1945 World Professional Basketball Tournament

The 1945 World Professional Basketball Tournament was the seventh edition of the World Professional Basketball Tournament. It was held in Chicago, Illinois, during the days of 19–24 March 1945 and featured 14 teams, with the teams being a mixture of independently run teams and teams from the National Basketball League, with this year's tournament primarily holding independent teams. Entering this year's tournament, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons were seen as the heavy favorites of the tournament by looking to repeat as champions of both the NBL and the WPBT, with fans also looking to cheer on the Chicago American Gears as a local team in the event as well. However, while the American Gears were able to upset the Harlem Globetrotters 53–49, Chicago itself was upset by the independently run Dayton Acmes (which was composed of servicemen players stationed at Wright Field) with an 80–51 blowout win by Dayton. Despite the upsets, however, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons would end up being repeat champions for both the WPBT and the NBL (being one of only three professional teams to win multiple championships during the same season throughout the 1940s and the only team to become repeat champions in both the NBL and WPBT) by beating the Dayton Acmes 78–52 in the championship game. The Chicago American Gears came in third after beating the New York Renaissance 64–55 in the third-place game.^[1] Buddy Jeannette of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, being the first player in the tournament's history to have multiple MVP honors in the tournament after previously being named the MVP of the 1941 tournament while with the Detroit Eagles and the third straight player from the Zollner Pistons to be named the MVP of the WPBT.^[2]