Tag Archives: 1950s

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Tommy Heinsohn

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Tommy Heinsohn

Tom Heinsohn’s influence in today’s NBA has boiled down to how many Tommy Points he hands out on a given night to the Boston Celtics.

Back in the day, Heinsohn still dished out points, but they were the ones that actually counted on the court. As the Boston Celtics’ official gunner, he shot so much and so often that he was nicknamed “Tommy Gun” and ”Ack-Ack.” You know, “Ack-Ack” as in the sound a gun makes when in rapid fire.

On many teams having a man flinging hook shots nearly 20 feet from the basket would result in discord and ill-feelings. The Boston Celtics, though, could subsume Heinsohn’s free-shooting ways and turn it into a strength. The Celtics would look to score easily on the break, but if that failed Heinsohn could always work his way into a good shoot… or at least a shot… that no other Celtic could manage in the half-court as time ran low on the shot clock.

Compared to his contemporaries only Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain could outmatch Heinsohn’s propensity to shoot.

Player – Shots per minute through the 1965 season
Wilt Chamberlain – 0.69 shots
Elgin Baylor – 0.63
Heinsohn – 0.61
Bob Pettit – 0.56
Sam Jones – 0.55
Cliff Hagan – 0.54
Jack Twyman – 0.54
Jerry West – 0.53
Oscar Robertson – 0.49
Hal Greer – 0.48
Richie Guerin – 0.47

That’s a lot of shots per minute, but Heinsohn’s unremarkable conditioning limited him to barely 30 minutes a night in his career. However he possessed a natural agility that made him hard to handle for defenses when he was in the game. He could score on his vaunted hook shots, a sweet jump shot, and strong driving moves. His finest moment may have come in his very first season as he scored 37 points and hauled in 23 rebounds in Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals to clinch Boston its first NBA title.

The glory continued for Heinsohn through the years. He was Boston’s go-to scorer for most of the late 1950s and early 1960s helping lead the club to 7 more NBA titles before retiring in 1965. As coach of the Celtics in the 1970s he led them to two more titles in 1974 and 1976 giving Heinsohn a personal total of 10 NBA titles.

That’s a pretty good haul for Boston’s vaunted gunner.

Seasons Played: 1957 – 1965

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
8x Champion (1957, 1959-’65)
4x All-NBA 2nd Team (1961-’64)
6x All-Star (1957, 1961-’65)
Rookie of the Year (1957)

Statistics

NBA - 654 Games
18.6 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 40.5% FG, 79.0% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Maurice Stokes

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Maurice Stokes

Maurice Stokes

Although he played a career that lasted just three seasons, Maurice Stokes left us a surefire Hall of Fame career with the Rochester and Cincinnati Royals.

To begin appreciating Maurice, consider how many players have averaged over 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists in one reason. The consideration only includes Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Elgin Baylor… and Stokes. Maurice accomplished the 15/15/5 feat in his final NBA season (1957-58) but he had been running close to that milestone all his career:

1955-56: 16.8 points, 16.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists
1956-57: 15.6 points, 17.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists
1957-58: 16.9 points, 18.1 rebounds, 6.4 assists

At 6’7″ and a muscled 230 pounds, Stokes was one of the strongest and most physically imposing basketball players in the 1950s NBA. He could snare a defensive rebound and push the ball all the way up the court. This was a skill few, if any, forwards could pull off. Especially a forward so big. He was basically a steamrolling powerhouse when it came to the break.

In his three seasons, Stokes was always an all-star and always a member of the All-NBA team. He was the 1956 Rookie of the Year. He led the league in RPG his rookie season and finished in 2nd place his final two seasons. He finished 3rd in APG in back-to-back seasons. In his rookie year, he was one of the rare handful of players to ever finish in the top 10 in PPG, APG, and RPG in the same season.

However, his career was indeed much too short. Falling on his head during the final game in the 1958 season, Stokes played in only one more game before he slipped into a coma. He ultimately emerged from the trauma but remained paralyzed for the rest of his life passing away at age 36.

