Significant Changes In Basketball In The 1950s And 1960s

Basketball in the 1950s and 1960s went through many significant changes. The teams, players, and many rules changed during this time period. The teams had changed as the NBA had just been created and still need improvements. The players also changed the way the game was played by developing new skills and techniques. And as the game kept being played, there were flaws that showed changes needing to be made to the rules. As the NBA was still in its beginning, it went through many processes and changes before it became very popular. First in 1950, the first african americans were let into the NBA to play. The first three were Chuck Cooper of the Boston Celtics, Nat Clifton of the New York Knicks, and lastly Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols

In the 50s, tall white men were the most dominant players of the league. The all stars included George Mikan, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Bob Cousy, and Bill Sharman. George Mikan played for the Minneapolis Lakers at the beginning of the NBA and led the team to winning four championships in the first five years in the 1950s. Mikan was also one of the reasons offensive goaltending was created (Ziller. “White.”). Bob Pettit was the NBA’s first most valuable player. He won the award in 1956, and later again in 1959. Although he had two scoring titles and two MVP awards, he only ever won one championship (Ziller. “White.”). Then there was Bob Cousy, he was a great point guard for the Boston Celtics. He won the title for most assists in eight straight seasons, and one he and Russell both got onto the same team only success happened (Ziller. “White.”). Since the NBA was dominated by white players at that time, it took a while till people would see what talent black players actually had, this would be brought out in players like Bill Russell and Elgin Baylor (Ziller. “White.”). This had a very big significance, because they played very differently, black players came in dunking the ball, which has a lot of people say, was the reason dunking was outlawed (Fischer 67-68). So, when the game went from being dominated by tall white men, to black players coming in and dominating, the game changed as to how it was played. The 1960s was mostly all about two center: Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. They were both very dominant and similar, but at the same time different. Wilt Chamberlain had amazing statistics. For example, on March 2nd 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in one game (Fischer 24-25). This was an amazing feat and just shows how unstoppable Wilt was. But, Wilt only had 2 rings to Russell’s 11 (NBA Championships). Russell had won 11 championships out of the 13