 Thanks, John. So what I thought I'd do is I have a short presentation, I'd maybe read some passages from the book and just sort of tell you what was happening in basketball, sort of, you know, the early years and how it was transformed during World War II. So you know, most people know, they've seen footage of like, you know, Bob Feller or Joe DiMaggio or Hank Greenberg signing up at their boards to serve during World War II. Everybody knows the story about baseball. Nobody really seems to know the story about basketball and basketball transformed during World War II. So the modern game of basketball really was an outgrowth of World War II. So there are sort of, you know, three ways or three sort of distinct areas in this book. We'll sort of talk about what was happening on military bases and how that impacted the game. Professional basketball also integrated during World War II, and that was five years before Jackie Robinson and baseball. And then by the end of the war, the game was changing and you had these seven-footers playing the game, and that was a new concept with people like George Mike and Bob Curlin. So it was shifting a little bit. So just a, I guess a quick overview. So basketball was invented in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was invented by James Naismith, who was a Canadian, and Springfield College at the time was a school that was training people to be physical education instructors for the YMCA. Which is how the game immediately spread all through YMCA's around the country. Shortly thereafter in the early teens and twenties, you had these early professional leagues that started. They were largely on the East Coast. They could be in Massachusetts, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Jersey, New York State, like Troy area, Albany. These are where the professional leagues were. Players got played by the game, so maybe 20, 30 bucks a game. They would travel by train. So wherever these towns had a stop on the train is where they had teams. So it was easy to travel. By the late twenties, early thirties, the game's growing a little bit. It's becoming a little more popular on college campuses. You start to have the college basketball double headers, like at Madison Square Garden, which started in the mid-thirties during the Depression. And then by the end of the thirties, around the time of World War II, there are a professional league called the American Basketball League, which is really in the Northeast, the New England, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia area. And that's sort of where we are by World War II. So the game is growing. It's still a little regional. You should know that the scores were very low. There could be like 30 to 25 was the score of a game. Players shot the ball with both hands. There was no jump shot. You had a center jump after each basket. So you didn't take the ball out at the end lines. You had to go back to center court and re-jump it. So the centers at that time were only required to really get a rebound or get the center jump. They weren't really required to do anything else, but you'll see by the end of the war how the centers changed. You might have seen old pictures. They wore knee pads. It was a very rough game. There might be seven or so people on a team, as many that could fit in a car. So it was a very different game. It was regional. It was slow moving. So this is just an example. So Ralph Kapluetz played at New York University. He started in the late 30s and the early 40s. And then he was, there was no actual draft, but he was called up in August of 1941. So he skipped his, he was going to skip his senior year and then Pearl Harbor. And then there was the draft. So he never returned to college. And what happened is he is an example of many players from that generation whose college careers were cut short. And then he spent five years in a fighter plane in the Pacific through had 13 missions. And there were two that he said that he was pretty close to losing his life on. But he did finish. He did survive the war. He returned in 1945. And then he started to play basketball again. And he's just an example of one of many players from that era. This is, this was a yearly basketball magazine that Converse put out. And I just show it for, for the imagery. You can get a sense. A lot of the images become more patriotic during the war years, supporting the military and the men who are serving. So I had mentioned this. There's one league on the East Coast and then another league forms. And this is the National Basketball League and that's a Midwest league. And these were teams in very small towns, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Sheboygan, Hammond, Indiana. There was teams in Chicago. Professional sports really didn't extend past Chicago. That was the West Coast at World War II. There wasn't expansion yet. So this is just an example of one of these other teams. They were very good during the 1940s. They won a championship. You can just get a sense of what these early teams in World War II looked like. So I had mentioned, so one of the key points of World War II is that basketball integrates. In baseball you have the Negro Leagues, but basketball didn't have that. So you had all black teams that sort of barnstormed on their own. And there were two of them. One is the Harlem Globe Trotters, which were actually based in