Adolph Schayes

        Pro Star

 

Professional basketball has leaped from fumbling obscurity to national importance and in the process the great hoop stars have become as famous as baseball players and heavyweight boxing champions. In the days when the Original Celtics, with Nat Holman and other Jewish stars, played basketball for money, there was no television, there were no glowing newspaper reports and no large arenas where many thousands could come to watch the wizardry and ballhandling of the famous quintet. Nightly stands in grubby towns kept the professional game obscure. Today, it is different. TV has invaded the pro game and basketball stars, extraordinarily tall, limber and lithe, are national heroes.

In the emergence of the game as a big-time sport, it seems odd that Jewish players are most notable by their absence. When Harry Boykoff was a professional star, Jewish basketball players were prominent in college ranks. But at that time the professional game was of minor importance. In recent years, however, there have not been many Jewish courtmen, either in college ranks or in professional circles.

There is one athlete who will go down in history as one of the finest in the annals of professional basketball and at this writing ranks as the best of all Jewish basketball