In 1948, the league was renamed the Eastern Professional Basketball League, and additional franchises were added in three additional Pennsylvania cities, Williamsport, Scranton, and Sunbury, three New Jersey cities, Trenton, Camden, and Asbury Park, three in Connecticut, New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, and in Wilmington, Delaware, and Springfield, Massachusetts.

The league was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the Northeastern United States, and featuring the best players who could not make many NBA teams because of the quotas.

The establishment of the Anchorage franchise garnered national media attention, including a feature story in Sports Illustrated.

In an era where the typical basketball halftime promotion, even in NCAA Division I and the NBA, featured a winning prize worth less than $100, the CBA's Supershot, created in 1983, offered a grand prize of $1 million if a randomly selected fan could hit one shot from the far foul line, 69.75 feet (21.26 m).

[7] For national media attention, the league created the "CBA Sportscaster Contest" to select a color commentator for its BET telecasts.

With tryouts nationwide, the promotion was featured on the NBC Nightly News, Entertainment Tonight, Sports Illustrated and other media.

ESPN sportscaster Bob Ley did the play-by-play and former NBA player and coach Kevin Loughery provided color commentary.

Drucker left as Commissioner, and his TV production company, Global Sports, produced the ESPN telecasts.

In that shootout, 14 contestants, one from each CBA city, were selected and the person making the longest shot won a $1,000,000 zero-coupon bond.

In August 1999, the CBA's teams were purchased by an investment group led by former NBA star Isiah Thomas.

The combined-ownership plan was unsuccessful and, by 2001, the CBA had declared bankruptcy and ceased operations; it folded on February 8, 2001, without managing to complete the 2000–01 season.

The Atlanta Krunk Wolverines and Vancouver Dragons deferred their participation until the 2007–2008 season and the Utah Eagles folded on January 25, 2007.

In addition to six returning franchises the CBA added three expansion teams – the Oklahoma Cavalry, the Rio Grande Valley Silverados and East Kentucky Miners; the Atlanta Krunk joined the league after sitting out the 2006–07 season.

The Pittsburgh Xplosion folded under unclear circumstances, and the league scheduled games against American Basketball Association (ABA) teams for the first month of the season in an attempt to stay solvent.

Isaacs previously played with an all-black touring squad (the Washington Bears), while Brown and Clayton were alumni of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Although the NBA played exhibition games with the Eastern League during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the exhibition games ceased in 1954 when the Eastern League signed several college basketball players involved in point-shaving gambling scandals during their college years, including Jack Molinas, Sherman White, Floyd Layne, and Al Roth.

The Eastern League became a haven for players who wanted to play professionally, but were barred from the NBA because of academic restrictions.

The EPBL, however, could sign him and Scott played 77 games for the Allentown Jets before later joining the NBA's Detroit Pistons.

Players such as Lavern "Jelly" Tart, Willie Somerset, Art Heyman and Walt Simon (all of whom were all-stars in the Eastern League a year before) were now in ABA uniforms.

[16] During the 1980s and 1990s, the NBA's relationship with the CBA grew to the point where dozens of former CBA stars found their way onto NBA rosters, including Tim Legler (Omaha Racers), Mario Elie (Albany Patroons), and John Starks (Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets).

The CBA also sent qualified coaches to the NBA, including Phil Jackson (Albany Patroons), Bill Musselman (Tampa Bay Thrillers), Eric Musselman (Rapid City Thrillers), Flip Saunders (LaCrosse Catbirds) and George Karl (Montana Golden Nuggets).

Some examples include Nick Van Exel (1993, Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA and Rapid City Thrillers of the CBA),[25][26] Dontonio Wingfield (1994, Seattle SuperSonics and Rapid City Thrillers),[27][28] Stephen Jackson (1997, Phoenix Suns and La Crosse Bobcats),[29][30] and Jason Hart (2000, Milwaukee Bucks and Idaho Stampede).

[27] In 1997, Lamar Odom, then a highly recruited high school prospect, was given the opportunity to enter the CBA draft and choose the team he wanted to play for, reversing the traditional drafting process;[36] Odom, however, decided not to hire an agent and opted to play in college.