Long-time readers might know that I'm a big fan of Marcel Proust and I also have a soft spot for Michael Beasley. Before B-Easy entered the NBA, he was going to be the next big thing. But then one day he set foot inside Miami's American Airlines Arena and he simply wasn't. Sure, he's given us great stories ("That's my bone!") and become quite the traveler of these United States, but I bet he would trade it all for some positive fame that has nothing to do with his super-cool hair knots or the dreaded word "potential."
I recently wrote a piece on the NBA's most and least efficient scorers , and Beasley was near the bottom of the list. Worse than Dion Waiters, worse then Gerald Green, and even worse than than JaVale McGee (who's actually pretty good). After I posted the article, Beasley seemed to transform right before our eyes from a guy who needs to spend some time in the D-League to a guy who once again is showing us his, well, potential (in my case, literally, since I saw him play in person at this past weekend's Suns-Mavs game). After I noted that he had posted only .948 points per attempt this season, he went out and scored 25 on 16 attempts against San Antonio, 12 on 10 attempts against Dallas, and 27 on 20 attempts against the Lakers. Now I want more.
A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves - Proust
The night after publishing the piece on efficient scorers, I reached over to my bed stand and spent time with part four of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time series. Basketball is a way for me to mentally escape the everyday demands of work and family, but I also like to escape with good books. For the uninitiated, In Search of Lost Time covers the life of a young boy as he ages into a man, and discusses his many experiences in a way that only fans of long-winded but well constructed and beautiful descriptions of eating madeline cookies can enjoy.
Proust is a master of language, and even though I typically tend towards more direct authors like Hemingway, I can't resist Marcel's pleasures. Alain du Botton was definitely on target when he wrote his book, How Proust Can Change Your Life. The charms of his words are irresistible, even when he takes an untold number of pages to discuss the longing of a little boy lying in bed waiting for his mom to come and tuck him in.
My translation of part four is called Sodom and Gomorrah. And at dinner party after dinner party we learn more and more about an older version of the little boy who once yearned for his mother's kiss but now wants nothing less than to rid himself of his deeply attached girlfriend. But he just can't bring himself to tell her his true feelings. I don't know what happens at the end because I'm about 100 pages away, but I know that once I finish volume four, I'll jump into volumes five and six without hesitation.
But here's the problem: I'm not really enjoying volume four. I'm tired of dinner parties and I wish the narrator would muster the guts to dump his lady-friend and move back to Paris. I wish Baron de Charlus was able to be more open about his preferences, and I don't like to see Albertine stuck in a relationship with a guy who doesn't seem to care. While my general belief about literature is that once a book goes bad it's time to move on to the next, I know that I won't move on from this one. I experienced the potential in the first few pages of volume one, and it's spectacular.
Which brings me back to Michael Beasley.
Michael Beasley is full of occasionally realized raw potential, but it seems as if we're always waiting for the next volume. Maybe he'll break out in Miami, or Minneapolis, or Phoenix, or maybe he'll realize his potential in his next NBA stop. When and if it happens, it might just be amazing.
But how long do we wait? And when we get to the very end, will we feel fulfilled or simply like we wasted too many evenings with B-Easy and not enough with the Beast? Remember when Beasley debuted in Summer League and scored 28 points in 23 minutes? Remember when he scored 16 and 21 in his first preseason games? And remember when he scored 27 against the Lakers YESTERDAY (but only after he was named on this blog one of this season's least efficient scorers)?
He can do it. But will he?
Like many others, I'm waiting for Michael Beasley to become a star. While Marcel Proust spent a considerable amount of time confined to his bedroom due to various ailments, NBA players don't have the luxury of living and growing in relative obscurity. Every move that Michael Beasley makes will be measured and judged as he progresses along his still unpredictable career arc.
By Michael Hogan Dallas Dobbs' number thirteen hangs in the rafters at the University of Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse, but the jersey doesn't belong to him. Instead, it belongs to all-world legend Wilt Chamberlain, who was a freshman during Dobb's tenure as senior team captain. During Wilt's sophomore year, Wilt would take Dallas' number thirteen and go on to become one of the best college and NBA players of all time. While few people today might recall Dobbs, the talented point guard who led the Jayhawks between their 1952 national championship and the arrival of Chamberlain on the varsity squad in 1956, the three-year starting point guard deserves recognition in the annals of Jayhawk lore. Dallas Dobbs, a small town kid with big-time dreams, opened Allen Fieldhouse; recruited Wilt Chamberlain; played with Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn; and then returned to Oklahoma to play for his legendary hometown Phillips 66ers. This is his story.
Dallas Dobbs
Photo by the author
The Phillips 66ers
The Bartlesville Phillips 66ers (also known as the Phillips 66 Oilers) were founded in 1919 by the Phillips Petroleum Company. At the time, the game of basketball was only about 20 years old, and no high-level professional league like today's NBA existed. Instead, the best players joined barnstorming teams like the New York Original Celtics and the Harlem Renaissance, which traveled across the country taking on the best local teams that towns could offer.
The 66ers reached legendary status in the 1940s, winning six consecutive Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles from 1943-1948. They won a total of 11 AAU titles between 1940 and 1963. As detailed in TBCB's recent article on basketball Hall-of-Famer Vern Mikkelsen, the 66ers were so impressive that it was the idea of joining them in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, that initially convinced him to focus his post-college career on basketball.
The men who played for the 66ers were stars on the hardwood, but also had full-time jobs with Phillips Petroleum. According to Paul Endacott, former president of Phillips Petroleum and also a former 66er, “These few good men led two lives as
productive employees and as outstanding amateur athletes, making the
Phillips name known all over the globe.” (via ionok.com)
During the dominate reign of the 66ers, they played their home games at the Bartlesville City College High School gym. It was on this court that Bartlesville native Dallas Dobbs had his first experience with big-league basketball. When Dobbs was in fifth grade, he was chosen to play in a five minute city-wide all-star game during halftime of a Phillips 66 Oilers contest. According to Dobbs, it was this experience that first sparked his dream of becoming the first person from Bartlesville to play for the 66ers.
