ABSTRACT
Since the early 1920s, several independent, professional basketball leagues have existed for one or more years in America. If the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), various professional developmental leagues and the National Basketball Association are excluded, the destinies of the nation's other professional basketball leagues are briefly summarized next in chronological order. Between the late 1940s and early 1980s, the various NBA Commissioners and the league's numerous team owners had primarily concentrated their marketing efforts and financial investments into the development and growth of professional basketball in the North American market. By the late 1970s, the NBA had become a tattered, dispirited and risky sports organization and business. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the NBA continued its marketing campaign to actively promote and sell the sport of professional basketball to sports fans throughout the US and in numerous foreign countries.
