Historical Pro Basketball Players By David Wilson Ever since the first players sunk the first hoops back over a century ago, basketball has been one of America's number one sports, and pro basketball players have been making sports history.
American pro basketball history can be traced to a game played in 1896 at the YMCA in Trenton, New Jersey. This game was played as the result of a fallout dispute between members of the YMCA team and a YMCA official. The disillusioned players formed their own professional team and began to play for money. Two years later, a group of New Jersey newspaper sports editors founded the National Basketball League (NBL). The stars of this first pro league were Barney Sedran and Ed Wachter.
As the league progressed into the twentieth century, the first two successful professional teams were the Buffalo Germans and the Original Celtics. The first major national professional league was the American Basketball League. The Harlem Globetrotters and the New York Renaissance, also known as the Rens, the most successful teams of the 1930s. Both of these teams were comprised entirely of black players. There were also women's basketball teams at this time, with the top women players being Nera White, Alline Banks Sprouse, and Babe Didrikson.
The Minneapolis Lakers dominated the pro basketball circuit throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Lakers, coached by John Kundla and led by George Mikan, took the NBA championship titles in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. Historical pro basketball
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