|
RECALLING HEBREW HOOPSTERS
David
Vyorst was surprised to learn a few years ago that a Jewish guy, Knick
Ossie Schectman, scored the first basket in the BAA, the precursor to
the NBA. Now he's using that first hoop in 1946 as the opening to his
documentary film about Jews and basketball. Even though there have been
exactly zero Jewish players in the NBA since Danny Schayes retired a
few years ago, there's a rich tradition for Vyorst to examine for his
film, The First Basket, which is nearing completion.
Several of Schectman's teammates were Jewish, as were many other
players during the era of semi-professional basketball and the early
years of the pro game. For Vyorst, a native of Long Island, basketball
is more than just a game: "It's part of the way the Jewish
community became Americans." After 1950-when the basketball color
line was broken and Jews moved out to the suburbs in droves-the number
of Jewish pro players declined. But in the pre-NBA days, one of the
most successful teams was the SPHAs of the South Philadelphia Hebrew
Association, which won several championships in the old American
Basketball League of the '30s and '40s. It was a rough-and-tumble time.
Players competed on two or three teams for $8 to $10 a game. Many
Jewish players anglicized their names to avoid anti-Semitism. But the
players Vyorst interviewed for the film, which he hopes to release next
year, remember the era fondly. "Basketball was our religion,"
says Hank Rosenstein, one of Schectman's teammates. Jews also filled
the lanes on "club squads"-the International Ladies Garment
Workers Union and Macy's both sponsored teams, Vyorst says. "If
you live in a tenement on the Lower East Side," he explains,
"you're not going to play polo." - Peter Ephross
|