Playing professional basketball in the NBA or its precursor leagues wasn't even a consideration for Dobbs. During his elementary school days in the 1940s, pro basketball players were part-time employees, and often needed to find other work during the off-season to help pay their bills. Even in the 1950s, Sweetwater Clifton would go home from New York to Chicago and drive a cab when not starring for the Knicks.
Growing up in Bartlesville, Dobbs watched young men take jobs with the Phillips Corporation and play for the 66ers while also beginning careers that would support them well after their playing days ended. No one from Bartlesville had ever played for the 66ers, but Dobbs could see that the idea of playing for his hometown team was a dream that at least some were able to achieve, even though they were always from other cities and states. So he continued to practice, and several years later he found himself a sophomore starter on his high school squad playing on the same court as the famous 66ers.
1949 Phillips Oilers Program
from the author's collection
The Amateur Spirit
The Phillips 66ers were technically an amateur basketball team. Players were paid to work at the company and their participation on the basketball team was an extracurricular affair. Solidifying their amateur status, they participated in the AAU, which focused on adult amateur competition, and also sent players to participate as part of multiple Olympic basketball teams.Although there was grumbling by some over the designation of the 66ers as an amateur unit, their extracurricular designation held up each time it was challenged.
While the team was considered an amateur squad, the Phillips Corporation did everything possible to recruit stellar basketball talent. Even though he never played in the NBA, Hall of Famer Bob
Kurland was a member of the 66ers from 1947-1952 while also competing on two Olympic teams. Clyde Lovelette also played one year with the 66ers before joining the Minneapolis Lakers in 1953. Other famous 66ers included Hank Luisetti, who was voted the second best player in basketball in 1950 behind George Mikan; Bobby Speight; Indiana's Bobby Plump (of Hoosiers fame); and Kansas Jayhawk star and future Phillips CEO, Paul Endacott.
In the late forties, the 66ers joined with other corporate teams to form the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL). The league also included the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots, who were founded in 1918 and played in the National Basketball League from 1937-1942, and the Fort Wayne General Electrics, and the Denver Chevies. During what were uncertain times for the survival of professional basketball leagues, NIBL participants believed that their corporate backing would help the teams and the league survive. The 66ers finished with the league's best record in ten of its first eleven seasons.
Since 1961, the NIBL has changed names and approaches several times, and now operates as the National Alliance of Basketball Leagues, which helps prepare post-collegiate players for careers in European basketball. In an interesting historical twist, the NBA's Development League includes a team called the Tulsa 66ers, which is owned by Clay Bennett and associated with the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, the Tulsa 66ers name refers to Route 66, and the team website does not appear to recognize the legacy of the Phillips 66ers.
Dallas Dobbs first joined the Bartlesville high school varsity team his sophomore year and he was immediately installed as the starting point guard. As Dobbs explained it, he tied with another young man as the team's leading scorer in his first game with ten points. He then scored 22 points in his first conference game, which at the time was an impressive feat. He went on to lead his team in scoring his sophomore year, an accomplishment that he repeated both his junior and senior years. Dobbs also eventually became the first person from his high school to finish his career with over 1,000 points, and he set a career scoring record that stood over 50 years until it was broken by Noah Hartsock. Hartsock went on to become BYU's starting center, graduated in 2012, and currently plays professionally in Belgium.
By the end of Dobbs' sophomore year, he had already secured a scholarship to play basketball for Hank Iba at Oklahoma State. Iba, called the "Iron Duke," had a low-scoring defensive focus, which wasn't exactly the best fit for a fleet-footed scoring point guard. But at least Dobbs now knew that basketball would pay for his college education. By his senior season, Dobbs had offers from about 25 schools, at least some of which were completely foreign to him.
Dallas recalled that Stanford University had an alumni group in Tulsa that pointed him out to the Cardinals coaching staff, which resulted in a scholarship offer. But Dobbs "didn't know anything about Stanford, let alone that it was in California," and he wasn't interested in playing that far from home. He didn't do many on site visits, but he did spend weekends at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, where he was recruited to play both basketball and football.
During the final football game of his senior year, Dobbs ran for five touchdowns and kicked four extra points against much larger Oklahoma City Central. The following weekend, he scored 37 points in the first basketball game of the season. His combined total of 71 points resulted in him being featured in a national magazine article (Dobbs didn't recall which magazine). While he was a two sport star in high school, Dallas was most interested in playing basketball, and it was another offer with an even more familiar name that would eventually tempt him away from his home state.
The Phillips Corporation had a strong connection to the University of Kansas, as both the CEO, Boots Adams, and the preceding CEO, Paul Endocott, were Jayhawks. Dallas also personally liked Kansas coach Phog Allen, whose coaching legend was among the most impressive in the nation.
The roots of the University of Kansas' celebrated basketball program can be traced back to the team's first coach, James Naismith. In 1898, six years after Naismith wrote the rules of the game, he was hired to teach physical education at Kansas. He also coached basketball games between Kansas students and local YMCA teams. To Naismith, basketball was simply one of many ways to improve physical fitness. In contrast, his mentee and successor at Kansas, Phog Allen, took the game much more seriously.
Phog Allen played under Naismith at Kansas and briefly coached the school's basketball team from 1907-1909. In 1919, he returned to Kansas, where he remained until he retired in 1956. Allen was known for his strong personality, and was a major reason that basketball was added to the Olympics in 1936. With Allen at the helm, the Jayhawks almost always finished among the best teams in their conference and in the nation.
