It was a beautiful day in Los Angeles. A cool breeze drifted through Chick Hearn Court and
the sun illuminated L.A. Live. The Nokia Theatre is accustomed to having media and fans gather outside. On this day, however, the scores of people were here not to catch a glimpse of celebrities, but to say goodbye and thank you to a man. Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the Lakers, quietly passed away on February, 18th 2013. Dr. Buss purchased the team in 1979. His vision helped the Lakers total 16 finals appearances and 10 NBA Championships while amassing some of the most talented rosters in NBA history.
Ten championship trophies accompanied by purple and gold flowers adorned the stage while three large screens projected pictures of Jerry Buss through his 80 years of life. Slowly the room started to fill with people that helped Buss fulfill his vision.
Photo by the author
West walked up the steps and began sharing his stories of Buss’ work ethic and fun loving attitude. “With Jerry, somebody was talking about hard work, you have to be the first one to work, well he never went to bed. So how in the hell could he not be the first one there in the morning,” West joked. With that drive, Dr. Buss helped to revolutionize the NBA with ideas such as a regional sports network and bringing entertainment to the game during commercial breaks and halftimes. “I want people to come see a winning basketball team, but he says, but I want entertainment, very much like a broadway show,” West continued. “He loved the league, he sacrificed for the league.”
Magic Johnson continued by discussing the impact Dr. Buss had on him just as he entered the NBA. Buss became a father figure for Johnson who had just moved to Los Angeles from Michigan. Buss would take Magic to watch boxing, tennis, hockey, and horse racing. When diagnosed as HIV positive, Buss called various hospitals to make sure Magic would receive the absolute best healthcare possible. “That’s when I knew this man loved me and cared about me outside of winning championships, outside of making no look passes. That’s who Jerry Buss was.”
Photo by the author
Perhaps the greatest moment came when Magic ordered every current or former Laker to stand up. The empire that Jerry Buss had built was immediately visible. Standing in that room were some of the greatest players in NBA history. Those players sweated for Jerry Buss. Those players bled for Jerry Buss. Those players went to battle for Jerry Buss. Why? Buss had a vision, and every player believed in it. That vision led to 10 championships and some of the greatest basketball the NBA has ever seen. Magic had everyone single person in the room stand up, make an L with their hand and hold it up to the sky. “See, he didn’t like it sad, he didn’t like it down. You know, if anybody knew Dr. Buss, it had to be fun for him,” exclaimed Johnson while encouraging the crowd to clap and cheer for Dr. Buss as this was a celebration of his life, not a mourning of his death.
The NBA lost a great owner and innovator, but they lost an even greater person. Buss cared not only about his profit, but about his team and his fans. He cared about the people of Los Angeles and about improving the city. He always wanted to work hard, but he had fun while doing it. While he is gone, he is not forgotten. For as long as there is basketball, we will always feel the impact of Dr. Jerry Buss.
Photo by the author
Life is good, life is sweet . I am blessed with a wonderful family, who have helped me every step of the way. This support is the best anybody could ever have." Dr. Jerry Buss
Footage reportedly posted to YouTube today claims to show the University of San Fransisco's Bill Russell leaping over a hapless defender in a 1956. Finding quality basketball footage from the mid-1950s is challenging, and this clip is simply amazing. See for yourself below (h/t to The Dagger).
Waiting for Godot describes the story of two men who are waiting for a promised visit by the mysterious Godot. While they wait, the men pass the time talking, eating, and being visited by odd passers-by. In the end, Godot never arrives and we're left to wonder if he actually exists or if he was simply a figment of the men's imaginations. The play ends on an indefinite note, and it seems plausible that these men will continue to await Godot's arrival for the remainder of their lives.
We wait. We are bored.
- Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (and NBA fans at the trade deadline)
Critics have suggested that Beckett's play might be about many different things, such as man's wait for God or the early stages of the cold war, which dominated the headlines in the early 1950s. With so many alternative theories swirling about the meaning of this masterpiece, allow me to submit another: Samuel Beckett was a
Knicks fan.
