1945–46 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season

The 1945–46 Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons season was the fifth season of the franchise playing in the National Basketball League. The team was looking to return to the NBL Finals for a fifth consecutive year and win their third straight title. They once again claimed the best regular season record by winning 26 games this season, with Bobby McDermott being awarded his fourth and final NBL MVP Award. Both Bobby McDermott and Buddy Jeannette were named to the All-NBL First Team as well. Entering the NBL Playoffs, Fort Wayne met the newly registered Rochester Royals (who technically existed as an independent semi-pro franchise since 1923 under multiple different names) in the first round under what was deemed the Eastern Division Playoff, but were upset by the new, eventual champions in four games (which the team claimed was due to them scheduling and playing in too many exhibition games against random teams like the Midland Dow Chemicals, the Philadelphia Sphas from the rivaling American Basketball League, and even the Chicago Collegians for their own good this season, to the point of leaving nothing left for the playoffs this time around), making it the first season in franchise history where they failed to even reach the NBL Finals. This season later marked the official end of the Zollner Pistons' NBL dominance, as both Jeannette and McDermott later left the franchise within the following year, with Jeannette joining the (original) Baltimore Bullets team in the rivaling American Basketball League and five-time NBL MVP McDermott later leaving during the following season of play due to a team dispute near the end of the year to join up with the Chicago American Gears instead.

Despite failing to repeat as champions in the NBL, Fort Wayne would still be invited into the World Professional Basketball Tournament as well. This event didn't see them have a rematch against the Royals since Rochester declined their entry for the 1946 event due to disputed disagreements involving payment. However, they did compete against the independently ran Midland Dow Chemicals and the American Basketball League's Baltimore Bullets before competing against the NBL's Oshkosh All-Stars in the only year the WPBT implemented a best-of-three tournament set-up for the championship match and third place consolation prize match. The experimental switch-up would prove to be favorable for Fort Wayne, as the Zollner Pistons won the event two games to one (losing the first game 61–59, which would have given Oshkosh the WPBT championship in any other year, before Fort Wayne won 56–47 and 73–57 in the matches after that one) to claim a three-peat in the WPBT.