Chicago. And the other team was a team called the New York Renaissance, which was actually based in Harlem. So they were two all black teams and they would travel around and they would play either all black teams or all white teams. And it wasn't for a couple of years until they were able to integrate. But this is just one of the players, Pop Gates, and one of the teams he played for was the Harlem Globe Trotters. Abe Saperstein, who you might have heard of, he was the owner of the Globe Trotters. He was also involved with promoting Negro League Baseball and a number of other sports. And then the other team, the New York Renaissance, this was their owner, Bob Douglas. So those were the sort of two big competing all black teams. I had mentioned that professional basketball integrates. So what happens is, in 1942-43, the National Basketball League only has four teams. And there wasn't enough players to go around. They were being drafted into the service. So some of the owners said that to field a team they needed to integrate. It was more out of necessity. So in December 1942, there were two teams, Chicago and Toledo, that integrates. And this is just a photo of that Chicago team. So half the players were white, half the players were black. The black players were from the Harlem Globe Trotters. So they were part of that team that integrates. And you can get a sense of, you know, I had mentioned they wore knee pads. Their shorts were sort of higher up as opposed to today. So it was a little bit of a different game. But professional basketball integrates. It does so before Jackie Robinson. And it did it with a lot less fanfare and a lot less problems than baseball did. This is just another team from those leagues. This is the Sheboygan Redskins from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They were also a very popular team that won a championship as well. Dolly King, he's one of the first people to integrate the sport, just to give you a sense of his. He played on a team, the Long Island Grumman, had teams during the war. This was the Long Island Grumman Hellcats. And they played other maybe military or military installation teams. And they also played college and professional teams. So other than the integration, the other big component is military basketball. And what's important to know, and this is the Great Lakes naval station out in North Chicago. As I mentioned, basketball was sort of a regional game. So what happens now with the military bases is now you have players from all the different parts of the country traveling and playing with each other. And so a more distinct and recognizable form of the game emerges. So regional differences sort of dissipate. And you have a game that sort of looks like we see today on TV a little bit more. So Great Lakes really started having teams during World War I. And it was, so I'll just read here about Great Lakes during World War I. They believed something was missing in the training at Great Lakes. Something that would transform them into fighters that would have no equal. That finishing process they believed was athletics. This athletic program would extend to all sailors as a sports for all program was set up. Under which every man in the station took part in some sport, making themselves clean of mind and body for the day when they can go to sea. So they had a lot of top notch teams, not just basketball but also baseball during World War I. And that really then extended to World War II. So they reinstituted a lot of their programs at Great Lakes. And this is sort of symptomatic of what would happen at other military bases, whether it was Norfolk, Aberdeen, all of the sort of different military bases around the country. There were three purposes in fielding such a team. It was a morale builder for the thousands of recruits in training at the station. A means of recruiting, of bringing the Navy before the eyes of natives of the thirteen inland states comprising the ninth naval district. And a means of adding receipts to the Navy Relief Fund. So they would, these teams would travel around the country and play and it was a good sort of, it would help morale but it would also be sort of a recruiting tool as well. One of the commanders stated, basketball at Great Lakes brought out something additional. Means of achieving physical fitness. And as the season drew on, athletics became recognized as an important factor in the Navy's vast physical hardening program to condition its men for wartime duty. This theme was echoed throughout the war in speeches, articles, tournament programs and recruiting visits. As one of the lieutenants mentioned, the inclusion of athletics in the physical training program is strongly advocated. Regular sports and games when the boys enjoy possess great value from a conditioning standpoint in addition to their other merits. The boys will gladly engage in calisthenics, gorilla exercises or grass drills if they know they will be able to play the various sports afterwards. Teamwork, a highly emphasized objective to be acquired through participation in basketball develops the principles of coordination that are invaluable on the battlefield. Basketball will develop aggressiveness, a fighting spirit, confidence, the will to win and the ability to think and act decisively under fire. So these programs became quite important throughout the war. Great Lakes of all the