His career is a cautionary tale, but his life is an inspirational one. We’d be fools to ever forget the lessons and triumphs of Maurice Stokes.

Seasons Played: 1956 – 1958

Accolades

NBA -
Rookie of the Year (1956)
3x All-NBA 2nd Team (1956-’58)
3x All-Star (1956-’58)

Statistics

NBA – 202 Games
16.4 PPG, 17.3 RPG, 5.3 APG, 35.1% FG, 69.8% FT
RPG Leader (1956)

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Vern Mikkelsen

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Vern Mikkelsen (ESPN)

Vern Mikkelsen (ESPN)

Along with Slater Martin, Vern Mikkelsen was the youthful injection needed to prolong and sustain the Minneapolis Lakers dynasty of the 1940s and 1950s. The Lakers had already won back-to-back titles in 1948 and 1949. In Vern’s rookie year of 1950 they snagged a third. After a one-year interregnum, the Lakers struck back with a second three-peat of titles in 1952, 1953, and 1954.

Vern’s place on these titles teams and his successful career overall, as with most things, wasn’t a certified given. What ultimately made it successful was Mikkelsen’s penchant for overachieving and his unparalleled level of grit, as well as some smart coaching moves by Laker coach John Kundla.

So, about that grit.

Vern Mikkelsen wasn’t a man who played basketball in what can be described as a beautiful fashion, unless you’re Gregg Popovich and you like some nasty. You can believe that Mikkelsen brought the nasty night and day for the Lakers. But Vern’s nasty almost never got a chance to show its bad self.

A standout in college and high school playing center, Mikkelsen’s first few pro games were played in a double-center lineup with George Mikan. After seeing the abysmal results, John Kundla made a fateful decision to shift Vern to  forward spot despite Vern’s unfamiliarity with the position. Kundla ordered Vern to just scrap and bruise opposing big men. He was to fight for rebounds, careen on defense, gobble up garbage second-chance points if Mikan or Jim Pollard missed shots, and set bone-chilling picks to free up Martin and sharp-shooting Bob Harrison on offense.

This experiment eventually coalesced into Mikkelsen instigating the power forward spot along with Bob Pettit a few seasons later. Pettit would certainly add more offensive finesse to the position, but Vern eventually learned how to deliver a set overhand shot. It went in often enough to keep defenses honest and prevent them from sagging down too much on Mikan.

But that shot was a nice touch. Mikkelsen’s real purpose was all about that rough and tumble play. During his career, Mikkelsen earned four fouls a game which places him in the vanguard for that category. For the 1950s, he racked up more personal fouls than any other player, finishing 359 ahead of second-place Dolph Schayes.

Disruption was basically the name of Vern’s game. The Dennis Rodmans, Charles Oakleys, and other agitators owe Vern a solemn debt for his groundbreaking brawn in the 1950s. It should be noted that Vern did all of this with a gentlemanly air and was a completely affable man off the court. Being nasty didn’t mean he was dirty. He hustled his butt up and down the court on every play.

That kind of tireless motor was respected by his contemporaries. Mikkelsen was honored with six All-Star Games and was on the All-NBA 2nd Team for four straight seasons. It takes a special player to go from star college center to subsumed power forward and somehow raise his level of play.

That’s Vern Mikkelsen, the eternal overachiever.

Seasons Played: 1950 – 1959

Minneapolis Lakers

Minneapolis Lakers

Accolades

NBA -
4x Champion (1950, 1952-’54)
4x All-NBA 2nd Team (1951-’53, 1955)
6x All-Star (1951-’57)

Statistics

NBA – 699 Games
14.4 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 2.2 APG, 40.3% FG, 76.6% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bill Sharman

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Bill Sharman

Bill Sharman

Ask folks for a list of great shooting guards from NBA history and you will likely get Michael Jordan. Then Kobe Bryant. Perhaps, Jerry West and Reggie Miller. Maybe…. maybe Sam Jones. But Bill Sharman? He would likely never crop up despite in many regards being the man who prototyped the shooting guard position.

