1948 BAA draft


The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America, which later merged with the National Basketball League to become the National Basketball Association. The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 [BAA season|1948–49 season]. In this draft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the NBL, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. Originally, this BAA draft was meant to be a joint draft venture with the NBL similar to what had meant to occur in the BAA's inaugural league draft. However, on May 9, the day before the draft was meant to begin for both leagues, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks would sign consensus All-American prospect and NCAA scoring champion Murray Wier from the University of Iowa, which caused BAA commissioner Maurice Podoloff to object to the Blackhawks' early signing attempt and endangered what was already a strenuously held truce between the two leagues. Before the draft officially began on May 10, the Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, and Indianapolis Kautskys announced they were leaving the NBL for the BAA ; the desertion of those four NBL teams led to the planned joint draft to be withdrawn on the NBL's end and subsequently led to the NBL breaking off all relations with the BAA at the time. As such, each league would conduct their own draft instead, with the BAA officially selecting 113 collegiate players and the NBL being slated to have chosen 125 total collegiate players themselves.

Draft selections and draftee career notes

Andy Tonkovich from Marshall University was selected first overall by the Providence Steamrollers. Four of the first round picks, George Kok, George Hauptfuhrer, Bob Gale and Chuck Hanger, never played in the BAA. Four players from this draft, Harry Gallatin, Dolph Schayes, Bobby Wanzer and Alex Hannum have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Draft

PlayerTeam
11GUnited Statessortname|George|Kok

Other picks

The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one BAA/NBA game.
PlayerTeam
G/FUnited Statessortname|Gene|Berce

Notable undrafted players

These players were not selected in the 1948 draft but played at least one game in the BAA/NBA.
PlayerPos.NationalitySchool/club team
GUnited States|1912sortname|Jake|Bornheimer