ege ni

Meanwhile, institu-
tions run by Jewish sec-
ularists and socialists
also competed for bas-
ketball talent.
As Jews moved from
Manhattan to the outer
boroughs of the Bronx
and Brooklyn, they car-
ried the sport into public
schools and city colleges.
Semi-pro leagues
began forming, and
teams with a Jewish
spin barnstormed the
country. They featured
names like the South
Philadelphia Hebrew
All-Stars, or SPHAs,
whose logo was in
Hebrew.
After World War II,
however, the game began
shifting dramatically.
Perhaps the greatest
force was the postwar
migration of Jews to the
suburbs, where they
found greater affluence
and met growing social
acceptance in country
clubs and in the profes-
An unidentified player on the Philadelphia SPHAs
sions.
(South Philadelphia Hebrew All-Stars), a team in the
African Americans
original pro basketball league.
moved into the city and
made inroads into the
game.
At the end of the 19th and the
"The Jewish decline in basketball
beginning of the 20th centuries, the
was a metaphor for the Jewish
immigrant Jews packed into areas
advancement in culture," Gurock says.
such as New York's Lower East Side
Then, in 1951, a point-shaving
had no place to play baseball or foot-
scandal engulfed CCNY and tar-
ball, he says.
nished college basketball. Looking at
Jews played stickball in the streets,
the half-black, half-Jewish team, a
attended immigrant aid houses and
Kentucky coach remarked that it was
joined groups such as the Young
a scandal of "niggers and Jews."
Men's Hebrew Association. These
Many colleges cut back their pro-
groups promoted "good sports" —
grams, and the collegiate game did
such as basketball, then newly invent-
not rebound for years.
ed — rather than violent sports such
But pro ball filled the gap. Lawyer
as boxing, which did attract some
Maurice Podoloff led the first pro
Jews.
league, and oversaw its merger with a
"Metaphorically, basketball was like
semi-pro Midwest league called the
a sweatshop," Gurock says — "you
NBA in 1949.
needed people together to produce."
This past winter Vyorst was walking
In the early part of the 20th centu-
in Manhattan in sub-zero tempera-
ry, some Jewish leaders such as Rabbi
tures early one morning when he
Mordechai Kaplan, founder of the
spotted some young black men at a
Reconstructionist movement, hoped
playground shooting baskets despite
basketball would effect a kind of
the cold.
"crossover dribble," enticing young
The sight reminded him of how he
Jews from the YMHA and Jewish
grew up dreaming of playing for the
community centers into the syna-
Knicks, before life took him in a dif-
gogue.
ferent direction.
"Did those who came to play ever
"My mom used to say, 'There are
end up staying to pray? Some did, but
lots of doctors who play basketball on
the best athletes did not," Gurock says.
the weekends,"' he recalls. II

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