SEVENTY-two years ago on November 1, the first National Basketball Association (NBA) game was held.
To the uninitiated, the American professional league was still named the Basketball Association of America (BAA) at the time and it fought the rival National Basketball League (NBL) for the services of the best post-graduate players from America.
Established in 1946, the BAA is considered the NBA’s forerunner. All the BAA stats and record from 1946-49 were recognized by the NBA when it was officially called as such during the 1949-50 season following the exodus of the five surviving NBL franchises to form the newly named 17-team NBA. (In contrast, all the NBA stats and records were expunged.)
The year before (1948-49), four other NBA teams – the George Mikan-powered Minneapolis Lakers, Fort Wayne Pistons, Rochester Royals and Indianapolis Jets – had already defected to the BAA.
The BAA clearly owned the best arenas in the major cities during the 1940s but the NBL had the best players even if it resided in small Midwestern cities.
And so, the first NBA game was held on November 1, 1946. It featured the New York Knickerbockers against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada.
A respectable crowd of 7,090 fans attended the game and any fan taller than 6-foot-8 Huskies center George Nostrand got in free.
The Knicks edged the Huskies, 68-66, for the win.
According to an Associated Press report, “The Knicks started as if they meant to walk off with the game, forging into a 6-0 lead after less than two minutes of play. The Huskies, led by playing coach Ed Sadowski (a 6-foot-5, 240-pound center), rallied to take a 7-6 lead, but the Knickerbockers put together 10 straight points to be ahead 37-29 at halftime. The Huskies started well in the second half and pulled up to within 40-37, but Sadowski, after making 18 points to take scoring honors, was forced out of the game at the five-minute mark.
“New York took advantage of Sadowski’s departure and a pair of field goals by Dick Murphy and a free throw by Tommy Byrnes in the final three minutes helped the Knicks defeat Toronto.”
Lei Gottlieb topscored for the Knicks with 14 points, followed by Oscar (Ossie) Schectman, who had 11.
Aside from Sadowski, Nostrand also scored in double figures for the Huskies with 16 markers.
It was the 6-foot Schectman, a point guard out of the Long Island University in Brooklyn, who scored the first basket of the game – a layup after cutting down the center of the lane – for the first points in NBA history.
The Queens, New York native, who died on July 30, 2013 at age 94, once recalled his pioneering field goal in a 2003 interview with ESPN columnist Charley Rosen.
Said Schectman, the Knicks captain: “I scored on a two-handed underhand layup, which was the standard chippy shot back then. I also remember being on the receiving end of a give-and-go, but I can’t remember who I received the pass from. I was the Knicks’ third-leading scorer (8.1 ppg in 54 games), I also finished third in the league in assist average (2.0), and my salary was 60 dollars a game. I’m just proud to have been one of the NBA’s pioneers.”
Schectman made $9,000 with the Knicks during the 1946-47 campaign, including a $1,000 bonus for making the playoffs.
Schectman played just one season in the league, quitting pro basketball to become a salesman in New York’s garment district.
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