Beckett's play unintentionally provides a wonderful metaphor for the ever-renewing cycle of resignation and hope that comes along with NBA fandom. In a league where fans continue to cheer on their favorite clubs while knowing that their climb to the league's peak will be lengthy and uncertain, hope always springs eternal. It must. When your favorite team finally wins the Larry O’Brien trophy, fans finally have the opportunity to release years of pent-up anxiety. But for fans of most teams in any given era, that time never comes.
Mavericks Fans Celebrate the 2011 NBA Championship
Waiting for Godot premiered on stage in Paris in 1953, the same year that the United States announced that it had developed the hydrogen bomb, Watson and Crick published their description of DNA, and Sir Edmund Hillary reached the top of Mount Everest. 1953 also witnessed the American installation of the Shan in Iran, John Kennedy’s marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier, and Earl Warren’s appointment at Supreme Court Chief Justice.
In the NBA, fans of the Minneapolis Lakers were again on top, as the Lakers regained the NBA title in 1952 and would defend it again in 1953 and 1954, while fans of the Rochester Royals could look back on their recent 1951 championship to salve any NBA-related wounds.
Indianapolis Olympians fans, stung by the college point shaving scandals that led to the lifetime bans of the once-promising team’s best players, would finally be put out of their misery when the team folded during the summer of 1953. And fans of the New York Knicks were left wondering about what might have been, as their team had lost in the finals each year between 1951 and 1953. Knicks fans would have to wait almost 20 years before their team again advanced to the championship round.
Some dreams had been fulfilled, but most were left waiting for that elusive goal: The NBA championship.
But followers of Championship Belt of Basketball know that championship trophies aren't all that matters, and that raising the Belt doesn't always require a feat of Himalayan strength. To raise the Belt once only requires defeating the right team on the right night, making the Belt much more democratic and accessible than an NBA Championship. (Read answers to your questions about the Championship Belt of Basketball here.) In fact, bad teams occasionally end the season on a positive note, finishing with the Belt and hope for the future. As we will see, the 1953-54 season was the first in which the NBA champion didn't raise the Belt, leaving a sort of championship schism that allowed a terrible team to spend the summer of 1954 with a glimmer of hope that would eventually be fulfilled.
The Setting
In the wake of the college point shaving scandal and subsequent suspensions, the Indianapolis Olympians folded before the beginning of the 1953-54 season. Their demise left nine teams in the NBA, with five in the Eastern Division (New York, Boston, Syracuse, Philadelphia, and Baltimore) and four in the West (Minneapolis, Rochester, Fort Wayne, and Milwaukee). Despite the disappearance of the promising Olympians, the NBA signed its first national television contract, which allowed audiences across the country to witness thirteen games throughout the league's long season. This was a promising development, but in the last season before the 24 second shot clock and the five foul per quarter limit (the penalty), the games themselves still involved a lot of waiting around for real action. The NBA of 1953-54 was still a slow-paced slug-fest.
The video biography above about 1953 rookie and eventual Hall of Famer Frank Ramsey gives us great perspective on the NBA during the early 1950s. Ramsey, who had to be convinced to play for the Celtics after he was drafted, says, "At that time, in the early 50s, basketball was not the hottest thing in the world. And then the Celtics were really never heard of. Boston Garden was old and our dressing room was about ten by ten. We had one shower head and one commode for all of us and everybody had two nails they could hang their clothes on." He also reminds us that standards of physical fitness were much different in the early fifties, as Celtics star Tommy Heinson smoked two packs of cigarettes each day and could only play in stretches of about eight minutes before needing to be replaced.
Times have certainly changed.
The Belt
As readers will recall, the 1952-53 NBA season left off with the Belt in the hands of the champion Minneapolis Lakers. After their summer break, the Lakers immediately lost the Belt to the Milwaukee Hawks. The Hawks, who went on to finish last in the Western Division with a record of 21-51, didn't hold the Belt long, losing it to the Fort Wayne Pistons in their next game. The lowly Hawks were led by Chuck Share and rookie Don Sunderlage, who were the only two men on the team to average over ten points per game during the 1953-54 campaign. Sunderlage was an All Star in 1954, but was traded to the Lakers before the next season, which would be his last in the NBA. Share had a longer career, playing for the Pistons, Hawks, and Lakers between 1951 and 1960, but never played at an All-Star level.