Bill Sharman started out his NBA career at the age of 24 with the Washington Capitals in the 1950-51 season. The club, however, folded midseason after just 35 games. Sharman shot a pedestrian 37% and averaged 12 points. Not exactly the stuff that would leave teams around the league scrambling for Sharman. His basketball career very well could have ended there, especially considering he was also signed to a minor league contract with the MLB’s Brooklyn Dodgers.

However, Sharman wound up on the Boston Celtics in the 1951-52 season thanks to Red Auerbach’s keen eye for talent. Auerbach had coached the Capitals earlier in his career. Sharman turned out to be the first of many diamonds Auerbach found in the rough.

Initially a bench player, Sharman was bumped into the Celtic starting 5 playing alongside point guard Bob Cousy and center Ed Macauley. The trio blossomed into the NBA’s most feared offensive machines. Sharman handled the hot outside shooting and was one of the few guards of his era to consistently connect on over 40% of his field goals.

From the free throw line, Sharman was absolutely deadly. Over a nine-year span (1953 – 1961), Sharman led the NBA in FT% seven times and topped off in 1959 with 93.2% FT-shooting.

Interestingly, Sharman got deadlier with age. He retired at age 34, but his career-high in PPG came at age 31, his career-high in FT% at age 32 and FG% at age 33. Sharman’s longevity and resilience was in large part thanks to his training regimen that was unheard of in an era where weight-lifting was frowned upon and smoking was a regular game day occurrence.

“He drank shakes he claimed gave him energy. He always had vitamins in his suitcase. He drank tea on the afternoon of games. He did calisthenics in front of his locker before games, as the rest of his teammates sat there and thought he was a wacko. He ran on days he wasn’t practicing, sometimes jogging behind a car driven by his wife. And on the morning of game days he would go to a local high school gym and shoot by himself, his way of preparing for the evening’s games.”

- from Bill Reynolds’ Rise of a Dynasty

This regimen helped sustain Sharman through an 11-year career complete with 4 NBA titles and numerous All-Star selections. After he retired, he passed along the routine to several franchises as a coach in the NBA and ABA where he won titles and Coach of the Year awards. His morning shooting before games eventually became standard in today’s game as “shootarounds”.

Sharman’s impact on the game has been tremendous, if slightly obscured. I suppose the important things aren’t always immediately clear or visible, but once you notice them, you realize just how integral they are. Sharman’s career had that quality when it concerned basketball. About time a larger audience took note.

Seasons Played: 1951 – 1961

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
4x Champion (1957, 1959-’61)
4x All-NBA 1st Team (1956-’59)
3x All-NBA 2nd Team (1953, 1955, 1960)
8x All-Star (1953-’60), All-Star Game MVP (1955)

Statistics

NBA - 711 Games
17.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 42.6% FG, 88.3% FT
7x FT% Leader (1953-’57, 1959, 1961)
12th All-Time in FT%

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bob Cousy

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Bob Cousy

When George Mikan retired from the NBA in 1954, the next big thing, the next big star, was surprisingly only 6’1″ tall. Well, only surprising if you accounted for stature. If you counted for talent and wizardry, then it’s not the least bit shocking that Bob Cousy mesmerized NBA fans in the 1950s.

The Cooz captivated crowds with his straight-from-the-playground theatrics. He never did these things for show, however. It was perfectly natural for Cousy to dribble-behind-the-back and flip no-look passes. Elevating to dump dimes by dropping them over his head were legitimately done not for showmanship. These types of dazzling displays were genuinely natural Cousy. It’s how the game made sense to him. The deceitful pass beguiled the opponent and therefore gave his team the advantage.

