1949–50 NBA season

• The Indianapolis Jets and Providence Steamrollers folded after the 1948–49 season, leaving the BAA with 10 teams. Excluding the Jets, three of those teams had joined the BAA from the National Basketball League (NBL) one year before.
• Six NBL franchises – (Anderson, Denver, Sheboygan, Syracuse, Tri-Cities, and Waterloo) and one expansion team (Indianapolis Olympians) – joined with the ten surviving BAA teams to create the National Basketball Association with 17 teams.

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In this inaugural NBA season only, the ten surviving teams from 1948–49 BAA season played a heavy schedule of games with each other and a light schedule with the seven NBL participants in the merger that created the league, and vice versa.

{{1949–50 NBA East standings}}

Syracuse played a heavy schedule of 44 games against Western Division teams: on average just over seven games each, same as they played each other (35 to 37 games against five Western rivals). The Western Division teams were generally weaker on the court; none of the teams there won half of its games played outside the division. Yet Syracuse won at the same 80% rate against the East and Central (16–4) as they did against the West (35–9).

{{1949–50 NBA Central standings}}

To define first and third place, the Lakers played one game against the Royals, while the Stags played one against the Pistons, preliminary to the 1950 NBA playoffs.

The five Central Division teams and five Eastern teams beside Syracuse — that is, the ten former BAA teams – uniformly played 68 games: six games in each pairing among themselves (54) and two games each against each of the Western teams and Syracuse (14).

{{1949–50 NBA West standings}}

The six Western Division teams and Syracuse—that is, the seven NBL participants in the merger—uniformly played two games each against every one of the ten BAA 1949 teams, the East and Central teams except Syracuse (20 games each). They played seven or nine games in each pairing among themselves (at least 42 games).

:x – clinched playoff spot

{{see also|1950 NBA playoffs}}

{{main|1950 NBA playoffs}}

{{excerpt|1950 NBA playoffs|Bracket|bold=yes|hat=no}}

Note: Prior to the 1969–70 season, league leaders in points and assists were determined by totals rather than averages.

{{col-begin}}{{col-2}}

• All-NBA First Team:
• Max Zaslofsky, Chicago Stags
• Bob Davies, Rochester Royals
• Alex Groza, Indianapolis Olympians
• George Mikan, Minneapolis Lakers
• Jim Pollard, Minneapolis Lakers

{{col-2}}

• All-NBA Second Team:
• Ralph Beard, Indianapolis Olympians
• Frank Brian, Anderson Packers
• Al Cervi, Syracuse Nationals
• Fred Schaus, Fort Wayne Pistons
• Dolph Schayes, Syracuse Nationals

{{col-end}}

• List of NBA regular season records

General source: [https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1950.html 1949–50 NBA Season Summary] basketball-reference.com. Retrieved August 31, 2010.

{{Reflist |refs=

"Expanded Standings". [https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1950_standings.html "1949–50 NBA Standings"]. Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-04.

}}

{{NBA seasons|1950}}

{{1949–50 NBA season by team}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1949-50 NBA season}}