Allen's Jayhawks were recognized by the Helms Athletic Foundation as the recipients of the group's fictional national championship in both 1922 and 1923. The foundation, which was founded in 1936, sought to retroactively settle debates by identifying the teams that should have been crowned the national champions prior to the establishment of national basketball tournaments. One year after the NCAA tournament began in 1939, the Jayhawks made their first tournament appearance and lost to Indiana in the championship game. In 1952, led by senior Clyde Lovelette, the Jayhawks won their first NCAA title. They made the tournament's final game again the following year and lost by one point to Indiana.
In early 1952, while Allen was preparing to put the final touches on his impressive coaching resume, Dobbs was deciding where to begin his college career. Jayhawk influence in Bartlesville combined with Phog Allen's impressive coaching resume and up-tempo style of play made Dallas Dobbs' decision an easy one.
In 1952, freshmen weren't allowed to play on varsity squads, so Dobbs spent his first year learning from Allen and his top assistants, Dick Harp and future North Carolina legend Dean Smith. He must have made quite an impression, because when the Jayhawks began play in 1953, Phog Allen installed Dobbs as his starting point guard for the team's opening game at Tulane. The next night in Baton Rouge, Dobbs scored 10 points in the first half, but didn't contribute much in the second as his production faltered when his legs grew tired. Fortunately for Dobbs, his conditioning improved by the time conference play arrived. As Dallas tells the story, he only had three points at halftime of the team's first conference game, but he broke through for 20 points in the second half. "That's when I knew I belonged," he said.
Expectations were high for the Jayhawks in 1953-54. According to Dobbs, many publications ranked Kansas as a top five team, with a real possibility for a shot at a third consecutive national championship. The team featured Dobbs and Al Kelly in the backcourt, and 1953 NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player, B.H. Born, playing center. Born was later a first round draft choice of the Fort Wayne Pistons. However, instead of joining the NBA, he chose to work for Caterpillar and play basketball for an AAU team in Illinois. Born's presence in the middle gave Dobbs and Kelly opportunities to take chances defensively, which made the team's stifling half court press even more effective.
In the last game of the season, Kansas was defeated by Missouri, leading to a tie with Colorado for the Big 7 Conference Championship. With no conference tournament to determine the champion, and with the NCAA tournament only accepting conference winners, a coin flip was held to determine which of the two 16-5 teams would represent the conference in the tournament. Colorado won the coin flip, ending what was Dobb's best chance for winning a national championship as a Jayhawk.
The video below shows a January 1954 game between Kansas and Oklahoma A&M (Oklahoma State University). Sophomore point guard Dallas Dobbs is wearing number 13.
Kansas didn't feature the same level of talent on the varsity squad during Dobbs' junior and senior seasons, but Dobbs was still recognized individually as a standout performer. Dell Magazine, for example, named him a second team All-American before his senior season. According to the magazine, Dobbs had "the best jump shot in Kansas history"
Dallas hits in streaks, when he gets hotter than the prairie sun. In two games against Kansas State and Oklahoma A&M last year, he hit 23 field goals in 51 tries for a 45 per cent shooting mark... Our informants at Kansas tell us that Dobbs is shooting as softly and as accurately as Clyde Lovelette, Kansas' 6-9 All-American now with the Minneapolis Lakers. (Dell Magazine)
Dobbs didn't have another opportunity at the NCAA tournament, but he did have other memorable experiences. One of these was opening the brand new Allen Fieldhouse, named after soon-to-be retiring coach Phog Allen, when Kansas hosted Kansas State on March 1, 1955. While Dobbs recalls this game as his worst ever college performance (he only scored five points) the Jayhawks still survived to defeat Kansas State 77-66.
The House that Phog Built now has a storied reputation that has earned it titles such as the loudest college basketball arena in the nation and the best place to watch a college basketball game. At the time, the opening of the new fieldhouse also served as a tool for helping to attract the prize recruit of 1955, Wilt Chamberlain.
See footage from the opening game at Allen Fieldhouse below.
Ursa Major
During Dallas Dobbs' junior year, college coaches across the nation were clamoring to recruit the once-in-a-lifetime big man, Wilton Norman Chamberlain. Wilt had offers from colleges across the country, and Kansas wasn't initially at the top of his list. In fact, Phog Allen didn't even begin to recruit Chamberlain until the beginning of his senior year. In January 1955, Allen visited Chamberlain in Philadelphia and brilliantly ingratiated himself with Wilt's mom. Although Wilt wasn't excited about the possibility of becoming a Jayhawk, the school provided him and his high school coach with airplane tickets to visit the college. Phog Allen then began a full court press, which included having Wilt meet well-known black and white Kansans, ensuring that Wilt spent plenty of time with his future team mates, and bringing him along to a road game against rival Kansas State.
According to Dobbs, Chamberlain rode on the team bus from Lawrence to Manhattan before the February 12 game. Kansas State also had an excellent basketball program, and there was no guarantee that the Jayhawks would impress the Big Dipper with a win. However, led by Dobbs' 36 points, the Jayhawks defeated their rivals in enemy territory to impress Chamberlain and perhaps help him decide his next steps. In his biography Wilt. Larger Than Life, Robert Cherry writes that when Phog Allen was told that Chamberlain had chosen Kansas, Allen responded "I hope he comes out for basketball."
Dobbs recalls his one year at Kansas with Wilt fondly, but isn't so sure if Wilt also had fond memories of his time at the University. "He was a quiet individual and it was a rude awakening for him coming to Lawrence." In particular, Dobbs says that Chamberlain was sheltered during his February 1955 visit, and he didn't get to see what life in Lawrence was really like. According to Dobbs, Chamberlain was in for a shock when he arrived on campus to begin his first semester in the fall of 1955. "He and his black friend arrived late that night in a car and they pulled in to eat at a restaurant. The owner said they could eat, but they would have to go around back and eat in the kitchen. That surprised Wilt. When he visited the school, he ate with the team." Dallas also speculates that Wilt's exposure to racism in the midwest might have been one reason that he left Kansas after his junior year to join the Globetrotters.
