Doctor MJ wrote:MaxZaslofskyJr wrote:October 23, 1967 New Jersey Americans vs the Pittsburgh Pipers with HOFer Connie Hawkins in the Teaneck Armory.
Also that year, saw the New York Knicks play the L.A. Lakers in the "old" (older?) Madison Square Garden. One of West and Baylor was out that game... but I can't recall which.
My god. You saw Hawk’s first ABA game?
Please, tell us a story!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, Connie scored 34. I've remembered that number without looking it up for over 50 years. There was a big man for the Americans that iirc had over 40. I thought he would be good but that was his 15 minutes of fame. Name was Dan Anderson. I had never heard of him back then. Actually, I had never heard of Hawkins at the time.** You'll probably cringe at that and I do recall that several Brooklynites who had come out to see their Hawk play... did the same. Not scientific but I'd say a good 30, 40, 50 % of the crowd were from Brooklyn. (hmm funny how things played out!).... at least in our section. The crowd was definitely following his every move ... not that it was a big one... maybe 3 or 4 thou?
**Actually, the only guys that I think that ever heard of playing that night actually were Art Heyman (former Knick) and Bobby Lloyd (of Rutgers). I think that the Bergen Record had played those two up. I was in my mid-teens at the time.
Les Selvage pioneered today's "modern basketball" in 1967.
(ABA 79 - NBA 76) ABA Forever