The Pittsburgh Ironmen were a charter member of the Basketball Association of America (a forerunner of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

). The team was based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and played at

Duquesne Gardens The Duquesne Gardens (officially Duquesne Garden until 1940 and The Gardens afterward) was the main sports arena located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the first half of the 20th century. Built in 1890, the building originally served as a tr ...

. They ended their only season in the BAA in 1946–47 with a record of 15–45 with a .250 winning percentage, finishing in fifth and last place in the Western Division and worst overall in the league. According to

Nate Silver Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of '' FiveThirtyE ...

and Reuben Fischer-Baum, applying the

Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved c ...

, this was, through 2017, the worst season ever by a professional basketball team in a major league, even though the 1972-73

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

ended the season with only 9 wins against 73 losses for a .110 winning percentage. The team were awarded the first overall pick in the league's inaugural 1947 draft, where they selected

Clifton McNeely Clifton McNeely (June 22, 1919 – December 26, 2003) was an American basketball player and coach.

. However, the Ironmen folded before the start of the

1947–48 BAA season The 1947–48 BAA season was the second season of the Basketball Association of America. The 1948 BAA Playoffs ended with the Baltimore Bullets winning the BAA Championship, beating the Philadelphia Warriors in 6 games in the BAA Finals. Altho ...

Season records

, - !colspan="6", Pittsburgh Ironmen (BAA) , - , 1946–47 , , 15 , , 45 , , .250 , , colspan=2, Did not qualify , -

References

External links

"The Pittsburgh Ironmen: Steel City's long-forgotten NBA team"

NBA Hoops Online {{Pittsburgh sports Defunct National Basketball Association teams Basketball Association of America teams Basketball teams in Pittsburgh Basketball teams established in 1946 Basketball teams disestablished in 1947 1946 establishments in Pennsylvania 1947 disestablishments in Pennsylvania