Although freshman didn't play on the varsity team in the 1950s, Kansas hosted an annual freshman versus varsity game in the fall to give the fans a preview of coming attractions. The varsity inevitably won the game, but things would be different when Wilt led the freshman into battle against team captain Dallas Dobbs and the 1955-56 varsity squad. It's not clear if Dallas knew exactly what to expect when he led the varsity against Chamberlain. In the days before the Internet and cable sports, "I heard a big guy was coming down called Wilt the Stilt, but I didn't know much about him." Dallas also said that the varsity team didn't watch freshman team practices, which would have further limited his ability to scout the Big Dipper.
Dallas Dobbs led the varsity with 19 points and Gene Elstun, who would co-captain the team the next season, had a double double, with 12 points and 12 rebounds. However, the day belonged to Wilt Chamberlain and the freshman. Dobbs says that the Jayhawks "didn't have good sized big men my junior and senior year," and Chamberlain took full advantage, scoring 42 points and adding 29 rebounds to lead the freshman to an 81-71 victory.
When asked to reflect on Chamberlain's career, Dobbs said that "Wilt handled himself well at
Kansas and in the NBA. The only thing I ever heard bad about him was in a
book." Of course, Dobbs was referring to the large number of women in Chamberlain's life. However, according to Dobbs, "That was his private life." Unlike today, the private lives of athletes generally stayed private.
Breaking Barriers
Racism was a major challenge facing black basketball players in Kansas and across the south. According to Dobbs, when the 1953-54 season began in New Orleans, Lavannes Squires, who was the Jayhawks' first black player, didn't even travel with the team to Louisiana because of the difficulties associated with finding him food and lodging. The following season, Maurice King broke another barrier by becoming the first black starter at Kansas.
Dobbs was King's roommate on the road during Dallas' senior year. While a black man sharing a room with a white man might have caused issues in some circles, it's clear that it wasn't an issue for Dobbs, King, or the Jayhawks. The two men spent many nights together on the road and grew to become close friends. Dobbs showed me letters from King, who died in September 2007, that were written well after their playing days ended, and it's clear that the two men felt real affection for one another.
Dallas, this is a great opportunity for me to tell you what I told many of my friends when we discuss basketball. I thought you were the best middle range jump shooter I had ever seen and you were as quick as anybody I ever played against. You reminded me of Bill Sharman, a guy I met with the Boston Celtics. (January 2005 letter from Maurice King to Dallas Dobbs)
The year after Dallas graduated, King and Chamberlain led the Jayhawks to a 24-3 regular season record and the NCAA finals. Chamberlain began his first varsity season with a bang, scoring 52 points and pulling down 31 rebounds in the opening game against Northwestern. However, despite his success, he was still stigmatized due to his skin color. The first round of the NCAA tournament was held in Dallas, TX, and the entire Jayhawks team stayed in Grand Prairie, TX, taking a bus back to games in Dallas, because no hotel in Dallas would allow the team's white and black players to stay and eat together. Despite this initial adversity, the team went on to the NCAA finals, where they lost an historic triple overtime game to North Carolina, which is still remembered as one of the best NCAA tournament games in history.
Maurice King went on to play for the Boston Celtics in the NBA, the
Baltimore Bullets in the Eastern Professional Basketball League, the
Kansas City Steers of the American Basketball League, and then the NBA's
Chicago Zephyrs, which would later become the Washington Wizards. Just
about every basketball fan already knows about the professional career of Wilt
Chamberlain, who became one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
Unfinished Business
Although not as strong as previous squads, the Jayhawks began Dallas' final season with at least a fighting chance for an NCAA tournament berth and potential championship. They began the season by winning 11 of their first 15 games, but then Dobbs was suspended for barely failing a class during the fall semester. These kinds of things were often taken care of for star athletes, but the NCAA was closely scrutinizing Kansas for allegations of gifts made to Chamberlain, and Dallas wonders if this scrutiny led to his grade not being adjusted and his untimely suspension. After he was suspended, the Jayhawks lost five of their final eight games to finish 14-9 overall and only 6-6 in their conference, ending their season without a postseason berth.
Despite his suspension, Dallas was allowed to particpate in one of two college all-star games. One of the games was held in Kansas City and another was played one week later at Madison Square Garden. Dallas stayed closer to home and played in Kansas City, where he had the opportunity to spend time on the court with three future members of the Celtics dynasty. His team mates on the West team included Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, and playing against them on the East team was Tom Heinson.
Dallas has an impressive memory for game statistics from 60 years ago, and he recalls that he scored nine points in the game. He doesn't recall which team won the game, but said "I think we did because we had Bill Russell." Based on Russell's college and NBA experiences as a proven winner, he's probably right. About K.C. Jones, Dobbs recalls with a smile that "He couldn't even hit the backboard on some shots. But he was good on the court with the ball and could get assists and he played good defense. I always thought that he got a lot of playing time because he was a good friend of Bill's."
Back to Bartlesville
Dobbs was offered a spot on his hometown Phillips 66ers before his senior season at Kansas. The NBA wasn't the financial juggernaut it is today, so despite also being drafted by the St. Louis Hawks, Dobbs returned home to fulfill his childhood dream. "I had no
interest in going to the NBA and sitting on the bench," he said. Instead, wanted to play for the 66ers and begin a career at Phillips. So in June 1956, Dobbs moved back home to Oklahoma.
Dallas' timing seemed impeccable, as the 66ers were set to fill five of the positions on the 1956 Olympic basketball team. As a reward for their achievements, the Phillips Corporation was planning to send the entire Phillips 66er team to Melbourne to cheer on their teammates. However, Dallas was drafted into the Army before the Olympics began. "I got drafted before we played the first of three warm-up games against
the Olympic team in Indianapolis," he said, "I was traveling [to basic training] on the 18th of October and the warm up game was
on the 21st." While he missed the Olympics, he instead served his country entertaining troops on the court.
