Back to that game, the final score was 68-66 in favor of the Nats, a game that belonged to the days of low-scoring basketball, when the hoop appeared in dance auditoriums like an exhibit, when players didn't routinely make second-chance put-backs or dunks as they do now, in fact, because the players' jumping ability was far less than it is today, and when there was no 24-second rule for offense, and teams weren't limited to a 24-second possession clock. Teams weren't limited in the amount of time they had to play offense. The jump shot was the basic and only offense of the era, but any player shooting a basket with one foot off the ground would be considered to be in violation of a coach's directive, and if such a shot didn't go in, there could be trouble.
On June 6, 1946, at the Captain's Hotel in New York City, the owners of various organizations met to discuss the creation of a basketball league to be called the National Basketball Association (NBA), but in no case could they have imagined that the NBA would evolve into the tournament it is today. Most of them were members of the AAA (American Athletic Association) and controlled arenas in most major cities in the U.S., but their experience was limited to rodeos (like field hockey, circuses, and rodeos), so they stayed silent on the matter, except for Ned Ellis, the owner of the Plaza at Madison Square Garden. Ellis History. He popularized college basketball leagues in the '30s and '40s, so they had some feel for the game.
But they also realized that World War II was coming to an end and that a time of peace was coming, and that meant that people would spend more money on goods and entertainment, and they were also concerned about the fact that the college basketball league was very successful in cities like New York's Madison Square Garden and Buffalo, Philadelphia, and was very much a professional league. Once this league is established, then those star players coming out of college will continue to showcase their talents and will become more and more famous and successful.
So on Thursday of that particular June, the 11 rival teams were divided into two factions, that is now the East and the West, with the East team consisting of six teams, the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia Warriors, the Providence Rollerbladers, the Washington Pantheon likewise New York and Toronto, and the West consisting of the Pittsburgh Ironmen, the Chicago Bucks, the Detroit Falcons, the St. . Louis Bombers and Cleveland Rebels.
Each team paid $10,000 U.S. in league dues, which went mostly to league operating expenses and to Moraes' salary (he owned the arena), and likewise to Paudloff (a lawyer from Connecticut who had served as president of the American Hockey League in the past, and later agreed to be president of the BAA). Three years later they merged with the NBL (Major League Baseball) to become the NBA.
With only five months left to prepare for the season's opening on Nov. 1, the rules of the game, as well as the style of running the league, will be modeled after and benchmarked against successful college basketball. However, college games are set at 40 minutes and are split into halves. the NAA games are 8 minutes longer, with four quarters of 12 minutes each in a ****, so that brings the nightly game time up to 2 hours, which the owners feel is what the ticketed fans would like to see. Similarly, zone defense is allowed in the college game, but since it slows down the pace of the game, it will be banned in its first season.
The geographic differences also create the components of the 11 teams, with the Providence Rollers relying heavily on players from the University of Rhode Island in the past, and the Knicks getting most of their players from New York-area colleges, although almost all of the Toronto players are Americans, with the exception of forward Hank, who is a Canadian national.
The players' incomes are relatively small; most of them get paid $5,000 U.S. per season, so the players have to find another job at the end of the season to make up the income.
The first training camp was downright spartan if you want to compare it to today's standards, and claimed to be every day. Take the Braves, who traveled to and from many Philadelphia stadiums to practice every day, often encountering situations in which they had to huddle with other teams, strangely like a BAA team playing against the home team in a rivalry game.
Nick's outdoor stadium has been considered more luxurious. "For the first two weeks we trained on our own pitch" recalls player Soni (who is Nick's captain) "The food was really good but the coach wasn't happy about it, we traveled a lot and had a great training environment but the coach didn't like the way we were progressing. "
"Looking back, I still shiver when I think about the first time I joined the Knicks and at training camp, I wanted to play for New York because it was going to be a new and powerful league, there was no 24-second offense rule when we played, and I don't know if it's going to be a whole lot of time later.
When the Knicks were ready to open their first game of the season, college basketball still dominated New York, and teams like CCNY, LIU and NYU were still revered. It wasn't until after Nick led a migration of college players to Toronto on Oct. 31 that they gained some news paper coverage, and they've gained some respect since then.
One image depicts a scene of a cold fall night when Nick's players had to stop at a Canadian border crossing for an entry inspection. One story takes place during the inspection, where Knicks players like Oates, Ruffin and Knight were recorded for their physical appearance and then asked by the inspector, "What are you guys doing?"
"We're the New York Knicks," the coach said on behalf of the team.
The inspector's reaction made it clear that he had never heard the name Nick, or even professional basketball for that matter. Then added, "We're familiar with the New York Raiders, are you guys like them?" The coach could only reply reluctantly, "They play hockey, we play basketball."
Before letting them through, the inspector added, "I have a hard time imagining anyone enjoying your kind of game or being interested in this stem."
Few players would have predicted that the NBA would grow to 29 teams and millions of dollars in commerce, including two teams in Canada (although the Eskimos declared defeat after their first season).
With the Maple Leaf logo but only one Canadian player on the roster, Toronto tried to work on improving the game. They added a picture of George (which is Canada's tallest player) to the third page of the paper, then next to it they wrote, "Can you be taller than him?" Any fan taller than him would be able to watch the opening season game for free; the usual ticket price was set at anywhere from 75 cents to $2.50 US.
"It was a lot of fun playing in front of the Canadians," Holtzberg recalled "At first the fans really couldn't understand the game, to them a jump ball was like a kickoff in hockey, but they started to focus and enjoy every move. "
Shkerman, a former LIU starter, scored the Knicks' first points and led the Knicks to a 6-0 lead and New York to a 16-12 first-quarter lead, stretching the advantage to 33-18 before halftime before his team could stop the bleeding until Sadowski, Toronto's 6-foot-5, 240-pound player and coach, led his team on a desperate run to close out the first half, trailing 37-29. But Sadowski quickly reached five personal fouls in a three-minute span and was ejected from the game under a rule that was still in use at the time that sent players to the bench after five fouls, and the NBA didn't raise the number of fouls to six until several years later.
Nostred replaced Sadowski and put the Eskimos ahead for the first time, 44-43, before they extended their lead to 48-44 at the end of the third quarter. a field goal by Dick and a free throw by Toomey with two-and-a-half minutes left in the final quarter led to a two-point win for the Knicks. Sadowski scored 18 points on a **** and New York's Leo had 14, both team-high scorers, respectively.
In this first season, the Washington Pantheon, with Redd as coach, won the East, with a record of 49-11, winning more games than Philadelphia by 14 and Chicago by 10. The West was led by the Warriors, who were coached by Eddie, also the team's owner, and ultimately won their first championship, beating Chicago by a commanding 4-1 margin in four of seven innings.
Philadelphia's Joan was the first player in the league to win scoring honors, averaging 23.2 points per game in his first season, well ahead of second-place Furyk, who averaged 16.8, though he was the league's top hitter at 40.1 percent, though still a long way from Cedric's 57.6 percent in the 1992-1993 season. shooting percentage in the 1992-1993 season, but still a far cry from Cedric's 57.6 percent.