a league by this point in time when compared to most other teams and professional basketball leagues. This later led to the semifinal rounds being the Indianapolis Kautskys against the Oshkosh All-Stars and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons going up against the Toledo Jeeps, with the underdog teams of the tournament actually winning their respective matches in the semifinal round, leading to Fort Wayne winning the third place consolation prize match over Oshkosh and Indianapolis winning the WPBT championship round match over Toledo after previously never winning a WPBT match before this year's event.^[28]
• On April 8, the NBL's commissioner, Ward Lambert, announced that the NBL would withdraw from the professional basketball group that had been formed before the season began that had intended to not steal players from other, respective professional and minor basketball leagues of the time. Lambert had not only stated that only both the NBL and the original rivaling ABL had lived up to the original agreement in mind from earlier in the season, but also charged that the newly-created Basketball Association of America had itself a "raid list" where both rookie center Don Otten of the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Bob Davies of the Rochester Royals were designated to go to the Boston Celtics, with Leo Ferris threatening to sue the BAA if they dared to tamper with Don Otten in particular.^[29]
• The NBL would conclude its playoffs on April 9 with the Chicago American Gears winning the 1947 NBL Finals 3–1 over the Rochester Royals, with the decisive game being won with a 79–68 final score in Chicago's favor. Despite winning the NBL's championship for the playoffs, however, Ward Lambert would inexplicably decide for this season that the regular season champions (which were the Rochester Royals with their 31–13 record) would be the league champions for this season as opposed to the Chicago American Gears, who would only be considered the NBL's champions for the playoffs instead. That being said, the Chicago American Gears would retroactively be considered the official champions of the 1946–47 NBL season going forward.^[2]
• Interestingly, both the Rochester Royals and the Chicago American Gears would play a bonus three game series that would be considered a part of the "Royals Appreciation Series" of sorts that was held at Hershey, Pennsylvania, Schenectady, New York, and Rochester, New York at the time from April 11–13, with the Royals winning their first game through a close 76–73 victory, before Chicago got Game 2 with a 75–74 overtime victory and then took Game 3 with a 68–60 win. While Maurice White had the American Gears players up until April 15, he would give his guys $1,000 each if the American Gears won two out of three games against the Royals in this series, which they did. In a letter that Al Cervi wrote to Dick Triptow, Cervi thought the series was a joke in the end, with him noting that only three of the Rochester guys got $300 that series while the rest got nothing from it and that even sixty years later, Cervi was still angered by Les Harrison's cheapness from that specific series.^[30] As for the Chicago American Gears, they would play a total of 79 games this season between the 44 official NBL games for a 26–18 record, the 23 exhibition games that resulted in a 13–10 record (3–1 home record) for games that didn't count toward their overall record, the eleven NBL Playoff games that resulted in a 8–3 record for their first and only championship as a team, and the only replayed game that resulted in a blowout loss on March 13, leaving them with an unofficial record of 47–31 (or 47–32) to close out their season properly.^[31]

Due to the NBL expanding operations from eight to twelve teams this season, the NBL decided to expand their playoff formatting for what would later become its final few seasons of existence by adding a divisional opening round with the four best teams in each division competing against each other in a best of five series before the two remaining teams that would be considered the best of each division would compete in what's now called the "Division Semifinals" round in what's weirdly considered a best of three series this time around before the final two teams that would be considered the best from both divisions would compete against each other in a best of five championship series once again. In the opening round, the Eastern Division saw the Rochester Royals beat the newly created Syracuse Nationals 3–1 and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons works team barely survive against the new Toledo Jeeps team 3–2, while the Western Division saw the Oshkosh All-Stars permanently tie up their "Battle of Wisconsin" NBL Playoffs matches against their cityside rivals in the Sheboygan Red Skins 3–2 and the Chicago American Gears would barely survive against the Indianapolis Kautskys with a 3–2 series victory themselves in order to set up the divisional semifinal rounds. Entering those next rounds, the Rochester Royals would once against defeat the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, this time doing so in a closer 2–1 series victory, while the lower seeded Chicago American Gears would upset the Oshkosh All-Stars with a 2–0 sweep for a shot at the NBL Championship. For the championship series, the Chicago American Gears would upset the Rochester Royals 3–1 to win their first (and only) NBL championship in franchise history; following this season's end, the American Gears would leave the NBL to create an ambitious, yet ultimately short-lived rivaling professional basketball league called the Professional Basketball League of America due, in part, to commissioner Ward Lambert considering the regular season champions in the Rochester Royals to be the official champions of the NBL this season due to them having the best overall record in the league this season (though history would retroactively make the Chicago American Gears the official champions of the NBL for this season properly).

