1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament


The 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament was the ninth edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament. It was held in Chicago, Illinois, during the days of 7–11 April 1947 and featured 14 teams, with the teams competing there primarily being a mixture of teams from the ever-strong National Basketball League and independently ran teams, with there also being the inclusion of the Baltimore Bullets from the American Basketball League and the Portland Indians of the short-lived Pacific Coast Professional Basketball League. Due to a combination of the Chicago American Gears & Rochester Royals declining their invitation to the 1947 event in order to play out the 1947 NBL Championship series they had and the Chicago Stags playing in the 1947 BAA Finals for the inaugural season of the newly-created Basketball Association of America to rival the long-standing NBL, local interest in the tournament turned out to wane when compared to prior years. However, the event would be notable for seeing the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons failing to win their fourth straight WPBT championship due to them being upset by the Toledo Jeeps with a 61–56 win on Toledo's end. Despite the upset that Toledo caused in the semifinal match-up, the championship match would ultimately be won by the Indianapolis Kautskys, who defeated the Toledo Jeeps 62–47 in the title game. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons came in third after beating the Oshkosh All-Stars 86–67 in the third-place game behind Ralph Hamilton's 26 points. Despite his team not winning this year's event, Julie Rivlin of the Toledo Jeeps was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Individual awards

All-Tournament First team

All-Tournament Second team