18.5 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 3.1 APG, 38 FG%, 85 FT%
“Dolph Schayes was one of professional basketball’s early superstars, a crack shooter and top rebounder whose career stretched from the NBA’s inaugural year to basketball’s emergence as a major sporting attraction. Although Schayes represented a bridge between the old game and the new one-he was canning two-handed set shots long after the jumper had come into vogue-more than anything he was known as the star of the Syracuse Nationals.
He was practically the only scoring leader Syracuse ever had — the top scorer in 13 of the club’s 17 year existence. Schayes never played for another organization, logging 15 seasons with Syracuse, following the team as it became the Philadelphia 76ers, and then becoming its coach. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, his legacy lasted long after his retirement with his son, Danny, having an extensive NBA career.
Born in 1928, Dolph Schayes found himself in the basketball limelight early on. A native of New York City, at age 16 he was on the floor with New York University against Notre Dame in a sellout at Madison Square Garden. Upon Schayes’s graduation from NYU in 1948, the services of the All-American were eagerly sought by teams in two leagues — the New York Knickerbockers of the Basketball Association of America and the Syracuse Nationals of the National Basketball League. Syracuse had obtained Schayes’s rights from the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, who had selected him in the 1948 NBL Draft.
The NBA’s first season was Schayes’ second and he began his string of 12 consecutive years as the Nats’ team leader in scoring. In 1949-50 he knocked in 16.8 ppg (1,072 total points), sixth best in the league (in those days the league ranked players by total points scored; Schayes’ average was fifth best).” [Read]
[Note: RSS readers, there is a video within this blog]
[Sources: NBA.com, Basketball-Reference.com]