Cousy’s breathtaking passing has always, and rightly, held supreme over his ability to score. However, he was a devastating scorer. From 1951 to 1959 he finished in the top 10 in PPG seven times topping out in 1954 and 1955 with back-to-back 2nd place finishes. All the while, Cousy was leading the league in APG for eight straight years.

Only Nate Archibald, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson have also finished so high in PPG and APG simultaneously.

The Houdini of the Hardwood helped transform the Boston Celtics from bottom dwellers in the East to perennial contenders. Along with Ed Macauley and Bill Sharman he formed the 1st of Boston’s many fabled Big 3s. Although Cousy ended his Celtics career with  6 titles, it was a rough road to that glory.

The Cousy-Sharman-Macauley Celtics always made the playoffs but were always thwarted, particularly by the Syracuse Nationals. That agony finally faded when Boston traded Macauley for Bill Russell while also drafting Tommy Heinsohn in 1957. The team was better than ever winning the title and Cousy won his only MVP award that season.

It came not a moment too soon. After the numerous playoff failures, the Celtics management contemplated breaking up the most expensive roster in the NBA if they lost the 1957 Finals. After breaking though that year, though, Cousy saw five more title seasons over the next six years finally retiring in 1963.

It’s often hard for those of us today to fully appreciate just how out-of-this-world Cousy was as a rookie 1951. His moves don’t seem as miraculous 60 years later. His 9.5 APG were earth-shattering in 1960, but have since become routine. The best we can do is remind ourselves that once upon a time in Beantown, NBA fans were dazzled by a Houdini of the Hardwood with never before seen tricks and left everyone spellbound.

Seasons Played: 1951 – 1963

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
MVP (1957)
6x Champion (1957, 1959-’63)
10x All-NBA 1st Team (1952-’61)
2x All-NBA 2nd Team (1962-’63)
13x All-Star (1951-’63), 2x All-Star Game MVP (1954, 1957)

Statistics

NBA - 924 Games
18.4 PPG, 7.5 APG, 5.2 RPG, 37.5% FG, 80.3% FT
8x APG Leader (1953-’60)
15th All-Time in Assists, 18th All-Time in APG

ProHoopsHistory HOF: George Yardley

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George Yardley

George Yardley

The one thing I’m most proud of as a coach is playing Yardley. He became the first player to score 2,000 points in a season, and he was such a skinny, chalky-white bastard that you thought he was dying from malnutrition.

- Fort Wayne Pistons coach Charley Eckman in Tall Tales

George Yardley was indeed the first player to score 2000 points in an NBA season. The Bird, as the fleet forward was called, pulled off the feat in the 1957-58 season. In the final game of the year, he needed 25 points to reach the 2000-point mark. Against the Syracuse Nationals, he scored 26 points and ended the year with 2001 points on 27.8 points per game.

That little factoid can be Yardley’s calling card, but the swingman deserves to be remembered for so much more.

Along with Philadelphia Warrior Paul Arizin, Yardley was a pioneer of off-the-dribble jump shooting. As Yardley himself attested, Arizin and he were the only guys who took their jump shots at the apex of their jump instead of while shooting on the way up.

Yardley was probably the most athletic player in the mid-1950s NBA with a quick first step. This put defenders in a bind since Yardley could nail a jump shot standing still, but if you closed out too hard he would blow by you to the basket. And even if you did recover, Yardley was a beast at making off-balance or fading away jumpers. Basically, he’s the antecedent for players like Reggie Miller, Carmelo Anthony, and Kevin Durant who love to fire up jump shots.

Yardley spent the majority of his career with the Fort Wayne Pistons, had a brief stint in Detroit after the Pistons relocated there in 1957, and closed out his brief 7-year career with the Syracuse Nationals. The brevity is partly because he had to serve two years in the Navy delaying the start of his career and partly because he retired early to start his own engineering company.

