1947–48 Baltimore Bullets season

August 2023 March 2026 Baltimore Bullets (1944–54) Baltimore Bullets BAA 1948 yes 28 20 Western 2 Robert "Jake" Embry Buddy Jeannette Baltimore Coliseum WMAR-TV WITH BAA Champions BLB Baltimore Bullets The 1947–48 Baltimore Bullets season was the Bullets' first season in the Basketball Association of America which would later be named the NBA. They played their first three seasons in the American Basketball League in its last few seasons as a professional basketball league that rivaled the BAA and the National Basketball League, making this their fourth professional basketball season in franchise history.1947-48 Baltimore Bullets Roster and Stats https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BLB/1948.html 2025-03-19 Basketball-Reference.com en This season marked their second overall championship after previously winning the 1946 ABL Championship over the Philadelphia Sphas, who were also coached by Eddie Gottlieb at the time, funnily enough. (The Bullets also claimed a third championship in 1947 due to their overwhelming regular season record in the ABL that year. In the postseason, the Bullets felt that the ABL was unnecessarily delaying the start of their championship series, and they elected to play in the 1947 World Professional Basketball Tournament instead. The ABL therefore ruled that the Bullets forfeited the 1947 ABL Championship to the Trenton Tigers, establishing the discrepancy between the Bullets' claimed championships and the ABL's ruling.1946–47 Baltimore Bullets (ABL) Peach Basket Society) In the 1947–48 season, the Bullets won their only BAA/NBA championship with a 4–2 series win over the defending champion Philadelphia Warriors. There were also additional talks between the younger BAA and the older NBL where the champions of the BAA (which became the Baltimore Bullets this season) and the champions of the NBL (which became the newly rebranded Minneapolis Lakers, who had an immediate shift from their early Detroit Gems days due primarily in part to George Mikan's addition to the team) competing to see who would be the ultimate champions between the two leagues (akin to a basketball version of the World Series), but that ultimately would never happen, especially once the Lakers joined the Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (soon turned Fort Wayne Pistons), and Indianapolis Kautskys (soon turned Indianapolis Jets) as one of four NBL teams to move to the BAA by the end of the season.Nelson Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935–1949 2009 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 978-0-7864-4006-1, pp. 179, 201–203 With their departure from the NBA during the 1954–55 season, the Baltimore Bullets are currently considered the only defunct NBA team to ever win a championship under the BAA/NBA name. The 1947-48 Bullets would go on to join the Chicago Stags from the 1946–47 season and the Washington Capitols from the 1948–49 season as the only BAA/NBA teams to close operations after competing in a BAA/NBA Finals championship series. Draft picks 1947 BAA draft Despite the Baltimore Bullets not originally playing in the Basketball Association of America during its inaugural season, the Bullets were allowed to participate in the inaugural BAA draft (now known as the NBA draft following the eventual merger of the Basketball Association of America and National Basketball League to become the modern-day National Basketball Association) after two of their inaugural teams in the Cleveland Rebels and Detroit Falcons dropped out of the BAA (following a vote by the then-current team owners at the time on what their plans were going to be entering the following season) due to