Harry “Bucky” Lew (1884-1963) was basketball’s first Black professional player, >breaking the color barrier in 1902 in the New England Basketball League (NEBL) with the , and went on to become the first Black coach, manager, referee, and franchise owner in the sport. Despite early racial resistance, he became a star known for his defense and passing, later owning and playing for his own Lowell-based teams, and inspiring later integration efforts in sports decades later.
Quote From Harry Lew:
. . . all those things you read about Jackie Robinson, the abuse, the name-calling, extra effort to put him down . . . they’re all true. I got the same treatment and even worse. Basketball was a rough game then. I took the bumps, the elbows in the gut, knees here and everything else that went with it. But I gave it right back. It was rough but worth it. Once they knew I could take it, I had it made. Some of those same boys who gave the hardest licks turned out to be among my best friends in the years that followed.”
“The finest players in the country were in that league just before it disbanded and I always wound up playing our opponent’s best shooter,” Lew said. “I like to throw from outside but wasn’t much around the basket.”
“Of course, we had no backboards in those days and everything had to go in clean. Naturally, there was no rebounding and after a shot there was a brawl to get the ball. There were no out-of-bounds markers. We had a fence around the court with nets hanging from the ceilings. The ball was always in play and you were guarded from the moment you touched it. Hardly had time to breathe, let alone think about what you were going to do with the ball.
Below is an entire interesting Wikipedia article on Harry Buck Lew.
1909 The First Basketball Trading Card
The last contender, and most widely accepted as the first true basketball card, is the 1909 T51 Murad college first series release for Williams College. The Murad set was produced by S. Anargyros Tobacco Company and released in their packs of Murad Turkish Cigarettes between 1909-1912. The first marketing baof autographed baskettball memorabilia can be attributed to Bucky Lew.
The best basketball players of the 1920s were headlined by Nat Holman, regarded as the era’s premier all-around player and a star for the Original Celtics, alongside prolific scorer Bennie Borgmann. Other dominant figures included defensive specialists Dutch Dehnert and Joe Lapchick, plus college standouts like Paul Endacott.
Key Players of the 1920s:
Nat Holman (“Mr. Basketball”): Regarded as the best all-around player, known for his elite shooting, passing, and floor leadership with the Original Celtics.
Bennie Borgmann: One of the greatest scorers of his generation,, capturing numerous scoring titles in various leagues.
Dutch Dehnert: A standout with the Original Celtics, recognized for pioneering the pivot play and exceptional defensive skills.
Joe Lapchick: Renowned as one of the best centers of the era and a key member of the dominant Celtics team.
Paul Endacott: A star at the University of Kansas, named Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1923.
Vern Corbin: A standout college player for Cal, earning All-America honors in 1928.
These players established the foundation for professional basketball, with many playing for the touring Original Celtics, which dominated the era’s basketball landscape
A good understanding of how professional basketball teams operated and made money in the 1910 to 1930 time period can be found in a review of the N.Y. Celtics, no relationship to the Boston Celtics.
The Original N.Y Celtics in were a barnstorming professional American basketball team. At various times in their existence, the team played in the American Basketball League, the Eastern Basketball League and the Metropolitan Basketball League. ………………… The N.Y. Celtic’s roots lay in the New York Celtics team that disbanded during World War I. In 1918, James Furey assembled his own team around a nucleus of those truly “original” Celtics, adding other players mostly from the West Side of New York City, and defiantly called his new squad the Original Celtics.
Initially, they played in various struggling professional leagues, before becoming primarily a touring squad, which traveled up to 150,000 miles a year while completing a 150–200 game schedule. They won about ninety percent of their games and finished 1922–23 with the unbelievable record of 193–11–1.
The team’s first dominant players were “Dutch” Dehnert, a 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) standing guard who some credit with introducing the modern concept of pivot play. and Nate Holman.
… … … the team took over the Atlantic City franchise when it was 4–7 and won five of six games before the Eastern League folded in January, 1923.
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They also competed in the Metropolitan League but dropped out of the league during the 1st half after going 12–0.
Other outstanding individual players on these squads were “big man”, Joe Lapchick; John Beckman, George “Horse” Haggerty; John “Pete” Barry; and speedy Davey Banks.
1925–1930: ABL Dominates
American Basketball League owners proclaimed league success during the League meeting inthe summer of 1926.
But ABL directors banned the league from playing games against the N.Y. Celtics, drying up some of their most lucrative exhibition dates.
The Celtics joined the newly organized National Basketball League. The new league operated solely in and around the metropolitan New York City, but despite its geographical limitations was stocked with some of the best players in the country. After pulling off a coup by signing the Original Celtics, the NBL brashly raided ABL rosters for additional players.
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Top stars of this era were: Rody Cooney, Teddy Kearns and Bob Grody, George Preston Marshall, Elmer Ripley and Tillie Voss.
Notable players: Rusty Saunders, Ray Kennedy and George Glasco, Cookie Cunningham Gil Ely., George Artus, Tom Barlow, Stretch Meehan, Soup Campbell, and Chickie Passon, Benny Borgmann, Honey Russell,
The Celtics easily disposed of the weakened Cleveland team in three straight games to take the ABL championship.
The rival leagues ABL and NBL fought each other for the best players and teams
in order to stay in business.
