The history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by

Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith as a less injury-prone sport than football.
The game became established fairly quickly and grew very popular as the 20th century progressed,
first in America and then throughout the world. After basketball became established in American
colleges, the professional game followed. The American National Basketball Association (NBA),
established in 1946, grew to a multibillion-dollar enterprise by the end of the century, and basketball
became an integral part of American culture.

NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men's professional basketball league in North
America; composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). It is widely considered to
be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The NBA is an active member
of USA Basketball (USAB),[2] which is recognized by FIBA (also known as the International
Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA
is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players
are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.[3][4]
The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of
America (BAA).[1][5] The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3,
1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL). The league's several
international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in
the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York, NY. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios
are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Spotted by a number of folks online, asking Google about who created the NBA returned the
result in the Google Knowledge Graph that LaVar Ball founded the league. "NBA founder,"
"NBA creator," "who created NBA" and "who came up with NBA" will all give you the same—
wrong—answer (at least for now).

Maurice Podoloff (1946–1963)

Maurice Podoloff was the first president of the National Basketball Association. He served from the
league's founding as the Basketball Association of America in 1946 until 1987.
After the BAA signed several of the top names in the National Basketball League into the league,
Podoloff negotiated a merger between the two groups to form the National Basketball Association in
1949. As a lawyer with no previous basketball experience, Podoloff's great organizational and
administrative skills were later regarded as the key factor that kept the league alive in its often
stormy formative years.
In 17 years as president, Podoloff expanded the NBA to as many as 19 teams. He also briefly
formed three divisions and scheduled 558 games.
During his tenure, Podoloff introduced the collegiate draft in 1947, and in 1954 instituted the 24
second shot clock created by Dan Biasone, owner of the Syracuse Nationals which quickened the
pace of games, and took the NBA from a slow plodding game to a fast paced sport. In 1954,
Podoloff also increased national recognition of the game immensely by securing its first television
contract.
As the commissioner of the NBA, he was the one who gave lifetime suspensions to Indianapolis
Olympians players Ralph Beard and Alex Groza, not for what they did in the NBA but what had
happened in the NCAA. Groza and Beard had admitted to point shaving in college at the University
of Kentucky.
Maurice Podoloff stepped down as NBA Commissioner in 1963. During his period in office, he had
helped increase fan interest during the NBA's formative years and improved the overall welfare of
the sport of basketball through his foresight, wisdom and leadership. In his honor, the NBA would
name its annual league Most Valuable Player trophy the Maurice Podoloff Trophy.

J. Walter Kennedy (1963–1975)[edit]

Succeeding first president Maurice Podoloff, the likable, approachable J. Walter Kennedy became
an iron-handed executive and let everyone know precisely where he stood on issues. Kennedy
quickly exerted his authority, slapping Red Auerbach with a $500 fine for rowdy conduct during a
pre-season 1963 game. At the time, it was the largest fine ever levied against a coach or player in
the NBA.
His title was changed to "commissioner" in 1967. Kennedy was also the commissioner who upheld
the first protest ever in the NBA, which was the one filed by the Chicago Bulls for "the Phantom
Buzzer Game" against the Atlanta Hawks in 1969.
The new commissioner came into the NBA when the league was struggling with only nine teams, no
television contract, sagging attendance and competition from the increasingly popular American
Basketball Association. When Kennedy retired in 1975 as commissioner, the league had increased
to 18 teams, landed a lucrative television contract and improved its financial standing considerably,
experienced a 200 percent boost in income and attendance figures tripled during his tenure
Walter Kennedy was also instrumental in bringing an annual NBA game to Springfield to benefit
the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where he served on Hall of Fame's Board of
Trustees for 13 years, including two years as the Hall of Fame's President. Kennedy himself would
be inducted into the Hall in 1981. The NBA's annual citizenship award recognizing "outstanding
service and dedication to the community" is named in Kennedy's honor.

Larry O'Brien (1975–1984)

David Stern (1984–2014)

Adam Silver (2014–present)

1990s

PBA
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in
the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. It is the first professional
basketball league in Asia and is the second oldest continuously existing in the world after
the NBA.[1] The league's regulations are a hybrid of rules from the NBA and FIBA.
The league played its first game at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on April 9, 1975.[2] Its main
offices are located along Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue (C-5 road), Eastwood City,
Bagumbayan, Quezon City.

1958
Eddie Elias, Akron, Ohio, attorney, founded the PBA... there were 33 Founding
Members... the first 100 persons in the organization were Charter Members.