1955-56 NBA Season Standings

The Philadelphia Warriors, led by Neil Johnston and Paul Arizin, captured the NBA championship by defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons 4 games to 1 in the Finals, with Johnston's inside scoring and Arizin's jump shooting proving too much for Fort Wayne's George Yardley and Mel Hutchins to contain. This season marked the debut of the league's Most Valuable Player award, won by Bob Pettit of the newly relocated St. Louis Hawks (formerly the Milwaukee Hawks, who moved to St. Louis in the offseason after struggling to draw fans in Wisconsin). Boston made a franchise-altering move by drafting Bill Russell in a trade with the St. Louis Hawks, though he would not join the team until after playing for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1956 Melbourne Games, setting the stage for the Celtics dynasty to come. The Eastern Division saw Syracuse and New York finish in a flat-footed tie for third at 35-37, while the Western Division featured Minneapolis and St. Louis tied for second at 33-39. The league remained organized into Eastern and Western Divisions with eight teams total, four per division, still several years away from any conference-based restructuring.