In 1926, the American Basketball League, the ABL, exercised their dominance and took control of professional East Coast – Mid West Basketball.
In 1929 everything changed in the entire world, game attendance plummeted and, further deflated by the Great Depression, the ABL folded after the 1931 season.
New York Celtics Video/Film footage 1929
The best basketball players of the 1920s were headlined by Nat Holman, regarded as the era’s premier all-around player and a star for the Original Celtics, alongside prolific scorer Bennie Borgmann. Other dominant figures included defensive specialists Dutch Dehnert and Joe Lapchick, plus college standouts like Paul Endacott.
Key Players of the 1920s:
Nat Holman (“Mr. Basketball”): Regarded as the best all-around player, known for his elite shooting, passing, and floor leadership with the Original Celtics.
Bennie Borgmann: One of the greatest scorers of his generation,, capturing numerous scoring titles in various leagues.
Dutch Dehnert: A standout with the Original Celtics, recognized for pioneering the pivot play and exceptional defensive skills.
Joe Lapchick: Renowned as one of the best centers of the era and a key member of the dominant Celtics team.
Paul Endacott: A star at the University of Kansas, named Helms Foundation Player of the Year in 1923.
Vern Corbin: A standout college player for Cal, earning All-America honors in 1928.
These players established the foundation for professional basketball, with many playing for the touring Original Celtics, which dominated the era’s basketball landscape
There were a limited number of surviving films/videos of the game of basketball from 1982 beyond the 20’s. The video with female playes is believed to be the earliest surviving footage in 1909. Notice rims with nets.
We have mostly only photographs to see what the game of basketball looked like. until 1940.
There are quite a few surviving audio clips about basketball during the early 20th century. They are difficult to obtain.
The earliest known film/video of a complete basketball game is from a doubleheader at Madison Square Garden in 1939. See this film footage of the first profession game being recorded on film below.
Between 1930- 45 the depression and WW II did not help professional basketball expand. Nevertheless, The War did amazingly help the game grow globally as hundreds of thousands of internationally stationed military men played basketball in numerous countries 1941 until today.
This period saw basketball have a global popularity boom as the local populations began to enjoy watching and especially playing the game of basketball.
Until the 1930 ‘s film/video/ the game of basketball wasn’t available. Sound recordings were limited. Below is believed to be the first complete basketball game on film.
Prior to 1930, everything we know was passed on by personal voice of those that lived it, audio recordings, limited short visual video/film clips,
We also have the writings. Unfortunately, the death of the aging generation of early basketball has eliminated the word of mouth.
But by the 1940′ we start to see a decent amount of film on teaching and of the actual games
Below we get into a little thought the thirty’s … …
The league (NBA) began in the late 1946. The majority of players who played basketball during that decade continued their career into the 1950s.
Between 1939 – 45 , during the World War II period, there were a many teams and leagues that continued to play. However, most were semi-pro positions and regional-ocal in nature.
Many young men who would be in their prime basketball years, were off fighting in a World War overseas.
1939 – 45
Bobby McDermott: A standout guard in the NBL, he was arguably the most famous and dominant player in the first half of the 1940s, winning multiple MVP awards.
Joe Fulks: A prolific scorer for the Philadelphia Warriors, he was the top scorer in the BAA (precursor to the NBA) during the late 40s.
Bob Kurland
Robert Albert Kurland (December 23, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was an American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State Cowboys) Standing 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, … …
… he has been credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game.
He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Kurland was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Albert and Adele Kurland. He graduated from Jennings High Schoo.
Personal life
Kurland received post-graduate management training at Stanford University. He became a salesman for Phillips Petroleum Company, where he played AAU basketball, and later served as a senior marketing executive. He held a variety of positions, including ones responsible for the development of the self-service gas station concept, growth of the agricultural and plastics divisions, and management of marketing initiatives. His corporate responsibilities took his family to Denver, Wichita, Memphis, Cincinnati and Atlanta. Ultimately, the family returned to the home of Phillips Petroleum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where Kurland served as vice mayor and as a member of the city commission for several years. He retired from Phillips in 1985.
Kurland was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1961. In 1996, he was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame
After retirement, Kurland and his wife, Barbara, divided time between their homes in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Sanibel Island, Florida.
Kurland died at his Florida home on September 29, 2013, at age 88. He was survived by his wife of 62 years, Barbara, their four children Alex, Ross, Dana, and Barbara, and seven grandchildren.
Until the 1930 ‘s film/video/ the game of basketball wasn’t available. Sound recordings were limited. Below is believed to be the first complete basketball game on film.
Prior to 1930, everything we know was passed on by personal voice of those that lived it, audio recordings, limited short visual video/film clips,
We also have the writings. Unfortunately, the death of the aging generation of early basketball has eliminated the word of mouth.
But by the 1940′ we start to see a decent amount of film on teaching and of the actual games
Below we get into a little thought the thirty’s … …
Around 5,000 unique individuals have played at least one game in the NBA, with recent figures suggesting the number is closer to 5,000 as of late 2024/2025, though exact counts vary slightly depending on the source and cutoff date, with some sources citing over 4,800 or even 5,000+ players. General Estimate: The consensus is roughly 5,000 players have suited up in the NBA.
Recent Data: As of late 2024, one source noted 4,898 players. Historical Perspective: Over 5,000 players have played in the NBA throughout its history, with many playing just a few games