"I ended up on the basketball team after basic training and spent 22
months in the military playing basketball. We played up and down the East coast in what they called the 3rd Army. We won the
3rd Army title one year and got beat in the finals the other year." Dobbs, always a scoring point guard, recalls continuing his high-scoring ways in the Army. While no records are readily available of his exploits, he specifically recalls one game against the Naval Air Station in Coral Springs Florida where he recorded 61 points.
In October 1958, Dallas was discharged and travelled back to Oklahoma to rejoin the 66ers, where he played until 1961. It was during this time that he became close friends with teammate Bobby Plump, who inspired the movie Hoosiers. Dallas and his wife Kay were even named godparents of Plump's first daughter. The clip below, which features interviews with Plump and his high school teammates as well as highlights of the actual game, begins at about eight seconds into the video.
While his days of playing basketball wrapped up over 50 years ago, Dallas remains connected with the basketball communities in Bartlesville,
where he occasionally returns to share his life experiences with the young basketball players at
his old high school, and Kansas University. He occasionally visits with current Kansas coach Bill Self, and told me how Self recently teased him by reminding him of his number 13 hanging in the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse. However, since Dallas Dobbs led Kansas to victory during the only live Jayhawk game that Wilt Chamberlain watched before committing to the school, it's probably not too much of a stretch to think of that retired number as at least partially belonging to Dallas.
Dallas Dobbs now lives in North Texas, where he enjoys his retirement taking morning walks, playing cards with friends, and spending time with his family. As one of Dallas' neighbors, it's no surprise to me that Bobby Plump asked Dallas and Kay to become his daughter's godparents. Dallas is an all-around nice guy and great neighbor, who is never shy to invite my wife and I in for a glass of wine or to entertain our kids with cookies and juice.
I've had the pleasure of knowing Dallas for about five years, but only recently have we spent much time discussing his experiences at Kansas and with the 66ers. I enjoyed tremendously this opportunity to write about his career, and I hope readers of this blog have also enjoyed reading more about this extraordinary athlete, who provides us all with a window into the basketball world of the 1950s.
Cherry, Robert Wilt: Larger Than Life.
Grundman, Adolph. The Golden Age of Amateur Basketball: The AAU Tournament, 1921-1968.
Neft, David S. and Cohen, Richard M. The Sports Encyclopedia: Pro Basketball, 5th Edition.
Nelson, Murry R. The National Basketball League: A History, 1935-1949.
There are many approaches to assessing the effectiveness of an NBA player. Some of these can quickly become complicated, but one simple approach involves evaluating the number of points scored per shot attempt.
As evidenced by the recent attempts of somewhat normal people to defeat retired NBA benchwarmer Brian Scalarbrine one-on-one, it's possible to at least attempt shots against NBA-level competition. But it isn't always possible to attempt quality shots that won't be altered by defenders and that will actually find their way into the net.
With this in mind, points per attempt gives us a window on an individual player's effectiveness based on whether a player is capable of finding and making quality shots. Note that I consider a quality shot either a shot that is likely to fall OR a shot that is likely to result in a foul, so I didn't remove points scored via foul shots from the data below. Points are points. Also note that for this view of player effectiveness, I focused on the players with 100 or more field goal attempts as of January 22, 2013.
Getting right to the bottom line, the top 20 players in the NBA are noted in the following table, along with their positions, age, team, field goal attempts, points, and points per attempt. The data comes from basketball-reference.com.
It's no surprise that the top scorers are mostly centers or power forwards, with the key exceptions being Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kevin Martin, and Kyle Lowry. These four guys stand out above their positional peers, and all four happen to be current or former members of the Oklahoma City Thunder or Houston Rockets. Both the Thunder and Rockets are known for number crunching, so perhaps this table gives us a window into one statistic that both teams value.
It's also interesting to note that both Durant and LeBron James, his primary competitor for this season's MVP award appear near the top of the list, which includes a total of 295 players. Other players who are also occasionally mentioned as possible MVPs but who don't appear in the top 20 include Chris Paul (#26), Carmelo Anthony (#33), and Kobe Bryant (#39). It's interesting to note that Bryant has taken 1,199 shots compared to Howard's 649, which might indicate that it's time for Kobe to pass the ball more. Since Steve Nash also ranks ahead of Kobe (although barely, at #36), Kobe might also want to consider passing the ball back to Nash, who has only taken 190 shots this season.
Age and Efficiency
Age appears in the above analysis because I expected it to show up as a variable that made a difference. My assumption is that age makes a given player smarter and therefore more efficient. The average age of all players who qualified for this list was 27, so while 13 of the 20 top players are at or above the average NBA player's age, the evidence above isn't enough to suggest that age makes a player more efficient. In fact, if you chart the points per attempt of all players with over 100 shot attempts versus their ages, nothing suggests any meaningful trends about age and efficiency. Maybe a more detailed analysis would show trends at specific positions (e.g., guards), but my time for preparing this post is limited, so I'll stick to the basics.
The All-Stud Team
An All-NBA Team of efficient scorers comprise of the top player at each position would look like this:
C: Tyson Chandler, Knicks
PF: Tiago Splitter, Spurs
SF: Kevin Durant, Thunder
SG: James Harden, Rockets
PG: Kyle Lowry, Raptors
As Sean O'Connor observed on Twitter, this would be a solid team. I wholeheartedly agree with Sean. As a Mavericks season ticker holder, I've seen my fair share of the players on this All-Stud Team, and I would be more than happy to go to battle with this group.
The All-Dud Team
It's all well and good to recognize those players who succeed, but since the Internet also likes to reward futility, let's take a quick look at the least efficient players in the NBA at each position.