He still packed those seven years with significant achievement. He was a six-time all-star and played in back-to-back NBA Finals. The first of those was a nail-biting seven-game series with Fort Wayne against Syracuse. The Pistons lost the final game by one point. The next season the Pistons again lost to the Philadelphia Warriors in a much-closer-than-it-looks five games. They lost three of the four games by a combined eight points.

When Yardley did finally step away from the game, he still had some juice left averaging 20 points and 8 rebounds on career-highs in FG% and FT%. His 20 PPG that year made him the first player to retire while averaging over 20 PPG in his final season. Since then he’s been joined by Bob Pettit, Rudy LaRusso, Paul Arizin, and Michael Jordan.

Now that’s some good company for the Bird to find himself in.

Seasons Played: 1954 – 1960

Fort Wayne Pistons 1950s

Fort Wayne Pistons

Accolades

NBA -
All-NBA 1st Team (1958)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1957)
6x All-Star (1955-’60)

Statistics

NBA - 472 Games
19.2 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 1.7 APG, 42.2% FG, 78.0% FT
PPG Leader (1958)

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Larry Foust

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Larry Foust

Larry Foust

As I’ve said before, Larry Foust likely was never the best center in the NBA. If he ever was, it was during the 1954-55 campaign. He wasn’t the best at scoring, the best at rebounding, or the best defense. But if the Hall of Fame was predicated on only admitting the guys who were the best at what they did, we’d have some shockingly bare halls.

Larry Foust certainly was great, though. Great enough to deserve a vaunted spot in the Hall of Fame.

The big man from Philadelphia was an all-star six times with the Fort Wayne Pistons and twice with the Minneapolis Lakers. Between George Mikan early in his career, Neil Johnston in the middle, and Bill Russell at the end, Foust didn’t manage too many All-NBA teams, especially since there was no All-NBA 3rd Team back then. Still, he managed to carve out a selection on the All-NBA 2nd Team in 1952 and All-NBA 1st Team selection in 1955.

Foust certainly was not a ballerina on the court or an exemplar of grace. Pistons teammate Zeke Sincola recalled that Foust “had the worst hands of any center I’ve ever seen… Thank God Foust had a big body so he could get inside and get some layups.”  But he did have that big body and he did get near the hoop to make hoop deposits.

Foust’s career culminated in 1955 when shot a record 48.7% from the field for the regular season, led the NBA in win shares per 48 minutes, and, along with George Yardley, took the Pistons all the way to the NBA Finals. The Pistons lost that series to the Syracuse Nationals in the seventh game by one point. The next year, they returned to the Finals, with Foust again leading the NBA in WS/48, but again they lost. This time the defeat was to the Philadelphia Warriors in 5 games.

Foust’s career then took a tour to the Minneapolis Lakers for two final all-star caliber seasons and another defeat in the NBA Finals. This defeat came in 1959 as the Boston Celtics swept the upstart Lakers led by Elgin Baylor. After this crushing blow, Foust landed in St. Louis with the Hawks as their backup center retiring after the 1962 season. Two more Finals heartbreaks awaited Larry, though, as the Hawks lost to the Boston Celtics in 1960 and 1961 for the title.

Larry Foust could have been “5x NBA Champion Larry Foust”. But that’s a stretch. His teams very well could have taken the 1960, 1956, and 1955 NBA titles, though. “3x NBA Champion Larry Foust” still sounds pretty darn good.

The fact of the matter is, however, that “0x NBA Champion Larry Foust” is still a Hall of Famer, even if the one in Springfield doesn’t think so. You don’t make eight all-star games while scoring the 8th most points and grabbing the 2nd most rebounds for a decade in the NBA without securing a place in the ProHoopsHistory Hall of Fame.

