Eastern Division (NBA)
The Eastern Division was a division in the National Basketball Association and its forerunner, the Basketball Association of America. The division was created at the start of the 1946–47 BAA season, when the league was created, and was then kept as one of the divisions when BAA merged with the National Basketball League to create the NBA on August 3, 1949. Originally, when the merger between the BAA and NBL happened, it was planned for the Eastern and Western divisions to be renamed into the American and National divisions with the divisions being re-divided between the Eastern and Western teams in both leagues not long afterward, but the sudden dropout of the Oshkosh All-Stars from the initial BAA–NBL merger into the NBA by September 3, 1949, led to the Eastern and Western divisions returning as planned alongside the temporary creation of a Central Division for that season. The division existed until the 1970–71 NBA season when the NBA expanded from 14 to 17 teams and realigned into the Eastern and Western conferences with two divisions each.
Teams
;Notes- denotes an expansion team.
- denotes a team that merged from the National Basketball League
Team timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1150 height:auto barincrement:25
Period = from:1946 till:1970
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:60 left:20 bottom:20 top:0
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1946 till:1970 text:Boston Celtics
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1946 till:1970 text:New York Knicks
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1946 till:1962 text:Philadelphia Warriors
bar:4 color:tan2 from:1946 till:1949 text:Providence Steamrollers
bar:5 color:tan2 from:1946 till:1947 text:Toronto Huskies
bar:6 color:tan2 from:1946 till:1947 text:Washington Capitols
bar:6 color:tan2 from:1948 till:1951
bar:7 color:tan2 from:1948 till:1954 text:Baltimore Bullets
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1970 text:Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1962 till:1970 text:Cincinnati Royals
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1970 text:Baltimore Bullets
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1967 till:1970 text:Detroit Pistons
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1968 till:1970 text:Milwaukee Bucks
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