The NBA initially was found as the Basketball Association of America in 1946 and in 1949, it merged with the National Basketball League and changed it names to the NBA. The BAA started out with 11 founding teams in 1946 but lost four of them before the beginning of the next season. Despite the loss of four teams the BAA gained a lot of success against its rival the NBL and was able to entice four of the NBL’s premier teams to join the BAA in 1948.
When the two leagues merged in 1949, it brought the total number of clubs to 17 but the new league would quickly began losing teams. After just six years the number of teams had declined to just 8. Financial troubles challenged the league from the start and this was especially true for the NBL teams that participated during the merger due to operating in smaller markets. The owner of the Fort Wayne Pistons, Frank Zollner, was the key investor that help keep the NBA financially afloat during this time.
The NBA continued with 8 teams from 1955 to 1961 when the Chicago Packers participated in the league. The Packers, now the Washington Wizards, are not recognized to be the first expansion team, that distriction went to the Chicago Bulls because the Bulls, who participated in 1966, had an actual expansion draft. From 1966 until 2004, an expansion boom happened with a total of 21 teams joining the league.
The NBA has always been a league that was dominated by “teams of the era” in which, the beginning of decades of the NBA were dominated by the Minneapolis Lakers and their talent George Mikan. From 1948 until 1954 the Lakers dominated the league with 5 NBA championships. From 1957 until 1969 the Boston Celtics dominated the league with 11 championships in 13 seasons and the 1980s was dominated by the Lakers and Celtics who combined to get 8 out of the 10 titles during that period. The 1990s saw the prevalence of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls; who won 6 titles during the decade. The 2000s was the time of the Lakers to dominate by winning 5 titles during the decade.