The NBA in the 50's is a whole different world compare to the NBA today. The teams didn't have the money to own a stadium so most of them had to play in the ice hockey stadium. Not only did the players played in the ice hockey stadium, they also brought the "fighting" habit in ice hockey on the court. Norm Drucker from the Royals in 1957 said, "In the early time, every team has a professional hatchet man. He would get into the fight whenever the shit went down." Donald "Don" Barksdale" Angelo's experience sounded more horrifying, He said that when he first played for the Celtics in early 50's, he found that almost every player has a little boxing lying in their closet. He asked the assistant coach," What are these boxes for?" The Assistant coach answered,"Those are for dentures." In the mid 50's, half of the NBA players didn't have incisors. "You can't even call yourself a professional player if you haven't had blood on your elbow." said George Mikan. Mikan,one of the top centers in the NBA history, has had 169 stitches in his entire career. In the first match he played for minneapolis, he got beat up because he dribbled for too long. He even complained to his teammates Jim Pollard after the match saying, "They almost killed me!"
Some of you might ask,"Where is the referee?" or "Why didn't the referee stop the fight?" Well. The Chairman of NBA David Stern has answered this question before,"In the 50's and 60's? If there is a fight, the referees will let the players settle the issue. They will stop them only if the situation is about to get out of control." And then, the aggressor will get a 25 dollars tickets. This might sound like a boxing bout instead of a basketball game to you but that's how it is in the 50's. Once Bob Ferry broke Walt Hazzard's 3 ribs and guess what? Only a 25 dollars ticket for Bob.
Picture sources: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/373668-the-10-most-kick-ass-brawls-in-sports-history
http://randommax.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/206558.png
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/petrige01.html
Interesting post about sports during the 1950's. I think sports should return to a time like this. Where people dont just play it to make money. They play it because they truly love the sport they play. I never knew that there were many fights in the NBA back then. If that occurred today that would be a big deal as these athletes are looked up to as "role models". And I say "role models" with a grain of salt. Good job though Stephan!
ReplyDeleteIt is a very interesting post about NBA's history, I have no idea that NBA in the 50s was that violent and intense. Also, I am glad it didn't happened in todays's basketball game because I want to watch basketball, not boxing.
ReplyDeleteOk, Stephen. But you need to proofread for grammar and usage. Also, accuracy is important. You made it sound like it was only in the old days that basketball was played in hockey arenas. But it is still true today (or the other way around, depending on your P.O.V.).
ReplyDeleteIn the body of the post you never cite your sources, and the links do not provide support for the stories you tell. You indicate that Norm Drucker was a player in 1957, but the link says he was a referee from 1953 on. What is right?
Hey steve you know I already loved this idea you had an I thought it was very interesting. I had no idea that basketball was that physical back then and I love watching basketball so i found it enjoyable to read and when you say how they all had incisors was interesting and I did not realize how physical the NBA was back in the 50's. Interesting article and I love the way you wrote it.
ReplyDeleteGood blog Steve, I obvioulsy think this is a very interesting topic due to the fact that I love sports. The most interesting thing to me was that there was so much tussling going on in the NBA. As you know today the NBA is very strict with their rules and I was astonished to find out that fightingg was actually a big part of the game.
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