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. This NBL season would prove to be the only season where that would make a significant difference to the scoring leader for the NBL this time around, as while Al Cervi did lead the NBL in overall points scored with 632 total points scored, the points per game averages would be led by George Mikan instead (despite him being 20th in total points scored for this season) with a 16.5 points per game average by Mikan beating out Cervi's total average of 14.4 points per game for this season.^[48][49][50]

• NBL Most Valuable Player: Bob Davies, Rochester Royals
• NBL Coach of the Year: Lon Darling, Oshkosh All-Stars
• NBL Rookie of the Year: Fred Lewis, Sheboygan Red Skins

• NBL All-Rookie Team:^[25]
  • F/G – Fred Lewis, Sheboygan Red Skins
  • F/G – Leo Klier, Indianapolis Kautskys
  • C – Don Otten, Buffalo Bisons/Tri-Cities Blackhawks
  • G/F – Hal Tidrick, Toledo Jeeps
  • G – Jerry Rizzo, Syracuse Nationals

^[51]

For the ninth World Professional Basketball Tournament ever hosted, it would feature a total of fourteen teams competing in the event held in Chicago on April 7–11, 1947, with most of the teams representing the NBL this year, with the rest of the competition involving independently ran teams alongside both the original Baltimore Bullets team from the original rivaling American Basketball League (who entered the event as defending ABL champions due to their overwhelming 31–3 regular season record) and the Portland Indians from what would soon prove to be the short-lived Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League. Of the eight NBL teams competing in this specific event, the Oshkosh All-Stars would defeat the Herkimer Mohawk Redskins 60–54, the Anderson Duffey Packers would crush the last vestiges of the original Pittsburgh Pirates team that once represented the NBL with a 59–38 blowout victory, the Syracuse Nationals would be crushed by the independently ran Midland Dow Chemicals works team representing the Dow Chemical Company that had intended to join the NBL this season in a 72–39 blowout defeat, the Sheboygan Red Skins would defeat the PCPBL's Portland Indians with a 62–48 victory, the Toledo Jeeps would upset the long-standing all-black New York Renaissance franchise with a close 62–59 victory, and the Tri-Cities Blackhawks would surprisingly upset the ABL's overly powerful-looking Baltimore Bullets with a 57–46 victory in the Tri-Cities' favor to end the first two days of the first round to go with the three-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautskys' first round byes for nearly every single NBL team successfully making it to the quarterfinal round. As for the quarterfinal round, the Oshkosh All-Stars would defeat the Sheboygan Red Skins 53–44 in the WPBT's final Battle of Wisconsin for tournament competition, the Indianapolis Kautskys (who had previously never won a WPBT match before this year's event) would beat the Blackhawks 65–56 following the first round bye they had somehow gotten for this year's event, the three-time WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would beat down the Duffey Packers with a 52–40 victory, and the Toledo Jeeps would end up upsetting the Midland Dow Chemicals with a close 59–55 victory in their favor, leaving the final four teams of the event to all be NBL teams this season. Entering the semifinal round, the Indianapolis Kautskys would end up surprisingly crushing the Oshkosh All-Stars with a 59–38 blowout victory, while the Toledo Jeeps would surprise the three-time defending WPBT champion Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons with a 61–56 victory to end Fort Wayne's WPBT championship run, leaving the championship match with two unexpected teams competing to win it all and two championship contending teams competing for third place instead. Finally, the Zollner Pistons would end up crushing the Oshkosh All-Stars with a 86–67 blowout win, while the Kautskys would end up stopping the Jeeps' Cinderella run with a 62–47 win to get their first and only championship in the event, though the MVP of the WPBT this time around would be given to the losing team instead due to Jule Rivlin being named the MVP of the entire event for his efforts in getting Toledo as far as they did.

• National Basketball League (United States)
• 1946–47 BAA season, the rivaling inaugural season of what would eventually be their merging partner to form the National Basketball Association in the younger Basketball Association of America

• NBL Standings, 1937–1949 on apbr.org
• National Basketball League III – 1946–47 NBL Season Overview on retroseasons.com