Today in Sports History: November 22nd
(Nov. 22, 1963 is one of the most famous dates in U.S. history. Photo via Boston.com)
11/22/1950 - Pistons beat Lakers: 19-18
In the lowest-scoring game in NBA history, the Fort Wayne Pistons squeak out a 19-18 victory over the defending-champion Minneapolis Lakers. The Pistons were so determined to prevent Lakers center George Mikan from dominating the game that they held the ball for minutes at a time, just so they could run out the clock. The Lakers only managed to put up 18 shot attempts, 11 of which came from Mikan, who scored a game-high 15. John Oldham led the Pistons with a collosal five points.
Pistons coach Murray Mendenhall defended his stalling tactics. “We won, didn’t we? We wanted to get those giants out in the open where we would have a chance to play basketball, not get our heads kicked in.” Everybody else found it appaling, including the Pistons’ home fans, who booed repeatedly throughout the game. “If that’s basketball, I don’t want any part of it,” said Lakers coach John Kundla.
The NBA, which had only been created a few years earlier, was deeply concerned with the low-scoring games that occurred repeatedly throughout the league. It was no way to win over the fans, who came to the arena to watch 100-99 shootouts. It was perhaps this game, more than any other, that led to the invention of the shot clock, which forced teams to shoot the ball within 24 seconds.
In a way it was a blessing in disguise; it made shot clock-era games infinitely more watchable and exciting. Just 33 years later, the Pistons were on the winning end of the highest-scoring game in NBA history: a 186-184 triumph over the Denver Nuggets.
On a side note, Mikan scored 83% of his team’s points in that game. That is an NBA record and, considering the circumstances, it’s impossible that it will ever be broken.
11/22/1963 - JFK shot in Dallas
It was on this day in 1963 that president John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. The tragedy forced the postponements and cancellations of many events in the country, including the majority of professional sports. Most college football games that weekend were canceled and the American Football League scrapped its full lineup of games. The NFL, however, did not.
NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle stated that the schedule should continue as it had during other national tragedies. The football games were played with a moment of silence before each kick-off and the stadium flags at half-mast. The decision to play on was vastly criticized and Rozelle would later call it the worst decision of his career. In 2001, Rozelle’s regret factored into the NFL’s decision-making when they postponed a week of games following the attacks on September 11th.
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