The Pistons' victory over the Hawks continued a streak where no team held the Belt for more than two games until the Minneapolis Lakers took it on November 29 for the first time that season. As usual, George Mikan starred for the Lakers during their four-game stretch with the Belt, winning player of the game honors in three of the four Laker victories. On December 13, Arnie Risen and the Rochester Royals took the Belt from the Lakers and held it for a total of three games. The Lakers won it back on December 19, and then immediately lost it to Dolph Schayes and the Syracuse Nationals. The Belt again passed from team-to-team until the Nationals went on a five-game streak with it in mid-January.
The Syracuse Nationals of 1953-54 were an impressive group. They were led by Dolph Schayes and Paul Seymour, who both had notable individual careers. In 1954, Schayes was only five years into his fifteen year Hall of Fame career. Of George Mikan's contemporaries, Dolph Schayes was probably the closest to Mikan in his ability to dominate the game, and he would be rewarded with the NBA championship in 1955. Schayes still ranks in the top 50 in career Win Shares, just ahead of Moses Malone and one spot behind Patrick Ewing. He'll be the subject of a future TBCB spotlight, where I'll spend much more time and space on his career. (Note: For more on the Nationals, I suggest you visit the Salt City Cagers website, which includes lots of great information about basketball in Syracuse.)
Paul Seymour is another Nats player who gets very little recognition today, but also had quite a successful career. In addition to his 1955 NBA title, Seymour was a three-time all star and two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team. According to his New York Times obituary, Seymour was a feisty player who, in his older days, admired the toughness of the 1990s Knicks. His wife recalls that he stayed up to watch the end of a 1998 Knicks-Pacers game the night before he died of heart disease. Seymour was also a man with strong principles. As a coach, he was fired in 1962 for refusing to reduce the playing time of black player Cleo Hill when white players complained that Hill was taking too many shots.
After the Nationals lost the Belt on January 23 to the Baltimore Bullets, it was again passed from team to team, with only one more streak of note before the regular season concluded. (For the full details of the Belt's path through the 1953-54 season, visit the TBCB Champions page.) Specifically, on March 7, the Rochester Royals took the Belt from the New York Knicks and held it for five games.
Among the stars of the the Rochester Royals were guards Bob Davies and Bobby Wanzer. Together with their dominate center Arnie Risen, in 1951 the Royals became the only team that was able to write their names in the records of NBA champions during the reign of George Mikan's Lakers. The 1953-54 team also included Jack McMahon, who had relatively quiet but successful eight year career after debuting with the Royals in 1952. In 1953-54, McMahon was growing into his future role as a key assist man, ranking third on the team in assists behind Davies and Wanzer. He would later finish in the top ten in the league in assists during a three season stretch from 1956-1959.
In the Royals' final game of the regular season, they lost the Belt to the lowly Milwaukee Hawks, 91-53. The Hawks didn't qualify for the playoffs, so they didn't have an opportunity to defend the Belt until the beginning of the next season. As a result, they took the Belt back to Milwaukee, where it rested until the 1954-55 season began later that fall. Two years later, the Hawks would move to St. Louis, where they would go on to win 1957-58 NBA championship with the help of point guard Jack McMahon, who spent the Hawks' championship season setting up his high-scoring teammates Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan, Ed Macauley, and Slater Martin.
The 1953-54 season was one of the most democratic in the early history of the NBA, with only three teams raising the Belt more than ten times. These teams were led by the New York Knicks and Rochester Royals, who tied for TBCB's Team of the Year award by each raising the Belt 14 times. The Knicks and Royals were followed closely by the Nationals, who held the Belt for 11 games.
Consistent with the theme of the season, 34 different players won player of the game honors during the 72 games involving the Belt, with only two men winning the award five or more times. Just like the previous season, the award came down to a battle between Ed Macauley of the Celtics and Dolph Schayes of the Nationals. However, this season Schayes came out on top by winning the award on six occasions, which was one more than Schayes. Five other men came close, with Arnie Risen, Carl Braun, Harry Gallatin, Larry Foust, and Neil Johnson each winning the award four times.
Risen, Foust, and Macauley have recently been inducted into the TBCB Hall of Fame for their performances in games involving the Belt between 1947-1955. The next inductee will be announced very soon.
