This season marks the 75th anniversary of the NBA's inaugural season.
To honour the landmark season, the Toronto Raptors are scheduled to face off against the New York Knicks on Nov. 1, 2021, being 75 years to the date of the first game in NBA history, which featured the Toronto Huskies and New York Knicks.
The Huskies fell to the Knicks 68-66, but what else is there to know on the NBA's debut contest?
We have you covered with fast facts on the game below.
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Fast facts on the first game in NBA history
New York Knicks 68, Toronto Huskies 66
Knicks leading scorer: Leo Gottlieb – 14 points on six shots
Huskies leading scorer: Ed Sadowski – 18 points on 8 shots
- This was the first game in NBA history.
- The only statistics recorded for this game were points, field goals made, free throws made, free throw attempts and personal fouls.
- The game was played at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
- Each team had two players score double figures, with Ossie Schectman's 11 points joining Gottlieb for the Knicks and George Nostrand's 16 points joining Sadowski for the Huskies.
- Sadowski – the Huskies' best player and head coach – fouled out of the game.
- Free throw shooting killed the Huskies, going 16-for-29 (55.2%) from the line in a game they lost by two points.
- Sadowski and Nostrand – the Huskies' two leading scorers – combined to go 4-for-13 from the free throw line.
Other general notes about the Huskies' inaugural season:
- This was the one and only season for the Toronto Huskies' franchise.
- After just 10 games, Sadowski was traded from the Huskies to the Cleveland Rebels, also ending his tenure as the first coach in Toronto franchise history. He averaged 16.5 points per game for the season. The following year, he joined the Boston Celtics and averaged a career-high 19.4 points per game.
- The Huskies finished with a 22-38 record in 1946-47, going through four different head coaches.
- Two of the head coaches – Sadowski and Dick Fitzgerald – played for the team.
- After Sadowski was traded, team general manager Lew Hayman – a Canadian Football League icon – took over as head coach for one game.
- Robert Rolfe, a famous baseball player and World Series champion for the New York Yankees at the time, took over as the Huskies head coach thereafter, going 17-27. Once he finished the 1946-47 season with Toronto, he returned to the New York Yankees as a coach.