Dr. Harvey Frommer on Sports
To watch the high-scoring action in the National Basketball Association
today, it is hard to believe the way things once were. But back in the early
years of the league, games were yawning affairs or stalling contests.
The 1950-1951 season saw the NBA go from an unwieldy 17-team league to 11
teams in a two-division setup. It was also a season that included the
lowest-scoring game in NBA history.
It happened November 22, 1950 - the yawner of all yawners. The game pitted
the Fort Wayne Piston (who became the Deroiters) against the Minneapolis Lakers
(who became the Show Time bunch), and was played on the home court of the
Lakers, who enjoyed a great home advantage. Their court was shorter and
narrower than normal size. Their team was big, bulky and slow - all of which
were perfectly suited for a slowdown game.
In the game, the two teams combined for just 31 shots. When it was over, Ft.
Wayne had creaked out a 19-18 triumph in a painful and boring example of how
dull a stalling contest could be. The game started serious talk throughout the
NBA about ways to prevent those kinds of contests from taking place.
Then on January 6, 1951, a very cold night in Rochester, the Royals (who one
day would evolve into the Sacramento Kings) played against the Indianapolis Olympians(evolved
from the 1948 basketball Gold Medal winners) in what has gone down as the
longest game in the annals of the NBA.
The game lasted a grand total of 78 minutes and included six overtimes. Some
of the loyal Rochester fans booed, and hundreds of others walked out of the old
Edgerton Park Arena. They just couldn't abide the slow-down stalling tactics of
both teams.
In the half-dozen overtimes, just 23 shots were taken. At the start of each
overtime, the team that earned the tip just held on to the ball for one last
shot. Players just stood around gaping and staring at each other. One player
dribbled or held the ball and looked around hoping to make the smart pass for a
high percentage shot. Indianapolis finally won the game, 75-73.
Red Holzman told me in the late 1980s when I was writing his autobiography,
"I played 76 of the 78 minutes in that opus. And although I was in great
shape, my tail was dragging when the historic marathon was over". That
game and the bore that was the 19-18 contest made players and coaches see the
need and the urgency to speed up the game. It was these two games, and others
like them, that set the stage for the creation of the 24-second clock - and the
salvation of the NBA.
The clock was first used in the 1954-1955 season, and scoring jumped an
average of 15 points a game as a result. The new NBA era was underway.
As a post-script to all of this, Holzman told me that back in 1951, after
the 19-18 game, he got the idea for a shot clock and told some of the owners
about it. They dismissed him as "a young squirt." But someone must
have been listening.
About the Author
Dr. Harvey Frommer received his Ph.D. from New York University. Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Professor nominee, Recipient of the "Salute to Scholars Award" at CUNY where he taught writing for many years, the prolific author was cited by the Congressional Record and the New York State Legislature as a sports historian and journalist.
His sports books include autobiographies of sports legends Nolan Ryan, Red Holzman and Tony Dorsett, the classics "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," "New York City Baseball: 1947-1957." The 1927 Yankees." His "Remembering Yankee Stadium" was published to acclaim in 2008. His latest book, a Boston Globe Best Seller, is "Remembering Fenway Park." Autographed and discounted copies of all Harvey Frommer books are available direct from the author. Please consult his home page: http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/
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