NBA Champion
Although the Belt completed its journey before the NBA playoffs began, a recap of the 1953-54 season wouldn't be complete without also checking in on who won the NBA championship. In particular, the 1953-54 season was special because it marked the last of George Mikan's Lakers' long reign of dominance. His knees were creaky, but he still dominated the paint.
This was also the season in which the NBA began the playoffs using a round-robin format that included the top three teams from each division. It was an odd way to determine the two teams most deserving of playing in each division championship, but it produced mostly expected results. While Syracuse and Boston advanced over top-seeded New York to battle it out for the in the Eastern Division title, the Knicks were only two games ahead of the Nats and Celtics in the standings. In the West, the top two teams, the Lakers and Royals, ended up taking the top two spots in the round robin competition and fighting for their respective division crown.
The Lakers and Nationals won their division championships and advanced to the finals, making the 1954 NBA championship a battle between two long-standing rivals who were both beginning to age out of contention. As seen below, the Lakers won the first game, 79-68, in Minneapolis. The Nationals then edged the Lakers, 62-60, before the series moved to Syracuse for the next three games. George Mikan scored 30 points in game three to lead the Lakers to a 81-67 victory, but the Nats came right back and won game four, 80-69, to tie the series. Vern Mikkelsen led the Lakers to a win in game five, and then Paul Seymour led the Nats back in game six, tying the series again after six games. However, as usual, the series belonged to the Lakers, who won the final game and the NBA championship, 87-80, behind 21 points from Jim Pollard.
For more on the 1953-54 NBA season, visit the NBA's season summary here. For more on George Mikan, stay tuned to TBCB for an upcoming profile of Mikan, who retired after the 1954 season.
With All-Star weekend now upon us, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame has announced 12 finalists
for its class of 2013. As usual, these finalists included players and
coaches from the NBA, WNBA, and college basketball that were selected by
the Hall of Fame's North American and Woman's Committees.
The announcement also included five men who automatically become the first members of the class of 2013 by being selected as Direct Elects by the Hall of Fame's American Basketball
Association, Early African
American Pioneers, International, Veterans, and Contributor Committees.
With finalists, Direct Elects, committees, male and female professionals
and coaches, college athletes and coaches, international players,
contributors, and more, the Naismith Hall of Fame represents a
hodgepodge of excellence. And while it serves a critical role at the top
of the Hall of Fame pyramid, important pieces of the puzzle are
missing.
For example, while other Halls of Fame also exist that are dedicated to
college, international, and women basketball players (and the Belt!), no Hall of Fame
exists that's solely dedicated to recognizing
the accomplishments of American professionals like those who played in
the
National Basketball Association, the American Basketball Association,
the Basketball Association of America, and the National Basketball
League.
In addition, the Naismith committee members keep a relatively low
profile when compared to voters for other well-known Halls of Fame. As a
fan of Sports Illustrated's Peter King, I always
enjoy his columns explaining who he plans to support in the NFL
Hall of Fame deliberations. Public debate is an important part
of the NFL Hall of Fame's process, but doesn't seem to play a role in
the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. For example, does anyone remember
those lengthy articles written by various Naismith committee members
explaining why Spencer Haywood and Roger Brown finally deserve
recognition?
While I have tremendous respect for the Naismith Basketball Hall of
Fame, the U.S. Professional Basketball Hall of Fame, a project I started over at usbasketballhalloffame.com, intends to serve those fans
who want to see the missing piece of the basketball Hall of Fame puzzle
filled, while also encouraging readers to engage with voters throughout
the Hall of Fame decision-making process.
With this in mind, I'm currently identifying 43 voters who will assist
in establishing this new Hall of Fame. These 43 will include 13 at-large
voters and 30 voters who are each assigned to represent geographic areas
associated with current NBA teams. As the facilitator of this project, I
will not serve as a voter. All of us involved in this project will take it seriously,
but not so seriously that we'll forget about the fun and joy that
playing and watching basketball brings to so many people.
The 22 voters who have already been identified include All-Stars of the basketball blogging world and their names are listed below in no particular order. Their bios below are taken from their
Twitter pages, websites, and my own observations.
Aaron McGuire (@docrostov): Professional statistician. Writer at Gothic Gonobili and featured all over the Basketball Blogoshere for his 370-part player profiles series.
