Presented is a Very Rare 1946 St. Louis Bombers vs. Washington Capitols Inaugural Year BAA Full Ticket. The Capitols were coached by Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach, who went on to great fame when he coached the Boston Celtics to nine World Championships, and seven more titles as a Celtics' executive. The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a new professional league that was put together in part by owners of professional hockey teams in some of America's large eastern/midwestern cities (New York, Boston, Chicago) that wanted to increase the playing dates in their hockey arenas by adding topflight professional basketball. Previous to the BAA, professional basketball did not have a substantial toehold in the country's big cities. The BAA lasted from 1946-47 through 1948-49. For the 1949 season, the BAA and the NBL, a professional league that went back to 1925, combined to form the National Basketball Association, with 10 teams joining from the BAA and 6 teams from the NBL. The NBA regards the combination of BAA and NBL teams in 1949-50 as the BAA absorbing the NBL (rather than what some historians have called a merger), and under that "absorption" theory, the NBA traces its roots to the BAA and the 1946-47 season. The offered full ticket was a $1.50 Arena Circle ticket to the St. Louis Arena to the November 9, 1946, game, the third game of the season for the Capitols and the fourth game for the Bombers. In a nailbiter, St; Louis won 70-69. The Bombers were coached by Ken Loeffler, and Cecil Hankins led the Bombers in scoring with 18 points. Jonny Norlands had 22 for Washington and Bones McKinney had 11 for the Capitols. McKinney played six seasons in the NBA and went to become a legendary coach for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The ticket has been encapsulated and PSA graded EXCELLENT 5 (MK). The offered full ticket is the ONLY GRADED EXAMPLE.