Baltimore having a major dispute with the original American Basketball League during their playoff period and subsequently wanting to join the newly created BAA in the process. As a result of that, the Bullets held the last selections of each round due to them having the best record of every team involved in the BAA at this time despite them playing their previous season in the original ABL (losing only three regular season games in the ABL (losing to the Philadelphia Sphas 68–63 on November 30, 1946, the Trenton Tigers 64–53 on December 12, 1946, and the Philadelphia Sphas again on February 1, 1947, this time in a 77–59 beatdown) despite playing less games there with 34 total regular season matches there, while the best BAA team last season, the Washington Capitols, had a 49–11 record), though official records of this draft outside of the first round in terms of ordering are currently unknown at this time. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 10 Larry Killick PG USA 1912 Vermont 2 20 Bob Jake – United States 1912 Vermont 3 30 John Rusinko G United States 1912 Penn State 4 40 Harry Gallatin PF/C United States 1912 Northeast Missouri State Teachers College 5 49 Charles Raynor – United States 1912 Houston 6 57 Scotty Hamilton PG United States 1912 West Virginia 7 64 Hugh Hampton – United States 1912 High Point College 8 70 Elmer Gainer PF/C United States 1912 DePaul 9 75 Chick Reiser SG/SF United States 1912 New York University 10 78 Robert Bolyard SG/SF United States 1912 Toledo Interestingly, a good number of the team's draft picks for the inaugural BAA/NBA draft period would involve players that had already played professionally for other professional basketball leagues, such as Scotty Hamilton from the Wilmington Bombers of the same American Basketball League that the Baltimore Bullets used to play in, both Elmer Gainer and Bob Bolyard of the Anderson Duffey Packers from the rivaling National Basketball League, and Chick Reiser of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (later becoming the present-day Detroit Pistons) from the rivaling National Basketball League. Roster Baltimore Bullets 1947–48 23 Herm Fuetsch G 6 0 170 Polytechnic HS (CA) 1918-07-06 29 Kleggie Hermsen C/F 6 9 225 Minnesota 1923-03-12 32 Paul Hoffman basketball G/F 6 2 195 Purdue 1925-04-12 26 Buddy Jeannette G 5 11 175 Washington & Jefferson 1917-09-15 20 Red Klotz G 5 7 150 Villanova 1921-10-21 35 Grady Lewis F/C 6 7 215 Oklahoma 1917-03-25 31 Carl Meinhold G/F 6 2 185 Long Island University 1926-03-29 27 Chick Reiser G/F 5 11 165 NYU 1914-12-17 21 Dick Schulz F/G 6 2 192 Wisconsin 1917-01-03 33 Connie Simmons C/F 6 8 222 Flushing HS (NY) 1925-03-15 Buddy Jeannette https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BLB/1948.html Regular season Season standings 50% BLB Game log # Date Opponent Score High points Record 1 November 12 @ Washington L 55–63 Kleggie Hermsen (18) 0–1 2 November 13 Boston W 85–74 Chick Reiser (19) 1–1 3 November 15 @ Chicago W 67–63 Paul Hoffman (14) 2–1 4 November 20 New York W 68–56 Chick Reiser (19) 3–1 5 November 21 @ Boston W 89–73 Buddy Jeannette (17) 4–1 6 November 22 Chicago W 75–72 Chick Reiser (19) 5–1 7 November 27 Providence W 76–61 Jeannette, Meinhold (13) 6–1 8 November 29 @ St. Louis W 71–67 Kleggie Hermsen (21) 7–1 9 December 2 @ Boston W 77–69 (OT) Chick Reiser (22) 8–1 10 December 3 @ Philadelphia W 73–58 Buddy Jeannette (15) 9–1 11 December 4 St. Louis L 51–65 Mike Bloom (12) 9–2 12 December 6 @ Chicago L 65–73 Buddy Jeannette (17) 9–3 13 December 11 Washington L 69–71 (OT) Mike Bloom (18) 9–4 14 December 13 New York L 66–80 Kleggie Hermsen (17) 9–5 15 December 17 @ Washington L 64–66 Jeannette, Schulz (16) 9–6 16 