The ANNOTICO Report
A monument was unveiled in downtown Syracuse, NY,
50 years after Danny Biasone, one of the NBA's founding fathers, and an
owner of the Syracuse Nationals from 1946-63 introduced the 24 second clock
to Basketball.
Basketball Legends Dolph Shayes, John Havlicek and Bill
Walton were there Saturday to pay homage.
Dolph Schayes remembers,"Before the clock, there was
no game at all, It would get into the second half, and the team that was
ahead would just kill the ball, and then you'd have to foul. Then they
would foul you, and the game would deteriorate. The game stunk! It was
a march from one foul line to the other. Something had to be done."
"This game would have perished a long time ago," said
Havlicek, who starred for the Celtics three decades ago.
"It was the most important rule in the history of basketball,"
said Walton, who starred in college at UCLA in the early 1970s and won
NBA titles with Boston and Portland. "This is one of the most important
days in the history of the game.
The Pre Celebration took place on March 9th, when the
Golden State Warriors played an NBA game in Philadelphia, whose 76ers moved
there from Syracuse in 1963. To honor that heritage, the 76ers wore "throwback"
Nats jerseys. At halftime, basketball Hall of Famers Dolph Schayes and
Earl Lloyd - both former Nats - were honored on the 50th anniversary of
the only NBA championship won by a team from Syracuse. Schayes, was one
of the elite players in league history, and Lloyd, a power forward was
the first African-American to set foot in an NBA game.
Thanks to Leon Radomile, author of "Heritage-Italian
American Style"
Sports Illustrated
Associated Press
By John Kekis, AP Sports Writer
Sat March 26, 2005
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Dolph Schayes will never forget what
basketball was like before Danny Biasone and Leo Ferris transformed it
with the shot clock.
"Before the clock, there was no game at all," Schayes
said Saturday at the unveiling of a monument in downtown Syracuse to the
24-second clock. "It would get into the second half, and the team that
was ahead would just kill the ball, and then you'd have to foul. Then they
would foul you, and the game would deteriorate. The game stunk! It was
a march from one foul line to the other. Something had to be done."
It was — on a sweltering day in August 1954. Biasone,
one of the NBA's founding fathers as owner of the Syracuse Nationals from
1946-63, and Ferris, his general manager, introduced their 24-second version
in a scrimmage in a small gym at Biasone's alma mater — Blodgett Vocational
High School in Syracuse.
Among those in the stands were renowned coaches Red Auerbach
and Clair Bee. They watched as Schayes, star of the Nats and the league's
first true power forward, and a handful of other NBA players tried to get
off decent shots.
Biasone and Ferris arrived at a 24-second limit by dividing
the number of seconds in a 48-minute game (2,880) by the average number
of shots taken in a game (120). Biasone, who scribbled his ideas on napkins
and the backs of bowling sheets, theorized that teams would use the entire
time to shoot, so he figured they would still average 60 shots but play
a faster game.
League officials were quickly sold on the idea, first
suggested by former Oregon and Yale coach Howard Hobson, and turned the
shot clock into a rule. The players adjusted in a heartbeat, drawing new
fans to a league that had been fighting to survive. Scoring jumped by almost
14 points a game in the 1954-55 season.
There would be no more games like the one in 1950 that
saw the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. Or one three
years later in which the Nats took just three shots in the fourth quarter.
And adept ballhandlers like Boston Celtics guard Bob Cousy would no longer
take more than 30 free throws in a game.
"Michael Jordan and the 24-second clock were made for
each other," said Schayes, now 76. "Without the 24-second clock, would
there have been a Michael Jordan? Would there have been a John Havlicek?
Would there have been a Bill Walton? Of course not."
Havlicek and Walton were there Saturday to pay homage.
"This game would have perished a long time ago," said
Havlicek, who starred for the Celtics three decades ago.
"It was the most important rule in the history of basketball,"
said Walton, who starred in college at UCLA in the early 1970s and won
NBA titles with Boston and Portland. "I've always been the biggest fan
of the 24-second clock. This is one of the most important days in the history
of the game because it credits the evolution, and it credits the teaching..."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/
nba/03/26/bc.bkn.shotclockmonumen.ap/
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