These guys would likely defeat a very good college team, but they also probably don't make their owners and coaches very happy (am I right, Lamar)?
Others of note include Eric Maynor, who ranks 291st and demonstrates that the Thunder don't do everything perfectly, coach's son Austin Rivers, who clocks in at number 289, and the Knicks' Raymond Felton, who ranks 281st.
Also, for those who were wondering, JaVale McGee actually ranks pretty high on this list, showing up at #30 overall.
The NBA announced the All Star starters earlier today. While the fan vote didn't exactly correspond to the individual players who were most deserving, it was much closer than I expected. Overall, the fans voted for seven of the ten starters that should be representing their respective conferences. So the fans got a C-, and I'm pleasantly surprised.
Before the beginning of this current NBA season, TBCB ranked players based on a hybrid advanced statistic called the efficient winners index. In short, the EWI creates a score by multiplying an individual player's win shares and his player efficiency rating. Using this rating, TBCB evaluated the players named as All Star starters and identified those who might have been better selections.
Let's begin by noting the top 25 players based on their efficient winners index score as of the final day of All Star balloting.
First, a couple quick observations: Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Chris Paul are amazing. Durant and James are no surprise, but each time I run this analysis Chris Paul appears somewhere near the top. He must be the most underrated superstar in the league. Also, Houston's signing of James Harden looks brilliant, the Spurs continue to be ageless, and David Lee has to rank near the top of any list of the most underrated NBA players. Finally, as a Mavs fan, Deron Williams at number 25 surprises me. Based on what I've seen of the Nets so far this season, I'm surprised that he's ranked so high. But based on how upset Mavericks fans were when he didn't sign with Dallas in the offseason, it seems like he should be ranked much higher. Perhaps somewhere near superstar center Tyson Chandler. Back to the All Star game...
Assuming that each team's starters should include the top three forwards/centers and the top two guards, the East team should include LeBron James, Tyson Chandler, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Deron Williams. The West should include Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Blake Griffin.
According to NBA.com, the East starters now officially include LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, Dwyane Wade, and Rajon Rondo, while the West includes Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, and Blake Griffin.
In the East, James, Anthony, and Wade were all good selections. However, Rondo and Garnett rank only 52nd and 54th in TBCB's EWI rankings. While they're both very good, it seems like they're getting All Star spots based on their reputations. Tyson Chandler and Deron Williams, ranked sixth and 25th overall in EWI would have been much better selections. The fans need to watch more games in New York and fewer games in Boston.
In the West, the fans nailed it, naming four of five starters correctly. The only outlier is Dwight Howard, currently ranked 30th in EWI, who should be replaced with Tim Duncan. Duncan ranks ninth overall after seeming to find the fountain of youth this season. In fact, all three Spurs superstars rank in the top 25 in EWI.
Yahoo!'s Eric Freeman also gives fans credit and seems to agree with TBCB;s picks. He writes:
All things considered, the fans did a pretty good job selecting deserving players for these spots. In the East, Garnett could have been replaced by Knicks center Tyson Chandler (a frontrunner to win Defensive Player of the Year) or Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez (averaging 18.6 ppg and 7.4 rpg). In the West, it seems a little peculiar that the Lakers have two starters and sit at 11th in the conference standings, but Howard has put up solid numbers at 17.8 ppg and 12.6 rpg. The argument against his inclusion rests at the defensive end, where Howard has been nowhere near the All-Universe defender he was during his best seasons with the Orlando Magic. Given those struggles, venerable San Antonio Spurs big man Tim Duncan, currently having a great all-around season for the third-best team in the West, may have been the better fit.
If only Tony Parker were in the East, he'd have a much better shot at earning whatever All Star bonuses that might be written into his contract. For that matter, with the final East starter ranked all the way down at number 25, there are seven guards from the West who rank higher and who might be better served moving East. But only if they care about All Star bonuses.
On Friday night in New York, Nate Robinson decided that it was his turn to do the belt. Neither little Nate's Chicago Bulls nor the Knicks were defending The Basketball Champs Belt, which is currently the property of the Boston Celtics, but we'll let that slide for the sake of trying to earn ourselves some free publicity. After the game, Steve Novak decided to call out Robinson for using what Novak considers his move.
Loyal readers of this blog know that we've previously covered examples of players like Kevin Durantdoing the belt, but somehow Novak still considers the move his. Oddly enough, Novak was man enough to call out Robinson, but he didn't call out Danny Granger after Granger did the same move against the Knicks last year during a game in which the Indiana Pacers were, in fact, actually defending the Belt.
While it's not nice to pick on little guys, we'll forgive Novak this time because he was clearly joking around. He still has a long way to go if he wants to enter the picking-on-the-little-guy Hall of Fame alongside Kevin Garnett.
Just like they did last year when Danny Granger did the belt, the Knicks lost the game. Maybe doing the belt somehow unhinges the Knicks' cast of crazies? After all, it was the Knicks' Rasheed Wallace who purchased WWE-style belts for the NBA champion Detroit Pistons back in 2004, and Tyson Chandler was one of several Dallas Mavericks who raised a custom-made NBA championship belt when celebrating the Mavericks' 2011 championship in Miami.
Novak was actually part of the 2010-11 Mavericks team that went on to win the title, but he was released about two months into the season. In fact, it wasn't until he joined the Knicks the following season that he started his belt routine.
Before the Basketball Association of America tipped off in the fall of 1946, the National Basketball League was the most prominent basketball league in the United States. The NBL was formed in 1937, and continued to operate until it merged with the BAA in 1949 to form the NBA.
Audio and video footage from NBL and BAA games is rare, and I recently discovered the following audio from a March 17, 1946 game between the NBL's Osh Kosh All-Stars and Sheboygan Red Skins on the Association of Professional Basketball Researchmessage boards. According to the poster, Brian Gaynor:
This transmission puts the listener inside the Sheboygan Municipal
Auditorium and Armory on a Sunday afternoon in March 1946. Gametime was
usually 3 p.m. for Sunday afternoon tussles, allowing for games to end
around dinner time -- in time for the gang to head to the Chicken
Tavern, the hangout for the Red Skins, their fans and their opponents.