military teams was by far the most superior. They had the best players and they had the best record. So in nineteen forty one forty two uh... they went thirty one in five they played other military teams and they played college teams. One of the captains wrote an article to one of the players after this season which he says never for one moment have you and the rest of the boys on the team been anything but the finest examples of navy manhood on trains and hotel lobbies at luncheons and on the basketball court your conduct has been so splendid that the entire navy recognized you and your team as the best recruiting poster in the ninth naval district. You carried the navy story to colleges and towns and you did it in the navy way. You ignored inconveniences, you fought harder when you were tired and you asked for no special privileges during all the time you were doing a double job for your navy. In traveling the road your basketball activity was comparable to a fleet arrangement of the united states navy. Like our own fleet the further you got from the home base of supplies the more difficult was the attainment of victory. Yet in foreign waters you met the enemy and scored victory. True, five games were lost but only five out of thirty six. In navy terms losing five while sinking thirty one of the enemy ships means complete victory. So very patriotic but it was a very successful team, nonetheless. In the following year they had an equally comparable record of thirty four and three. The gentleman sitting to the left is Tony Hinkle, he's the head coach of the team. This is just a sample of program of the different types of exhibitions or charity matches that would have been developed to help raise funds. This was for the Navy Relief Fund, it was held at Chicago Stadium between Notre Dame and and Great Lakes but there were other similar tournaments or double headers all throughout the country whether it be for Navy Relief Fund or even the Red Cross as well. And then Tony Hinkle who I mentioned was the coach towards the end of that season he says we have no apologies to offer for our showing this year. The three teams that caught us were key to peak performance on those nights. This year's Great Lakes team is one of the greatest teams the country has seen. When the going got tough they came through with points the hard way. Every game was a tough one because there wasn't a team in our schedule that wasn't key to a feverish pitch to beat us. When you face a schedule like Great Lakes had and come out with a victory over every team you play that's some grind and no other team in the nation can match that performance. So certainly a lot of pride in Great Lakes as well. Oh, this game? That honestly I don't know. I would suspect Great Lakes did, they just had stronger teams but I can certainly look that. Do you know which three colleges beat them by any chance? I don't I have that at home I could I could get that just I don't unfortunately I don't I don't know. So other other teams so teams like Great Lakes Naval Training Station there was Norfolk Navy Base Norfolk Air Base North Carolina Pre-Flight Bainbridge Naval Aberdeen Proving Grounds Mitchell Field Columbia Midshipmen Camp Warren and Camp Grant were sort of representative of other military teams throughout and there was a a yearly sort of basketball guide that came out that would list all their schedules and the different teams and what their results were by the end of the year. This is there were a handful not many of basketball players who died during the war. Silo Bello was one of about two or three. He played college basketball in New York at Long Island University and then he was shipped overseas and then his first day in battle he was killed in action and there were a couple like him but this is just one who's promising career obviously ended prematurely. We talk about African Americans integrating professional sports but there was also a Asian American that integrated as well. Wat Masaka grew up on the west coast. His family spent time in the Japanese intern camps on the west coast in California. He eventually went to the University of Utah and played his college career was interrupted obviously by the war. Afterwards he was drafted by the New York Knicks spent about three games with him and then was was cut but he was the first Asian American to play in the in what's known as the NBA. Today everyone sees you know Jeremy Lin playing in Lin Sanity but seventy years ago or so it was it was Wat Masaka. And then the third area I had mentioned was the game is changing you have a lot of bigger men playing so during the thirties if you were six one or six two you were the starting center for your team. All you had to do was get a rebound and win the center jump. That was it you really weren't required to score. By the end of the war you have this rivalry between Bob Curlin and George Miken and that was the first great college rivalry of two big men in each year about six ten six eleven or so seven feet. And they were a lot different they could dribble they could shoot they could score they could run the floor so you have these big centers today and that was a transition that was happening in World War two. George Miken went on a play for the Minneapolis Lakers he went out and had a professional career. Bob Curlin stayed with Amateur Athletic Union and worked for Phillips 66 and then played