It was Nov. 1, 1946, and Ossie Schectman of the New York Knicks took a bounce pass and scored on a two-handed underhand layup. Schectman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, had just scored the first basket in NBA history.
The Knicks won that night at the Maple Leaf Gardens arena, defeating the Toronto Huskies 68-66. More than 7,000 spectators were there for the inaugural game of the Basketball Association of America. The league became the National Basketball Association three years later.
Six members of the Knicks' original roster, including Schectman, were Jewish. That was no coincidence. For much of the early 20th century, basketball was widely regarded as a Jewish game.
The reason can be traced to the immigrant neighborhoods of New York and Philadelphia. Millions of Jews arrived from Eastern Europe beginning in the 1880s, often settling in neighborhoods with little open space and scant money to spend on recreation. Baseball required a field and equipment. Basketball needed little more than a ball, a hoop and a schoolyard.
Jewish community organizations, schools and settlement houses, which provided immigrants with educational and recreational opportunities, put together basketball teams. Local rivalries attracted enthusiastic followings.
Barney "Tiny" Sedran, born to Russian Jewish immigrants, wasn't tall enough to make his high-school team but played at a settlement house. He went on to become a professional star in the 1910s and 1920s. At 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, Sedran remains the shortest player ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
By the 1930s, Jewish players had become dominant in college basketball. In 1934, when two undefeated teams, New York University and City College of New York, played, nine of the 10 starters were Jewish. Demand for tickets was so great that during the following season, promoters began staging double-headers at Madison Square Garden.
Nat Holman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, coached City College at the time. Holman toured with the Original Celtics in the 1920s and was considered one of the decade's greatest players. In 1950 he guided City College to both the National College Athletic Association and the National Invitation Tournament, or NIT, championships—a feat no other men's college team has matched. (In 1953 the NCAA barred teams from entering multiple postseason tournaments.)
One of Holman's best players, Moe Goldman, went straight from City College to the Philadelphia SPHAs, a professional team named for the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association. The SPHA's largely Jewish team wore uniforms with Hebrew letters across the chest. Its Saturday night games at Philadelphia's Broadwood Hotel drew crowds who stayed to dance afterward. Between 1933 and 1946, the SPHAs won seven American Basketball League championships.
Eddie Gottlieb, a Jewish immigrant born in Kyiv, was the driving force behind the team. He helped establish the SPHAs and spent years coaching, recruiting players and promoting games. Gottlieb helped found the BAA in 1946 and coached the Philadelphia Warriors to the league's first championship the following year. In 1949, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League to form the NBA. Maurice Podoloff, another Russian Jewish immigrant, was the league's first president.
Gottlieb, who was known as "Mr. Basketball," later became owner of the Warriors and spent decades drawing up the NBA schedule by hand. The league named its Rookie of the Year trophy in honor of him, a distinction that lasted until 2022.
The Syracuse Nationals were among the teams that joined the NBA through the 1949 merger. Their star player was Dolph Schayes, the Bronx-born son of Romanian Jews. Schayes recalled that when his mother told an aunt he intended to play professionally, the aunt questioned whether basketball was a suitable career for a "nice Jewish boy." Schayes later became a 12-time NBA All-Star and led the Nationals to the 1955 championship.
In Boston, Red Auerbach, whose Jewish father emigrated from Russia, coached the Celtics to nine NBA championships between 1957 and 1966.
That prominence, however, didn't shield Jewish coaches or players from antisemitism. Ralph Kaplowitz, a member of the 1946 Knicks, recalled opposing fans heckling Jewish players: "Abe, throw it to Abe."
Over time, the Jewish presence in professional basketball diminished. The sport initially paid too little to provide a secure livelihood. As immigrant families prospered and moved to the suburbs, their children had ample career opportunities. The league itself was changing, too. The NBA began racial integration in 1950 and increasingly drew talent from a wider range of backgrounds.
But Jewish players haven't disappeared entirely. Omri Casspi, a retired player, became the first Israeli to play in the league in 2009. This year, Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers was the first Israeli named an NBA All-Star. And the Brooklyn Nets currently have two Jewish players, Danny Wolf and Ben Saraf.
In 1946 the rise of professional basketball wasn't inevitable. Eighty years later, the NBA is a global phenomenon with millions of fans. Yet few of them know how much the sport owes to the Jewish players, coaches and entrepreneurs who helped get basketball off the ground. The league ought to give these pioneers the recognition they deserve.