Seasons Played: 1951 – 1962

 

Fort Wayne Pistons

Fort Wayne Pistons

Accolades

NBA –
All-NBA 1st Team (1955), All-NBA 2nd Team (1952)
8x All-Star (1951-’56, 1958-’59)

Statistics

NBA - 817 Games
13.7 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.7 apg, 40.5% FG, 74.1% FT
FG% Leader (1955)

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Arnie Risen

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Arnie Risen

Arnie Risen

Arnie Risen’s pro basketball career spanned 13 years that saw dramatic change in the sport. The NBA didn’t exist. Towns like Sheboygan were in the major leagues. Regulation games were 40 minutes long just like in college. And, of course, there was no shot clock. The game may have been different, but legends arise in any era and Arnie Risen is certainly a legend of the game.

He began his pro career with the Indianapolis Kautskys of the NBL. The Kautskys snagged Risen midway through the 1945-46 campaign after Arnie was dismissed from Ohio State for low grades. It was a fortunate occurrence for Indianapolis since Risen had been the anchor of two Final Four squads with the Buckeyes.

Stilts, as the tall Risen was called, didn’t last too long in Indy, however. The Rochester Royals bought Risen midway through the 1947-48 season from the Kautskys who were suffering financial difficulties. Loud cries of protest rose from other NBL clubs  since the transaction occurred a week after the league’s trade deadline. The transaction was nonetheless upheld and the upstate New York team, known for its fantastic guard play, now had a center to combat the mighty George Mikan of Minneapolis.

From 1948 to 1955, the Royals jumped from the NBL to the BAA to the NBA and boasted a spectacular 339 – 197 record along the way. Risen was instrumental in the success. His tough rebounding and stout defense, helped slow down opposing centers like Mikan. On offense, Risen was no less important.

In the 1951 playoffs, Risen and Mikan went toe-to-toe in the Western Division Finals. Big George scored 32 points and Stilts 26 in Game 4 of the series which the Royals won to finally dethrone the Lakers. In the next round, the Royals took on the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. Risen was amazing the entire series leading all players in points (21.7) and rebounds (14.2) per game. If Finals MVP awards existed at that point, Risen would have took home the honors as he led the Royals to their only NBA title.

Rochester slowly declined thereafter, but Risen continued his success appearing in the first four NBA all-star games. In 1955, the Royals endured their first losing season finally dismantled their squad selling Risen to the Boston Celtics after that season. Nearing basketball retirement, Risen was a sage influence for the NBA’s next dominating center, Bill Russell.

The NBA’s greatest winner credited Arnie Risen with helping him adjust from college to the more physical play of the NBA. Risen wasn’t entirely washed up just yet, though. In Game 7 of the 1957 Finals, Stilts summoned up one final moment of glory tossing in 16 points. Every single one of those points was needed as the Celtics barely survived 125 – 123 to defeat the St. Louis Hawks in double overtime to win their first title.

50 years later in 2007, that Celtics team reunited. Russell and Risen were just as chummy then as they were back in the 1950s. The affable Arnie had that kind of influence on people. One of the great players and great people in basketball history.

NBA Photos

NBA Photos

Seasons Played: 1946 – 1958

Accolades

NBL -
All-NBL 2nd Team (1947)

BAA -
All-BAA 2nd Team (1949)

NBA –
2x Champion (1951, 1957)
4x All-Star (1952-’55)

Statistics

NBL - 184 Games
13.1 PPG, 66.1% FT
15th All-Time in Points, 16th All-Time in FGs Made, 15th All-Time in FTs Made

BAA - 60 Games
16.6 PPG, 1.7 APG, 42.3% FG, 66.0% FT
FG% Leader (1949)

NBA - 577 Games
11.5 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.7 APG, 37.5% FG, 70.5% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Carl Braun

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Carl Braun

Carl Braun

At 6’5″, Carl Braun was the first great shooting guard to be of such immense height. Not until Oscar Robertson in the early 1960s would such a tall player man be so instrumental at guard.

And Braun was certainly an instrument of offensive destruction.

Braun’s career began in the 1947-48 BAA season. In just his 11th professional game, Braun erupted for 47 points against the Providence Steamrollers as his New York Knicks devastated the opponent 114 to 85. Braun’s outburst was a new record mark for points in a single game. Along the way he also set marks for field goals made in a game (18) and points scored in one half (31).

