1950 NBA Finals

1950 NBA Finals
Dates	April 8−23
Hall of Famers	Lakers:; George Mikan (1959); Jim Pollard (1978); Vern Mikkelsen (1995); Slater Martin (1982); Nationals:; Dolph Schayes (1973); Alex Hannum (1998, coach); Al Cervi (1985); Coaches:; John Kundla (1995); Al Cervi (1985, player); Officials:; Pat Kennedy (1959); John Nucatola (1978)
Eastern finals	Nationals defeated Knicks, 2–1
Western finals	Not the Western final (see text). Central finalist Lakers defeated Western finalist Packers, 2–0

The 1950 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s inaugural 1949–50 season following the merger of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The Central Division champion Minneapolis Lakers faced the Eastern Division champion Syracuse Nationals in a best-of-seven series with Syracuse having home-court advantage.^[1]

In the event, six games were played in 16 days, beginning Saturday and Sunday, April 8 and 9, in Syracuse and incorporating two subsequent Sunday games in Minneapolis. Counting a Central Division tiebreaker played on Monday, March 20, the entire postseason tournament spanned five full weeks to Sunday, April 23.^[2]

The NBA was arranged in three divisions (for its first season only) and the first two rounds of the 1950 NBA Playoffs generated three Division champions. With the league's best regular season record, Syracuse had earned a place in the Finals by winning the Eastern Division title on the preceding Sunday, and had been five days idle while the Central and Western champions had played a best-of-three series mid-week.^[2]

In Game 1, the Lakers won on a buzzer beating shot by sub Bob "Tiger" Harrison, the first known case of a buzzer beater in the Finals. Six-foot-eight-inch (2.03 m) Dolph Schayes of Syracuse led his team out to the finals after a 16.8 ppg average during the regular season. George Mikan, however, averaged 27.4 ppg and led the league.^{[citation needed]} Mikan would lead the Lakers past Syracuse in six games.^[1]

The championship was the Lakers third professional championship in a row after winning the NBL championship in 1948 and the BAA championship in 1949.^[1]

While the NBA was considered a new league at the time, it later retconned the three preceding BAA seasons as part of its own history, and thus presents the 1950 Finals as its fourth championship series.^[3]^[4]

Series summary

Game	Date	Home team	Result	Road team
Game 1	April 8	Syracuse Nationals	66−68 (0−1)	Minneapolis Lakers
Game 2	April 9	Syracuse Nationals	91−85 (1−1)	Minneapolis Lakers
Game 3	April 14	Minneapolis Lakers	91−77 (2−1)	Syracuse Nationals
Game 4	April 16	Minneapolis Lakers	77−69 (3−1)	Syracuse Nationals
Game 5	April 20	Syracuse Nationals	83−76 (2−3)	Minneapolis Lakers
Game 6	April 23	Minneapolis Lakers	110−95 (4−2)	Syracuse Nationals

Lakers win series 4−2

Rosters

1949-50 Minneapolis Lakers roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	No.	Name	Height	Weight	DOB	From
G/F	15	Carlson, Don	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	1919–03–22	Minnesota
G/F	18	Ferrin, Arnie	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1925-07-29	Utah
F	20	Grant, Bud	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	1927–05–20	Minnesota
G	16	Harrison, Bob	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	1927–08–12	Michigan
G	11	Hassett, William	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1921-10-21	Notre Dame
G/F	13	Jaros, Anthony	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1920–02–22	Minnesota
G	22	Martin, Slater	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	1925–10–22	Texas
C	99	Mikan, George	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	245 lb (111 kg)	1924–06–18	DePaul
F	19	Mikkelsen, Arild	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	1928–10–21	Hamline
F	17	Pollard, James	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1922–07–09	Stanford
G/F	10	Schaefer, Herman	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	1918–11–20	Indiana

Head coach

John Kundla

Legend

(DP) Unsigned draft pick
(FA) Free agent
(S) Suspended
Injured

Roster

1949-50 Syracuse Nationals roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	No.	Name	Height	Weight	DOB	From
G	15	Cervi, Alfred	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	1917–02–12	East HS (NY)
F	11	Chollet, Leroy	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	1925–03–05	Canisius
G	9	Corley, Raymond	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1928–01–14	Georgetown
G	7	Gabor, William	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	1922–05–13	Syracuse
F	10	Hannum, Alexander	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	1923–07–19	USC
G	14	Levane, Andrew	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	1920–04–11	St. John's
G/F	5	Macknowski, John	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1923–01–07	Seton Hall
C	13	Peterson, Edward	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	1924–06–27	Cornell
F	6	Ratkovicz, George	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	1922-11-13	Lindblom Academy (IL)
F/C	4	Schayes, Adolph	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	1928–05–19	NYU
G	8	Seymour, Paul	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	1928-01-30	Toledo

Head coach

Alfred Cervi

Legend

(DP) Unsigned draft pick
(FA) Free agent
(S) Suspended
Injured

Roster

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Minneapolis Lakers capture NBA crown". Journal and Courier. Associated Press. April 24, 1950. p. 19. Retrieved June 21, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b "1949–50 NBA Season Summary". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-03-03.
Select "Previous Season" from the heading for 1948–49 BAA, and so on. Select "Finals" from League Playoffs for the daily schedule of the final series, and so on.
^ Curtis Harris (January 21, 2022). "How the NBA's 75th anniversary sweeps away its early history". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
^ "NBA Season Recaps: 1946-2019". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. July 24, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2020.