The tavern was only two blocks from the train station and a convenient
launching-off point for Red Skins foes.
Gaynor also mentions how this game highlights the travel challenges of the day
The teams played Saturday night at 8:30 in Oshkosh, then turned around
and played at 3 p.m. Sunday in Sheboygan. So the teams played the game,
showered, drove to Sheboygan (at night or in the morning), slept, had
some lunch and immediately got ready for the next day's game. That sort
of scant turnaround time would never happen today, of course.
Listen for highlights of the All-Stars' Bob Carpenter, who led the NBL in scoring during the 1945-46 season with 13.9 points per game. The audio was originally posted here.
The words “It’s too darn crowded in here!” echoed throughout the
Minneapolis Athletic Club on November 26th, 1949. Just a few days after Thanksgiving, the
Minneapolis Lakers were back in the gym experimenting with different ways to operate under
their new double post system, which would take advantage of the teams two centers, George
Mikan and newly-drafted Vern Mikkelsen.
While the Lakers already had the most dominant center
in the league in George Mikan, they didn’t want to pass up on Mikkelsen, who they saw as one of
the best players in the draft. Thus began the journey of coach John Kundla to find a way to
incorporate two exceptional centers to play alongside each other. The poor spacing under the
basket that resulted from the experimental offense called for a radical change, so Kundla moved
Mikkelsen out to face the basket for the first time in his life. What transpired from this move was
the creation of a new position, the power forward.
Lakers Coach John Kundla
Little Old Askov
Arild Verner Agerskob Mikkelsen was born in the quiet town of Parlier, California, on
October 21st, 1928. His father was a Danish Lutheran pastor who had instilled in his son at a
young age the value of faith and family, something Vern still holds close to this day. Financial
hardship forced the family to move east to Withee, Wisconsin, where his father, Michael
Mikkelsen, accepted a job at Nazareth Lutheran Church. At the age of eight the family moved
again, this time to Dagmar, Montana, and then moved one last time to Askov, Minnesota, in the
summer of 1939.
When Vern walked into the Askov gym for the first time, he witnessed a basketball game
being played. Although he knew nothing of the game, he asked if could join. What followed was
not indicative of Mikkelsen's future basketball endeavors: he grabbed the ball, sped down the
court, and the players immediately called him for a travel. Despite his rough start, his newfound
love of the game helped to ease the pain of constantly moving and leaving his friends. It didn't take long for Mikkelsen, who also ran track and participated in the band, to realize he had
considerable talent in his new hobby.
Once his days at Askov High were over, Vern joined the Hamline University basketball
team. His first major test came during a four-team Christmas tournament where his 6’5,
200 pound frame faced his most punishing task yet. At just 17 years old, Vern would have
to stand toe to toe with 6’10 George Mikan from DePaul, 6’11 Don Otten from Bowling Green,
and 7 foot Bob Kurland from Oklahoma A&M. Although going up against men that had significant
height advantages on him, Mikkelsen showed off his tremendous talent for getting up soft shots
despite the battles that were being waged underneath the boards. He was given a standing
ovation when the crowd found out that the player who was recklessly throwing his body against that of older,
stronger, and taller players was only 17 years old.
Hamline was beginning to gain recognition for
the extraordinary post player that was developing his skills at the small Minnesota university. Vern had held his own against Mikan and Otten, which gave him tremendous confidence when Hamline played against bigger
and more prestigious colleges. Due to his success at the collegiate level, he became the first
small-college player to ever take part in the East-West College All-Star Game, held annually at
Madison Square Garden in New York. Over 18 thousand spectators came out to watch the
game. Even though Mikkelsen's team lost, he topped all scorers with 17 points and kept his team
within striking distance. Included on his team were his roommates Slater Martin and Bob
Harrison, who would later become his Minneapolis Laker teammates.
The impending end of Mikkelsen's collegiate career led to a dilemma. Financial success
was not guaranteed in professional basketball in 1949, and he had a deep love and appreciation
for music that started in his youth. Vern was an exceptional musician, and legitimate questions arose about whether music or basketball would dominate Mikkelsen’s post-graduation life. Vern and his Hamline teammates beat
the semi-professional Phillips 66ers in a pair of charity matches, and the 66ers coach, Cab Renick, was
determined to sign Mikkelsen to his globetrotting team (Editor’s Note: TBCB will feature much more on the Bartlesville, Oklahoma Phillips 66ers in an upcoming post – MH). The starting center for the 66ers was a familiar
face, the 7 foot Bob Kurkland, whom Vern faced a few years earlier in Chicago. Although Renick
did indeed convince Mikkelsen to pursue basketball, it wasn’t in the way he had hoped.
Intrigued
by the prospect of staying near home and playing for the Lakers, Vern wanted to give them a try,
but there was only one problem. The Lakers already had the best center in the world in George
Mikan, and Vern pondered how he would ever see playing time backing up Mikan. According to
Dick Cullum, a well-respected writer in Minneapolis, the Lakers were set to draft Vern even above
All-American Jim McIntyre. The Lakers needed someone who could let George Mikan catch his
breath and also learn from him. Although Mikan had no plans on retiring and ended up playing five more
years, the owner of the Lakers, Max Winter, promised Vern that Mikan was set to retire soon and
that the center spot would be his.
Much like his introduction to basketball, the introduction of Mikkelsen to the Lakers was an
embarrassing one. Max Winter brought Vern and his reverend father down to the locker room to
meet the team, and the words emanating from the locker room were grossly profane. Feeling
embarrassed, Mikan apologized for his language. Revered Mikkelsen relieved the tension by
telling George, “George, boys will be boys”. This exchange set the tone for the friendship
between Vern and Mikan that would last until Mikan’s death in 2005 and extend far beyond
basketball. Described as a sly and humorous guy, Vern got along with his teammates extremely
well.