on the nights or on the weekends with with that team so he was not technically a professional unlike George but there was no guarantee that professional basketball was really gonna really gonna last. One of the great teams during World War two was Fort Wayne Indiana the Zollner Pistons. Fred Zollner owned a piston factory that helped make war products war production and he moved the team to Fort Wayne and the players would work for the company and then play on the team and they were quite successful. This team today is the Detroit Pistons so there are a couple teams out of World War two that are still existing so this was the Detroit Pistons. Another team that came out of World War two were the Rochester Royals this is Les Harrison this is their owner that team today is the Sacramento Kings they moved around a little bit to Cincinnati and Omaha and now they're the Sacramento Kings but they were a very good team at the end of World War two they had Bob Davies who became one of the great point guards some say he was really the epitome of a point guard before Bob Cousy with the Celtics. They also had Red Holtzman who some might remember as the coach of the New York Knicks in the early 70s and won two championships. There was also another player Arnie Ryzen who became a great center in the NBA. He was the center on the Celtics before they got Bill Russell so he quickly transitioned and taught Bill Russell the ropes and this is they won a championship right after World War two so what happens after by the end of the war is you have you have this the National Basketball League which I mentioned and then after the war these owners who owned arenas on the East Coast like Boston, Madison Square Garden, Providence, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia they wanted to form a league and have basketball being played there when hockey and the ice capades and all the other events weren't being held so they created another league and over the next three years these two leagues eventually merged to form the NBA that we know today. So that's that was sort of a sort of a quick history through basketball and the three major points during World War two. I don't know if anyone had any questions. The military based teams were some of those players professional or were they all out of power? Yes. Yes, so there was a mix. So some of the some of the players on the military would get a weekend pass leave and they'd be able to play for their teams on the weekend. So most of these professional leagues were just weekend leagues because you know you're getting a hundred bucks a game so if you played three games on the weekend it was three hundred dollars they all had steady jobs during the week it was just some extra income into play. So there's a player in the forties his name was Dutch Garfinkel who played at St. John's University. He was based in New York at one of the at the army base up there and he got a weekend pass and he would take the train down to Philadelphia play a couple of games and always make it back Monday morning before a roll call. And he said he didn't sleep much in those days but he was having a great time playing basketball. There was another player who played for Philadelphia Jerry Fleischman who got a weekend pass. He was based in South Carolina. He would fly up to Philly play a game or two and then just sort of head back down. So it was a mixture and sometimes they would still play in the professional leagues. They would play on military bases and they would just sort of juggle their schedules as best they could. Did the army or Air Force have teams? They did, yes. I believe they did. From what I can gather they did all play each other. But my sense was that the Navy teams were the strongest. But yes. Just an anecdote. I went for OCS in 61 and 62. And there was a Naismith and I'm a company. And we were smiling to ask if he was related. Excellent. The other question I have is I don't see many black faces on these military teams that blacks play for them. So I haven't been able to find a lot. But what I did find is Great Lakes did have an all black basketball team that played for a couple seasons. I haven't been able to find any photos of that. I think if there were blacks playing they were probably all blacks in the military teams. The Great Lakes team had Larry Dobie who then integrated the American League three months after Jackie Robinson. But the only thing I could find was really through Great Lakes having an all black team, unfortunately. I'm sure it's out there. I just haven't been able to find it yet. And when did blacks begin to get, we'll say, you into the NBA? So the NBA integrated in 1949-50. And there were three people that did this. The Boston Celtics drafted Chuck Cooper out of Duquesne. The New York Knicks signed Nat Sweetwater Clifton away from the Globetrotters and the Washington Capitals had the player who actually played in the first game, Earl Lloyd. So those three were all right next to each other. One was drafted, one signed and one played. And it was only by the way the scheduling was that Earl Lloyd technically played in the first game. He played seven games and then he was drafted. So then he lost about a season or season and a half. The Washington Capitals folded. And then when he got out of the military, he went to the Syracuse Nationals and he played there for most of the fifties and became the