Basketball History 101

 Earl Monroe is not only one of the greatest players in NBA history, but he also gained two distinct nicknames: “The Pearl,” and “Black Jesus.” The first one he received during his college days, but the second he earned for his flashy style of play on the blacktop courts. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Editor, producer, and publisher   MUSIC "Disco Funk...

 During the barnstorming days of basketball (1920s-1940s), it was crucial that a team stand out. While one way was just to dominate all competition, another was to showcase a particular aspect that was unique to the team. In a similar fashion to modern-day professional wrestlers, many barnstorming teams tried to tell a narrative of sorts, even if it meant playing up racial stereotypes. It was a s...

Once again, we here at BBH.101 have a more personal story to tell about basketball history. Rick and Steve Nash attended Santa Clara University together, and one day the Cleveland Cavaliers held a practice at the school's gym. Seeing his opportunity to prove himself, Nash started firing off shots in front of the Cleveland coach. Rick, who was friendly with him, decided to jump in and help out by g...

One of the early NBA superstars, Dolph Schayes straddled two different eras of basketball. Before the invention of the shot clock, Schayes dominated the NBA, but once it was introduced he only soared to even greater heights. A twelve-time All-Star and the first player to score 15,000 career points, the man had a motor that never seemed to quit. With his jersey now retired in the rafters of the 76e...

 In celebration of the 100th episode of BBH.101, we wanted to share the story of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. While this game is certainly not forgotten from the annals of basketball history, it seemed appropriate for the episode. But Wilt hardly set his single-game scoring record alone. It took the rest of the Philadelphia Warriors team to give him assists and set screens for him to get op...

 The committee that selects the teams for March Madness has an enormous job to do every year. Those 10 members have to watch as much college basketball as possible, taking notes on every game they watch. In early March, they convene to select the 68 teams invited to play in the tournament. This is the story of that process.. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Ed...

 The International Federation of Basketball (FIBA) is, at first glance, an organization designed to oversee basketball on a global level. But how did it rise to the position it holds today? What authority does it actually have? Most importantly, how has FIBA affected the game of basketball throughout the years? Rick tackles these questions and more as he unpacks the history of this organization....

 The 2022 NBA Finals feature two of three original NBA teams that still play today. The Warriors, Celtics, and Knicks were part of the NBA for the first season in 1946-47. But what happened to the other 8 teams from that first season? This is the story Rick shares with us today. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Editor, producer, and publisher   MUSIC "Hor...

 Bill Sharman is one of only five people to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame twice, once as a player and once as a coach. He went to 8 NBA All-Star Games, coached his teams to championships in three different leagues, and played baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers for a time as well. He was simply one of the greatest athletes in history. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, an...

 Even accounting for inflation, today's NBA players make 800x as much as their 1946 counterparts did when the league was formed. The average annual salary in the NBA today is $6.4 million! While it is not uncommon for professional athletes to make the money most Americans only dream of, we here at BBH.101 decided to tackle the question of exactly how their paychecks came to be at the level they a...

 1991 was the only year that Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan faced each other in the NBA finals, and unlike most stories on this podcast, this one is told from the first person. Host Rick Loayza was at Game 3 of those very Finals as a teenager and recounts his experience that day at The Forum in Southern California. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Editor, pr...

 Bob Pettit, despite being a little-known name nowadays, had a basketball career absolutely saturated with achievements. He was, for a time, the all-time leading scorer in NBA history; he was the first person to reach 20,000 career points; he is still the third greatest rebounder in NBA history; he won the All-Star game MVP trophy four times; and he won the very first overall MVP trophy the NBA e...

When the Soviet Union collapsed on December 26, 1991, the many individual republics hurried to create their new governments. One of these new nations was Lithuania, home to some of the greatest European basketball players of the time -- and the 1992 Olympics were fast approaching. Its government was so preoccupied with just trying to exist that it nearly was unable to register itself as an officia...

Wat Misaka was not only the first Japanese player in the NBA, not only the first Asian player in the NBA, but the first all-around non-white player in the NBA. In addition, he joined shortly after World War II, where the United States had just fought and defeated Japan, the nation his parents had emigrated from! Although he was cut from the league after only three games, Misaka broke incredibly im...

With the exception of the formation of the game where Naismith had nine players vs. nine players, the game, within only a few years, had become entirely 5v5 -- except for the Iowan high school girls. Featuring a unique 6v6 style of play, each team had three forwards and three guards. The forwards played solely in the front court and the guards solely in the back. Neither group was allowed to cross...

 Few men in history have ever worn "cool" as well as Walt "Clyde" Frazier did. From his style of play to the cars he drove to the clothes he wore, the man was so cool that his presence could freeze ice cream left out in 90-degree heat. Clyde quite literally wrote the book on cool, entitled Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool. Rarely seen without his signature stylish wide-brimmed fedor...

 Few sports matches in history can boast that they were played over the course of two different years, yet this game can. We here at BBH.101 have affectionately nicknamed it The Box Score of Chaos, not only because the first two-thirds was played in 1978 and the last third was played in 1979, but because three of the players are credited with statistics for both the teams involved! This is the st...

Just three high school coaches have ever been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and one of those is Bob Hurley. Despite only coaching at a small private Catholic school in New Jersey, Hurley sent over 150 players to Division I college programs and half a dozen to the NBA. In addition, he never took any payment for his coaching or speaking engagements over his 40+ years in the rol...

 HOLD ON FOR ONE QUICK SECOND! As many of you will remember, over the past few months, we here at Basketball History 101 had a message at the beginning of our episodes asking you to vote our podcast for the Best Basketball Podcast award in the first annual Sports Podcast Awards. We were facing off against one-time defensive player of the year Michael Cooper's podcast, hall-of-fame coach George Ka...

A member of the NBA's 75 List, Dave Bing is definitely one of the greatest NBA players of all time. A contemporary of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, he was an incredible scorer and team player. Even after retirement from basketball, he started a legitimate steel processing company and became an award-winning businessman. Despite all of this, however, he is so rarely talked about today. In hope...

On January 14, 1964, the Boston Garden was set to host the first televised All-Star Game -- a monetary breakthrough for the NBA! Featuring such basketball giants as Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain, this was to be one of the greatest All-Star matchups in NBA history... That is, until all 21 players refused to take the court until the owners agreed to formally recogni...

Prior to the creation of the NBA, there was no good method of determining who was the greatest basketball team. Therefore, the World Professional Basketball Tournament was organized annually, and although it only lasted a decade, it allowed the greatest teams to compete against one another for the title of World Champion. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Editor...

Wes Unseld was severely undersized for being an NBA center, standing at a height of only 6'6". Despite this, he reached league MVP while still in his rookie year and later became a five-time All-Star. Now in the Hall of Fame, Unseld overcame long odds to become one of the best players in NBA history. CREDITS Rick Loayza: Head researcher, writer, and voice Jacob Loayza: Editor, producer, and publis...

Breaking from tradition today, Rick tells two stories of some of the greatest dunks in basketball history. All great dunks have names, and these two are no exceptions. The Lister Blister was performed by Shawn Kemp of the Seattle SuperSonics when he windmill jammed over the head of Golden State's Alton Lister, and Le Dunk de la Mort, or The Dunk of Death, was tomahawked by Vince Carter over French...

Wilt Chamberlain and Lew Alcindor began their relationship as great friends with Wilt playing the big brother to Lew. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when Lew, now going by the more recognizable name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, joined the NBA. While Wilt was much older, their careers overlapped by a few years -- and Kareem began to outplay his friend. Slowly but surely, jealousy crept...