1948–49 National Basketball League (United States) season

Summary

The 1948–49 NBL season was the fourteenth and final overall season of the National Basketball League (NBL) in the United States, and its twelfth and final season under that name, after previously operating as the Midwest Basketball Conference in its first two seasons. The final regular season of the NBL began on October 30, 1948, with a match between the older Oshkosh All-Stars and the newer Detroit Vagabond Kings, and ran until March 31, 1949, with it ending through a doubleheader series between the Sheboygan Red Skins and the all-black Dayton Rens team that replaced the Vagabond Kings during the season. As for the final NBL playoffs ever held, they would operate from April 1, 1949, until April 19, 1949, with the final championship series concluding with the Anderson Duffey Packers sweeping the Oshkosh All-Stars three games to none in a best-of-five series. After the series, Anderson's owners portrayed the championship as a victory for small-town teams, arguing that smaller cities like Anderson could still compete with and defeat clubs from larger markets in a changing professional basketball landscape.