History of the Capitols

The Washington Capitols are one of the original teams in the National Basketball Association, joining in 1946. During their five-year span from 1946 to 1951, they had some impressive successes and a few struggles.

In their first season with the NBA, they finished second place overall behind only George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers team that went on to win four consecutive championships. The Capitols were led by Hall of Famer Bones McKinney, named Coach of the Year for his efforts that season. They also made it to Game 7 of the semi-finals before being eliminated by those same Lakers team 4 games to 3.

The following year, they improved even more, winning 49 out of 65 regular season games and advancing into finals against Philadelphia Warriors. Unfortunately, they fell short, losing 4–2 series despite having a 2–1 lead at one point during this best-of-seven series match-up. Despite not winning the championship, this was still considered a massive success for such a young franchise.

In the 1948 - 1949 campaign, Washington Capitols finished third place overall but failed to make playoffs due to a lack of depth on the roster, which ultimately cost them a spot among the top 8 teams during the final stretch. However, although they didn’t qualify for postseason play, there were still plenty of positives to take away from these two seasons, including the fact that center Bob Feerick earned an All-Star selection both years while forward Don Otten set a single-game scoring record ( 39 points ), which stood until 1956 when Elgin Baylor broke it with 55 points performance against Detroit Pistons.

Unfortunately, things started going downhill after the 1950 - 1951 campaign when most players left to join the newly formed Baltimore Bullets squad leaving Capitols without enough talent to compete with upper-echelon teams NBA led the disbandment franchise shortly after that. Nonetheless, Washington Capitals will always be remembered fondly amongst basketball fans worldwide who witnessed greatness between the years 1946 through 1951.