The First NBA Game
The Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers in the first game of the Basketball Association of America.
On November 1, 1946, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens in the first game of the newly formed Basketball Association of America -- the league that would merge into today's NBA three years later.
The game drew a respectable crowd of around 7,090 curious fans, many of whom reportedly came as much for the promise of a free pair of nylon stockings as for the basketball itself. New York won 68-66.
Neither the Huskies nor several other original BAA franchises survived long; Toronto folded after a single season. But the game itself marked the start of continuous major professional basketball play in North America that runs unbroken to today.
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