December 18 St. Louis W 74–67 Chick Reiser (16) 10–6 17 December 21 @ Chicago L 83–93 Kleggie Hermsen (23) 10–7 18 December 25 Chicago W 87–70 Kleggie Hermsen (21) 11–7 19 December 28 @ St. Louis L 63–67 Dick Schulz (16) 11–8 20 January 1 Philadelphia L 60–72 Chick Reiser (13) 11–9 21 January 3 @ New York W 79–70 Kleggie Hermsen (18) 12–9 22 January 6 @ Providence W 82–64 Chick Reiser (17) 13–9 23 January 8 Chicago W 78–75 Hoffman, Jeannette (15) 14–9 24 January 11 @ St. Louis L 54–69 Paul Hoffman (12) 14–10 25 January 15 Providence W 98–78 Bloom, Hoffman (19) 15–10 26 January 16 @ Philadelphia L 63–72 Chick Reiser (16) 15–11 27 January 17 Philadelphia L 77–79 Mike Bloom (18) 15–12 28 January 22 St. Louis L 68–71 Mike Bloom (14) 15–13 29 January 24 @ New York W 72–58 Chick Reiser (16) 16–13 30 January 27 @ Chicago L 74–78 Chick Reiser (20) 16–14 31 January 30 Washingtona W 95–71 Chick Reiser (18) 17–14 32 January 31 @ Providence W 68–62 Kleggie Hermsen (22) 18–14 33 February 4 @ Washington L 72–77 Paul Hoffman (18) 18–15 34 February 5 Providence W 100–74 Hoffman, Jeannette (19) 19–15 35 February 12 New York W 96–86 Kleggie Hermsen (24) 20–15 36 February 15 @ St. Louis L 63–69 Paul Hoffman (17) 20–16 37 February 19 Boston W 79–76 (OT) Paul Hoffman (17) 21–16 38 February 21 @ Washington W 72–85 Kleggie Hermsen (14) 21–17 39 February 24 @ Philadelphia L 71–83 Paul Hoffman (16) 21–18 40 February 26 Washington W 97–70 Connie Simmons (17) 22–18 41 February 28 @ New York W 78–56 Connie Simmons (14) 23–18 42 February 29 @ Boston L 62–65 Grady Lewis (12) 23–19 43 March 4 St. Louis W 84–75 Carl Meinhold (16) 24–19 44 March 6 Boston W 81–68 Connie Simmons (23) 25–19 45 March 11 Chicago W 86–83 Carl Meinhold (16) 26–19 46 March 13 Philadelphia W 64–62 Chick Reiser (18) 27–19 47 March 18 Washington L 64–71 Hermsen, Hoffman (15) 27–20 48 March 20 @ Providence W 75–58 Buddy Jeannette (19) 28–20 a: Game Played at Fifth Regiment Armory BAA Playoffs BAA Western Division Tiebreaker Chicago Stags vs. Baltimore Bullets: Bullets win series 1-0 Game 1 @ Chicago (Thursday, March 25): Baltimore 75, Chicago 72 BAA First Round (W2) Baltimore Bullets vs. (E2) New York Knicks: Bullets win series 2-1 Game 1 @ Baltimore (Saturday, March 27): Baltimore 85, New York 81 Game 2 @ New York (Easter Sunday, March 28): New York 79, Baltimore 69 Game 3 @ Baltimore (Thursday, April 1): Baltimore 84, New York 77 BAA Semifinals (W2) Baltimore Bullets vs. (W3) Chicago Stags: Bullets win series 2-0 Game 1 @ Chicago (Wednesday, April 7): Baltimore 73, Chicago 67 Game 2 @ Baltimore (Thursday, April 8): Baltimore 89, Chicago 72 BAA Finals 1948 BAA Finals (E1) Philadelphia Warriors vs. (W2) Baltimore Bullets: Bullets win series 4-2 Game 1 @ Philadelphia (Saturday, April 10): Philadelphia 71, Baltimore 60 Game 2 @ Philadelphia (Tuesday, April 13): Baltimore 66, Philadelphia 63 Game 3 @ Baltimore (Thursday, April 15): Baltimore 72, Philadelphia 70 Game 4 @ Baltimore (Saturday, April 17): Baltimore 78, Philadelphia 75 Game 5 @ Philadelphia (Tuesday, April 20): Philadelphia 91, Baltimore 82 Game 6 @ Baltimore (Wednesday, April 21): Baltimore 88, Philadelphia 73 Transactions List of 1947–48 BAA season transactions Trades January 20, 1948 To Baltimore BulletsGrady Lewis"1947–48 Baltimore Bullets Transactions". Basketball Reference. Retrieved October 2, 2018. To St. Louis BombersIrv Rothenberg February 9, 1948 To Baltimore BulletsConnie Simmons To Boston CelticsMike Bloom Purchases PlayerDate purchasedFormer teamJerry RulloOctober 14, 1947Philadelphia Warriors References Category:Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) seasons Baltimore Category:NBA championship seasons Baltimore Bullets Baltimore Bullets