On Nov. 1, 1946, one year after the end of World War II, the New York Knickerbockers and Toronto Huskies tipped off at Maple Leaf Gardens. Ossie Schectman, a Queens native born to Jewish immigrants from Russia, scored the first official basket of the BAA, as the NBA was known at the time. Schectman only played one season, but he started a Jewish legacy that is still present today.
After Schectman, it continued with stars including Dolph Schayes, Art Heyman and Ernie Grunfeld. On Hanukkah, we celebrate the eight greatest Jewish players to pick up an NBA basketball.
There are a number of Jewish-American basketball legends -- most notably Nat Holman -- who are regarded as collegiate and professional superstars before the founding of the NBA. Considering these players have few or no stats to use for comparison, they are omitted here. Also, Jewish coaches and executives such as Red Auerbach, Red Holzman and Larry Brown (who was on the 1964 U.S. Olympic team and led the ABA in assists three times) were judged solely on their on-court play and thus missed the cut. For the record, Neal Walk would have been No. 9 on the list, so he can blame that on Hanukkah having only eight nights.
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