first African American to win an NBA championship. And then in the fifties, you start to see players like Ray Felix, Walter Dukes, Maurice Stokes and then Bill Russell. And then by the end of the fifties, it's, you know, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and then everything that we know today. So the early fifties was still sort of growing pains for African Americans in the NBA, but Bill Russell became the first star in 57. I still have an image from North Station in Boston of Walter Dukes coming off the train. I was stunned, you know, the tallest person in my life. Sure. I really always remember that. I used to see, I saw some of these 1940s games as a kid at Boston Arena. Sure. That's right. Quite quite a thrilling thing to see it like the Fort Wayne and the Syracuse and it was early days. But it was quite an exciting thing for me as the younger brother of a sports star. Sure. And a father, William, took us into Boston all the time. But I really got quite a kick out of seeing some of these names because I remember them honestly. Yeah. So the Boston Arena would have obviously said before the garden, the owner of that would have been Walter Brown, who also own owned the Celtics. So like the Rochester Royals are still around as Sacramento. Fort Wayne is Detroit. Syracuse Nationals are the Philadelphia 76ers. One of the greatest playoff games ever, Syracuse against Boston. That's right. I think it was probably at Boston Garden in the later on, but great, great days. Right. Not a lot of, you know, not a lot of fans went to those. It was. Right. That's correct. Unfortunately. Much smaller. Like going to Boston Braves game, baseball. Right. You and a few others. My favorite team, by the way. I want to talk about another Jewish player from NYU and went to Syracuse, Dolph Shays. Correct. So, so Dolph Shays was from the Bronx, went to NYU. And then I had mentioned at the time there were those two competing leagues, the basketball association of America and the National Basketball League. And he got a larger offer from the National Basketball League. So he went to Syracuse and played about 15, 16 years. He was the Lou Gehrig of professional basketball during the 50s, had the longest streak of consecutive games played like 7, 800. And he was really one of the top players in professional basketball, a great, great player. And he died in December. He recently passed away. He was a big guy about six, seven. That's right. Like a lot of big guys, they also had half shot such shots. That's right. Yeah. He was, he, even though he was a big man, he preferred shooting from the outside. And I think in one of those playoff games, you know, he broke his wrist or something in one of those Celtics games. So, yeah, very good player, Dolph Shays. How did the Navy maintain such a strong team? Did they make a career while they were in the Navy playing? I, I don't think like, for instance, Red Holtzman was at Norfolk. I think it was just where he was assigned and he played there. Red Hourback was at Norfolk as well as a coach. So a lot of the players, they would either be assigned or for some of them, they might just sort of travel them around the bases to do clinics or promotions or various things. But I don't believe any of the top players made a career in the Navy. I think it was just part of their experience during the war. And I think it helped them basketball wise. It certainly helped Red Holtzman, who said he learned really how to play the game at Norfolk. So. What got you interested in exploring this? So my, my first job was actually at the basketball Hall of Fame. And I learned about the team that I wrote my first book about, which was a Jewish basketball team in Philadelphia during the 30s, which some of the Eddie Gottlieb was the coach of that team who went on. One of the players was Red Klotz, who was the owner of the Washington Generals. That was the team that lost to the Globetrotters for 60 years. Dave Zinkoff, who became the announcer for the Sixers, got his start there. And Harry Litwak, who became the coach at Temple. And so I was writing this and some of the players were involved in World War Two. And it was really just a sliver. And I said, you know, there's probably a bigger book there about what was happening to basketball. And everybody knows baseball. You know, the guys went off to war, even, you know, a movie like a league of their own, how the women's leagues were coming in. Somebody once asked me, was there a equivalent for basketball women during the war? And I haven't found one. So I just felt like basketball was a, wasn't the biggest sport during World War Two, but after World War Two. And because of World War Two, it became a bigger sport. So I played in high school. And that's, I sort of stopped growing. So that was the end of that. I didn't get any bigger. So unfortunately, yes, I felt so. I felt so. Yes. Who invented basketball? So basketball was invented by James Naismith. He was a Canadian and he got a degree to be a minister and realized he didn't actually want to be a minister. So he wanted to find a way where you could use sports and religion and everything. So he traveled to Springfield, Massachusetts and became a faculty member at the YMCA Training School. That school now is the Springfield College. So his, his teacher gave him an, an assignment to create a game for this class in the winter. And all the