David Lord (@DLord_DBdotcom): Former small college basketballer, accredited NBA media with the Dallas Mavericks for 10 years, NBA analyst for Dallasbasketball.com, and salary cap expert who assists with Larry Coon's NBA Salary Cap FAQ.
Step one in establishing the new Hall of Fame involves identifying these voters. The
current goal is to identify 43 voters by the end of March 2013.
Step two involves developing a modified set of rules based loosely on the NFL Hall of Fame's rules and asking the voters to
review, suggest edits to, and approve the rules. The current goal is to have the
rules approved by the end of June 2013.
Step three will include the nomination and selection of the first Hall of
Fame class. I'm targeting an initial class to be inducted by
the end of 2013, with the class size and timing still to be approved by the voters. A new class will be inducted every year.
Like my efforts with The Basketball Champs Belt,
developing this new Hall of Fame will be a slow and careful process.
This hobby is a tribute to a game I love, and I want to ensure that it's
done well.
Stay tuned to champsbelt.com and usbasketballhalloffame.com for more details on this effort as it continues to grow, and send any suggestions for content or voters to me @champsbelt or at champsbelt at gmail.
As TBCB begins to prepare the 1953-54 NBA season summary, we set the
stage by sharing related facts, stories, and highlights. Today
we highlight three future stars who were born in 1953: Robert Parish, Jamaal Wilkes, and World B. Free. 1953 produced a number of well-known future NBA stars who would later spend their most impressionable young years being influenced by the Celtics' dynasty of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and Tom Heinsohn. Of the 62 future NBA and ABA players born in 1953, the three men who finished their careers at the top of the list for career points scored each had well-known nicknames and on-court personas.
The man at the top of this list is Robert "The Chief" Parish, who finished his 21 year career with over 23 thousand points and 14 thousand rebounds. Known for being the strong silent type, Parish was given the name Chief, which referred to Chief Bromden, the character who narrates One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Lloyd B. Free, better known as World B. Free or All-World, was a high-flying scoring machine, who finished his 13 year professional career with 17,955 points. Free was given the nickname "All World" on the Brooklyn playgrounds, where he used his 44 inch vertical leap to score and entertain with highlight-reel dunks.
Jamaal Wilkes finished his career with 14,644 points and left a legacy of championships. In college, he teamed up with Bill Walton at UCLA to win the 1972 and 1973 NCAA tournaments. Then, in his first NBA season, Wilkes helped lead the Golden State Warriors to the 1975 NBA title. Two years later he joined the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won three more NBA championships along with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Magic Johnson. His nickname, Silk, referred to his smooth-as-silk jumper, which Chuck Hearn called a "20 foot layup."
The Chief and Silk are both members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
TBCB continues to celebrate the early fifties by counting down
the best NBA players who played between 1947 and 1955. As we work
through the countdown of the ten men who won the most TBCB player of the
game awards, the top five
men
on this list who are not already members of the TBCB Hall of Fame will be inducted. Hall of Fame eligibility rules and requirements are described here.
At
number three, we recognize "Easy" Ed Macauley. A six foot eight center and power forward from St. Louis University, Macauley played one season with the St. Louis Bombers (1949-50) before joining the Boston Celtics in 1950. In 1956, he was traded to the St. Louis Hawks for Bill Russell, and he played with the Hawks until he retired in 1959. He also coached the Hawks from 1958 until 1960. Due to his stellar performances in games involving the Belt, Macauley becomes the newest member of the TBCB Hall of Fame.
Among his many other accomplishments, Ed Macauley was a seven-time All Star and the Most Valuable Player
of the first All Star game in 1951. In addition, Easy Ed was named to
the All-NBA first team three times and the second team once. Macauley also won the NBA Championship with the Hawks in 1958.
The video below shows highlights from the NBA's first All Star game in 1951. Macauley, who won the game's MVP award, is wearing number 22.
Between 1947 and 1955, Ed Macauley won TBCB player of the game honors 25 times. He tied with Dolph Schayes for first place in TBCB's 1952-53 player of the year standings, finished second in both the 1953-54 and 1954-55 player standings, and finished third overall for the 1950-51 season. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960 at the age of 32, which is still the record for the youngest man ever to be inducted.
