1947–48 Minneapolis Lakers season

The 1947–48 Minneapolis Lakers season was the inaugural season for the Lakers in Minneapolis following its relocation from Detroit where it played as the Detroit Gems the previous season.^[1][2] This season would be considered a hard reboot for the franchise, to the point where some fans and sports historians claim that the Detroit Gems and Minneapolis Lakers exist as two separate franchises due to the myriad of ways the franchise reset itself from the past in Detroit to the way it became what it was out in Minneapolis. The Lakers won the National Basketball League championship against the Rochester Royals. George Mikan led the team with 21.3 points per game and was the league's MVP. After this season ended for the NBL, both the Lakers and Royals would leave the NBL to join the newly rivaling Basketball Association of America (BAA) along with two other longstanding NBL clubs, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautskys, though Fort Wayne and Indianapolis would rebrand themselves as the Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets respectively in order to join properly due to the BAA not allowing for teams to have brand promotions as a part of their team names on display.^[3]

After talks of a 1948 championship series between the champions of the National Basketball League (which were the Minneapolis Lakers) and the newly-rivaling Basketball Association of America (which were formerly the older rivaling American Basketball League's own Baltimore Bullets, which was also the BAA's original Baltimore Bullets franchise) ultimately never came to fruition, it was decided that the Lakers would also participate in what would ultimately become the final World Professional Basketball Tournament ever held. In the final tournament ever held, the Lakers would crush the original American Basketball League's Wilkes-Barre Barons (who were the only non-NBL professional team competing in that event) 98–48 in the quarterfinal round and barely held on against the Anderson Duffey Packers with a 59–56 win in the semifinal round before winning the final championship over the independent New York Renaissance with a 75–71 victory that year,^[4] with the championship match having them being led behind George Mikan's tournament record and (MVP performing) 40 points scored that night.^[5]

• Won NBL Championship (3–1) over Rochester Royals
• Won NBL Western Division Semifinals (2–0) over Tri-Cities Blackhawks
• Won NBL Western Division Opening Round (3–1) over Oshkosh All-Stars

• George Mikan, MVP, All-NBL First Team
• Jim Pollard, All-NBL First Team^[6]

Shortly prior to the NBL Finals, during the days of April 8-11, the Lakers played in the annual World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago, with the final eight teams that participated in the event mostly being in the National Basketball League for a change of pace, with the only other professional team competing being the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the American Basketball League (who competed against the Lakers in the quarterfinal round) and the only two independently ran teams being the New York Renaissance and the Bridgeport Newfields, who competed against each other in the quarterfinal round. Initially, there was supposed to have been a championship series between the champions of the National Basketball League (which were the Minneapolis Lakers) and the newly-rivaling Basketball Association of America (which were formerly the older rivaling American Basketball League's own Baltimore Bullets, which was also the BAA's original Baltimore Bullets franchise) in 1948, but that ultimately never came to fruition. Being considered the favorites, they did not disappoint in the first round, blowing out the original American Basketball League's Wilkes-Barre Barons 98–48.^[7]

In the semifinal round, the Lakers came out on top against a fellow NBL competing team in the Anderson Duffey Packers, 59–56, behind Mikan's 21 points.^[8] In addition to Mikan, Don Carlson would also score 12 points himself, while Herm Schaefer would pick up 10 points on his end in order for the Lakers to win their semifinal match over Anderson.^[9]

In the final WPBT championship game that was ever held, the Lakers defeated the independently owned and ran New York Renaissance 75–71,^[10][4] behind George Mikan's tournament record 40 points.^[5] Mikan led all scorers and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Along with Mikan, Jim Pollard was named to the All-Tournament First Team.^[11][12] This final championship also made the Minneapolis Lakers in their first season under that name become the third and final team to win both the NBL's championship and the WPBT's championship in the same season, joining the Oshkosh All-Stars from the 1941–42 season and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in both 1944 and 1945 as the only NBL teams to claim the same honor that these Lakers had done.

• Won quarterfinal round (98–48) over Wilkes-Barre Barons
• Won semifinal round (59–56) over Anderson Duffey Packers
• Won final WPBT championship round (75–71) over New York Renaissance

• George Mikan, All-Tournament First Team, MVP, top scorer
• Jim Pollard, All-Tournament First Team