Braun’s pro career was interrupted by two years of military service in 1951 and 1952. Upon his return it became quite clear he didn’t miss a beat. In fact he returned better than he was before his duty with Uncle Sam. Still with the New York Knicks, but now in the NBA, Braun’s field goal percentage (33% to 40%) and free throw  percentage (71% to 82%) rose quite respectably.This improvement allowed Braun to score the same amount of points (his average always hovered around 15 PPG), but on fewer shots.

The fewer shots still came on Braun’s patented, peculiar over-the-head style:

Carl Braun (The Palm Beach Post)

Carl Braun (The Palm Beach Post)

This efficiency also allowed Braun to became more and more of a facilitator on offense. His assists jumped from a mediocre 1.3 in 1948 to 5.5 by 1958, which was good enough for 5th  in the NBA that season. This increasing shift from shooting guard to point guard for Braun can be explained by his teammates. Early in his career he had the fortune of playing off of the great point guard Dick McGuire. Later in his career, he played alongside the scoring machine Richie Guerin.

Although he captured an NBA title in 1962 during his lone season with the Boston Celtics, Braun spent every other year of his career with the New York Knicks. He helped guide New York to the NBA Finals in 1953 where they lost to George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers.That was the last time New York made the Finals until 1970.

Braun routinely had the touch to propel the Knickerbockers to last-second victories. In March 1950, he nailed a long-range set shot to down the St. Louis Bombers in overtime. While in January 1954, he made only one basket in a game, but it happened to be the last one and defeated the Philadelphia Warriors.

The examples of Braun nailing end-of-the-game buckets go on and on.

When he left the Knicks he was their all-time leader in points, games played, minutes played and field goals made. He also staked out a second-place claim on free throws made and assists dished. Braun’s prime-time play is now 60 years in the past, yet, he still remains high up in the Knicks’ leader board: games (4th), minutes (9th), field goals (7th), free throws (5th), assists (4th), and points (5th).

His shooting style may have been over-the-head, but Braun’s career still remains under-the-radar.

Seasons Played: 1948 – 1950; 1953 – 1962

Accolades

BAA -
All-BAA 2nd Team (1949)

NBA –
Champion (1962)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1950), 5x All-Star (1953-’57)

Statistics

BAA - 104 Games
14.2 PPG, 2.3 APG, 32.7% FG, 71.6% FT

NBA - 684 Games
13.4 PPG, 3.9 APG, 3.4 RPG, 39.5% FG, 81.7% FT

Former LaSalle player John Grauer on Philly Basketball in the 1950s

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cjelli (flickr)

cjelli (flickr)

Philadelphia has been the stomping grounds of some of basketball’s greatest players. Wilt Chamberlain, Guy Rodgers, Rasheed Wallace, Larry Foust, Tom Gola, and Paul Arizin just to name a few notables. This week I was fortunate to get in touch with one of these Philly basketball players, John Grauer.

Grauer left a remarkable comment on my article encouraging Larry Foust’s induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Grauer played alongside men like Foust, Arizin and Gola back in the late 1940s and 1950s and graduated from LaSalle in 1954.

The following are his insights on playing basketball back in the 1950s and how the game has evolved, which I’ve only edited for formatting here on this site.

On knowing Fort Wayne Pistons star and LaSalle legend, Larry Foust:

 I was Larry’s sub at [LaSalle] in 49-50, his senior year. We made the NIT, beat Arizona and lost to Duquesne–Chuck Cooper On the way back to the hotel, Larry was very despondent and I said to him, “Larry you will be playing well after everyone else will be long gone and forgotten”. Larry died young [56 years old in 1986] and I went from Philly to Pittsburgh for the funeral and met his family of giants, including a 7 foot son who was a fisherman in Newport RI

On the game’s evolution:

Rules have changed or the interpretation thereof; I guess to accommodate the great athletes–particularly the black guys that can jump thru the roof. In the NBA [today,] it is football in short pants–without the pads—I don’t know how there are not more serious injuries. Basketball was a game of finesse in the [1940s and 1950s] area–except under the boards. Now it is very physical all over the court as well as brainy.