The Minneapolis Armory, where the Lakers would often play
Due to his extreme talent, Kundla wanted to start Mikkelsen alongside Mikan, which led to
his attempt at installing a double-post offense. However, due to the complaints from Mikan about
spacing, Mikkelsen was moved out to the right forward spot, with Jim Pollard playing at left
forward. Mikkelsen was unhappy with the decision. He never considered himself a forward, and
only joined the Lakers because he thought he would soon become their starting center. Instead,
Mikkelsen was the first of an enduring breed: the power forward. Vern was a player who loved to
get down in the paint and battle off opponents for a rebound. He was a tough defender who
epitomized team play. If he were to miss a shot he would go hard after the offensive rebound and
put the ball back up without lowering it to his waist first. In addition to his scoring and defense, he
also set tough picks and made great interior passes. Already equipped with a deadly hook
shot, Mikkelsen also developed a mid-range set shot in order to be a more complete offensive
player and spread the floor for Mikan.
According to coach John Kundla, Mikkelsen would relish the
opportunity the guard the opposing team’s best player. John Kundla, who preached defense
above all else, told Vern to play without any fear of fouling. A tough competitor, Vern took it to
heart. He still holds the NBA record for fouling out of 127 games during his career. With all the
tools at their disposal, Vern, Pollard, and Mikan created one of the greatest front lines in
NBA history. With the Lakers, Mikkelsen would win NBA Championships in 1950, 1952, 1953,
and 1954 and he would become a six-time All-Star.
Things started to fall apart for the franchise in the late 1950’s, yet Vern described
his last year in 1959 as his best ever. Behind the strong play of Mikkelsen and rookie Elgin
Baylor, the Lakers bounced back from a 19-53 record the previous season to make the playoffs.
However, despite the team's revival, the Lakers were having trouble selling tickets. Unlike today
when you know the Lakers will play at the Staples Center, the Minneapolis Lakers
played at a few different places around the Twin Cities. During preparation for one home game,
the team was gathered in the locker room at the Minneapolis Armory. As they were getting ready
to get on the court, Elgin Baylor was still nowhere to be found. While the team was getting
increasingly worried something had happened, Baylor burst into the locker room and
exclaimed “I thought we were playing at the Auditorium!” If a player doesn’t know where to go,
how can the fans?
The situation was exacerbated as owner Bob Short sought new ways to expand his fan
base. Now instead of just playing home games in various arenas in Minneapolis and St. Paul,
“home” games were also played in Seattle, Buffalo, San Francisco, and every other corner of
America. Home court advantage was no longer a thing for the Minneapolis Lakers.
Due to the low attendance, the team started making plans to move west to Los Angeles.
Short wanted to get both Vern and Coach Kundla to follow the team, but both refused. Mikkelsen had just had a son and didn’t want to miss out on him growing up due to the intense travel
schedule of an NBA player. Short was so desperate to get Vern to travel west, he offered
Mikkelsen 25 percent of the Lakers. After a talk with Kundla, they both decided to stay put in
Minnesota since neither believed basketball would be able to survive in Los Angeles. Jean, the
wife of Vern, would often wonder out loud how much that percentage of the team would be worth
now. According to Forbes, the Lakers are currently worth about $900 million, meaning that the Mikkelsen family’s share of the team would be worth about $225 million today.
Following his playing career, Vern became general manager for the Minnesota Muskies of
the American Basketball Association alongside coach Jim Pollard and commissioner George
Mikan. Once again, the front line was reunited. However, in the middle of the season, the
Muskies left for Miami. Once again, Vern refused to move with the team. He took another job with
the ABA as the general manager of the Minneapolis Pipers where he also briefly coached for them
before the team moved to Pittsburgh. Later, after the Timberwolves joined the NBA, Mikkelsen
fought hard to get an arena built, citing his own experiences of having nowhere to play years
earlier.
In 1995, both Kundla and Mikkelsen were inducted into the Hall of Fame together. Neither
were disappointed with not getting in sooner because they were so elated to go in together. Vern
was also happy with getting inducted so late because his sons were then old enough to truly
appreciate and enjoy the moment with him. Mikkelsen was also a humble and man, as can be seen in his touching and entertaining Hall of Fame induction speech below (where he actually denies being the first power forward).
As a man that has always stressed the importance of family, Vern feels the sense of an
ongoing family from the Minneapolis Lakers and the Los Angeles Lakers. On April 11th, 2002 the
Los Angeles Lakers, who have largely ignored their pre-Los Angeles history until the last decade,
celebrated their Minneapolis roots by inviting Vern Mikkelsen, George Mikan, Slater Martin, John
Kundla, Clyde Lovellette, and Jim Pollard’s widow to Los Angeles to take part in a halftime
ceremony to commemorate their five championships. On that night, the Lakers raised two banners
to celebrate the players and championships from Minneapolis. A few months later, members of
the Minneapolis championship teams received championship rings valued at 10 thousand
dollars.
During the ceremony, Vern could not believe it. He did not believe he deserved to be
standing shoulder to shoulder with Shaq, Kobe, West, Mikan, Baylor and everyone else.
However, as he talked to Kobe and Shaq about their common love of basketball and as he
exchanged handshakes with Hollywood celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, the two separated
families began to merge. At the moment when he walked onto center court and was being
introduced along with his old teammates by Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and other Los
Angeles greats, the history of the Lakers finally began to connect. As George Mikan said that
night at Staples Center, “It’s great that the NBA is finally recognizing us old guys.”
The Staples Center
The blue banner on the left lists the names of Minneapolis greats,
while the blue banner on the right notes Minneapolis Laker championships.