other instructors couldn't get it right. They were doing calisthenics. They were doing trying football and lacrosse and all these other sports indoors. And it was too rough. So they gave him two weeks and on the last night, it all sort of came to him that rather than there's been no tackling and you had to pass the ball and you couldn't run with the ball at the time. And then he figured out he needed a goal. So if you tossed it at a goal, it sort of eliminated some of the rough house play. So he brought it to the class. There were 18 people in the class. There were nine people on a side. He threw up the first ball and that was, that was a game of basketball and the score was one nothing. Eventually it got, obviously it got modified. But at the time you all had a position, an area on the floor that you were responsible for. So you just sort of passed the ball and then tried to, to shoot it at the goal. The goals, so he asked the janitor, do you have any baskets? I mean something. So he had two peach baskets. So he hung both peach baskets up at the end of each side of the gym. And it just so happened it was 10 feet, which is why the baskets are 10 feet today. So they would shoot it in those early years, but nobody thought to actually cut out the bottom. So you either sort of took a stick or a broomstick and hit it out or you got up on a ladder and retrieved the ball. And eventually, you know, it evolved. And then, you know, there wasn't a basketball. So they played with like a soccer ball. And then when basketballs were invented, they had, you know, the heavy laces. They had bladders inside that you had to sort of pump up. It was a little bit different. Afterwards, Naismith really wasn't interested in basketball. He just went and got a medical degree. And then he became the first athletic director at the University of Kansas. So this is in the late 1890s. So he was the first basketball coach at the University of Kansas for a couple of years. Now, they've had, you know, coaches like Fogg Allen and Roy Williams and Bill Self. James Naismith is still the only coach with a sub 500 record at the University of Kansas. Just didn't care. But they raised money for him. And in 1936, he went to the Berlin Olympics where basketball was played for the first time as an Olympic sport. So he got to see it. And he died around Thanksgiving of 1939. And he was like 78. So he sort of missed sort of the war years. But he did get to see it as an Olympic sport. So that was sort of the crowning achievement. Why did you get involved in the tennis hall? So my career has been sports museums. And I worked at basketball. And then I went to New Jersey for a while to work at the United States Golf Association. And then they were looking for a job at director's job at tennis. So I sort of came here. I'm sort of hitting all the sports museums in my career. Did you play tennis as a young? I played a little bit in high school. Yes. I didn't play any golf growing up, but I played basketball and tennis. Yes. And how many years have you been at the tennis? Eight years. Yeah. So it's been a while. Roughly around the same time John came here. So are the Navy Leagues now? Basketball? I don't think to the extent. I'm not sure. But my impression is not to the extent. I do know that there's, you know, there's a lot of sort of goodwill traveling on bases around the world, you know, as part of the State Department sports diplomacy program. And we've tried to get involved a little bit on the tennis side with that. And I, you know, I know the NBA sends players. I'm actually interested in these State Department teams in the 50s and 60s. Because, you know, Red Arbac would take a bunch of players like, you know, Russell and Cousy and Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. And they would travel, you know, all through Europe or Eastern Europe, playing in the United States. Europe, playing basketball and giving clinics. And the reason, you know, one of the outgrowths of that is there's a lot of international basketball players in the NBA today. And that's sort of a result of what was happening 50, 60 years ago. So I am interested to see those early State Department teams. But I don't think there's these types of leagues to this extent on the basis, but maybe somebody knows something that I don't. During the Korean War, the Bainbridge Commodores traveled to other bases sometimes. And they had a couple of pros on the team. Yes. Yeah, I think Elgin Baylor in the late 50s or early 60s had, was on a base for a while playing. But yes, it wasn't as popular as World War II, but they were still happening, I'm sure. I actually was on the same base with Elgin Baylor who was in the Army from 60 to 62. His National Guard unit got activated, he was playing for the Lakers, got activated and here he shows up in the gym one day. And the Lakers were in the playoffs and they wouldn't give him weekend passes. Right. So they brought the whole Lakers team to his little gym Manningen Army Hospital right by Fort Lewis, Washington. Yep, that's where he was. To work out. So he was there for about six months and worked at the gym every day. Yeah, and that must have been a thrill to see somebody like Elgin Baylor. Jerry West came and the hot rod huntsman. They brought the team up there so they could practice to get ready for the playoffs. Right, so he started at a college somewhere on the East Coast and then he went to Seattle University. And so that's why he was, and then he gets drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers, but they only stay, that was like their last year and then they became the Los Angeles Lakers but everyone really says that Elgin Baylor was sort of the Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan. He was. He started at 61 points in a playoff game at Boston Card. They get 22 out of 44 shots, I always remember. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Manning. Yep. How did the salaries shape up after the walk for the players? So you, so, okay, so Eddie Gottlieb is running the Philadelphia Warriors 1946, 47, those early years after the war and they win a championship. And he had a couple of players on the team like Ralph Kaplowitz and Jerry Fleischman. And their contracts for the year were, let's say anywhere between 5,500 and 7,500 for the year. But they still had regular jobs. You know, I think Jerry was, worked in his father-in-law's business. Ralph Kaplowitz sold insurance and they would just sort of play on the weekends. I think that was for the average player that was probably, you know, but by the time the mid fifties and Bill Russell you might be getting 20, 25,000 and then eventually 50,000. You know, I think Wilt Chamberlain might have been the first at 100,000 a year. Bill Russell always had a clause in his contract to be paid $1 more than Wilt Chamberlain. So whatever, Wilt Chamberlain. So there was a story on Dolf Shays who was mentioned earlier. So he was always the highest paid player with Syracuse. Somewhere along the line Syracuse trades for George Yardley, who played for Fort Wayne. And he was making more money, you know, $2,500 more a season or something like that. And the owner came back and said, Dolf, I need to give you a raise because you're always supposed to be the highest paid player on the team. So Dolf said that trade worked out for me in multiple ways, including getting more money. But the million dollar salaries really don't happen to like the 80s, 70s and 80s that we know. And then now they're just sort of astronomical. So. Any, is there one person who kind of gets acknowledged as developing the first jump shot? So there was a guy, Kenny Sellers, who played in the early 40s with the University of Wyoming. And he's credited with sort of popularizing the jump shot. There was a guy a couple years before that in the mid 30s, Hank Luceti from Stanford, who has some form of a jump shot. So in the mid to late 30s and early 40s, you have a couple of guys that are sort of doing what would be considered a jump shot today. I think jumping Joe Fulkes. Right. But most of his jumping was near the basket. Right. The only perimeter, I think the first perimeter shooter was Hal Greer for Syracuse, I think. Yeah. So Hal Greer played for Temple University, then played for Syracuse and the Philadelphia Sixers. But after the war, the first great star in the NBA was jumping Joe Fulkes and. It was amazing to change in the game. I remember Paul Harrison filled off with the jump shot. Before that, the game was played on the floor. Not the game's played in the air. It's a completely different game. They're all gymnasts, it's all in the air. It's a totally different game. It is. And on the floor, with the push shot and the two heated sets. There was a shot to go around the basket. Yeah, it's on the floor. It's a hiding the difference. Traveling in the, when I played basketball briefly was something I could never overcome because every time I take a step, they blow the whistle. Yeah. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. It was evolving. But in the early years, they let you, I mean, this is in the 19 teens, you could dribble with both hands. I mean, that was sort of evolving too, but. Who makes the changes as we went along? There was a, you know, the amateur athletic union was really involved with the rules at that time. And then there was a collegiate set of rules. So in the 30s, you know, these teams would play sometimes three 15 minute quarters. And that would be the game. And it'd be over like in an hour. And then eventually, you know, you see four quarters like you do today. But they experimented a lot in the 30s. They had the jump shot after each basket. That was eventually eliminated. Then they had the jump shot after each basket only in the last five minutes of the game. So they were, they were sort of not making it up, but they were trying to figure it out as they did it to try to get to something that would work for everybody. Any other questions? Tonight's the first NBA fight. It is. And you'll see three point shots and you'll see dunking. And you'll see, you know, seven footers that can shoot three pointers. I mean, it's completely, it's completely different. You see a lot of traveling that's never called. That's right. You see a lot of traveling that's not a call. And palming and sort of like this. Yeah, it's, it's completely different. It's a completely different game. But the athleticism is more popular. Yes. You know, they always ask these older players, you know, could you play today? Or he go, they were always like, you know, they're more athletic. They can do more than we can. But if they had to play under our set of rules, it would be completely different. You know, completely different. So, any other comments or questions? Great, thank you.