Of course, other rules have changed too…

the block in the lane which was a charge, palming the ball–could not have your hand on the bottom half of the ball; moving the pivot foot, walking with the ball, moving pick; i.e., the picker had to remain rigid or else–cost me a broken nose in HS as I did not move when I should have for safety’s sake!!

Grauer beats out Hall of Famer Paul Arizin for the high school team:

Paul Arizin (all time NBA team) as a senior at La Salle HS did not make the team. I did [as a sophomore]. Also, Nick Maguire, later capt of Villanova did not either–another soph did–we won everything in [sight] anyway–City championship was held before the largest crowd ever at  a sporting event in PA. Nick and [Arizin] were lifelong friends from South Philly. Our center later went to Villanova and was [Arizin]‘s sub!!! Just like Larry Foust and Charlie Share of [Bowling Green] as I told you.

Philadelphia being fertile ground for talent in the 1940s and 1950s:
Another irony in my time–my high school ( La Salle college HS in Philly) was a basketball powerhouse and we and other Catholic and public schools furnished most of the players in the “Big Five” (wasn’t called that then). That too has changed—see Villanova–not many Philly players in the last several decades. Arizin’s great team of 47-50 was all Philly staffed. I can still name them.

Penn was always an exception, but Ernie Beck, All American from Phila West Catholic starred in the 50′s.
Today, the NCAA tournament is hailed as the premier college basketball tournament. However, for many years, the NIT tournament was the tournament college kids preferred to play in:
The local Philly newspapers resurrected LSU from the basketball dead recently and had several stories about the ’54 NCAA team and one in particular concerning the desire of the team to go to the NIT (Madison Sq GDN for the whole tournament–real fun and glamour!!) as opposed to the NCAA held in different arenas where your fans could not attend.
Note that the great LaSalle squad mentioned by Grauer that won a college title in 1954 won the NCAA title, not the NIT. What gives?
Little do they know that this was conscious choice of the AD and the coach–who had the choice as [Tom] Gola was the star attraction in the field.  4-time All-American and still holds the college record for total rebounds, 2200. The reason they chose the NCAA was Niagara who had two of the soon to be black jumping jacks that were to permeate the court (Louisville under Denny Crum being a prime example). So when Niagara chose the NIT, LSU chose the NCAA–simple as that. Less than 10 people know that story. It’s true–from the co-captain, a life long friend.
For what it’s worth that Niagara team made it to the NIT semifinals that year. Meanwhile, Grauer had joined the Marines and was now married:

After [LaSalle] loss to Niagara mid season 53-54, the coach asked me to return to the team.

I could rebound. My wife was pregnant and told him to see the AD and get me money and I would get in shape.
Nothing ever happened and I lost the chance twice to be a member of a national championship team; ’52 NIT champs ( was in the Marines) and ’54.
Gola’s ’55 team lost in the finals to San Fran with Bill Russell and KC Jones–who guarded Gola in the final and shut him down pretty good as I recall.
Finally, Grauer may never have played in the NBA, but he did play against the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors:
the ’50 LSC team scrimmaged the Philadelphia Warriors – held our own, but I think the Warriors wanted a look at Larry Foust to see how he would do in the NBA
I’d like to express my sincere appreciation for Mr. Grauer sharing some of his memories playing alongside and against players who I’ve only been able to admire via stat sheets, still photographs, and published books. His first-hand accounts have given wonderful insight and better understanding of how basketball was 60 years ago.
Plus, I really enjoyed how he explained Hall of Famer Tom Gola usurping his spot on the LaSalle squad:
[I] went into the USMC after sop[h]omore yr. Returned to play and Tom Gola was the center – result – end of career