Oct
7
On This Day in Basketball History — 1926
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Hoops 4 the Soul would by lying if it said that it was truly familiar with any of these former NBA/ABA players who were born on October 7th, including Frankie Baumholtz, Bill Ebben, Harold Ellis, Alex Groza, Gary Hill, Bob Martin, Willie Naulls, Ron Nelson and Bob Wood.
With that said, Alex Groza’s name does stand out from the crowd. Groza, whose brother Lou was a Hall-of-Fame kicker for the Cleveland Browns, was a member of the Kentucky Wildcats “Fabulous Five’ teams that won back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1948 and 1949.
Groza would later be banned from the NBA for life in the 1951 season when he was implicated in a point-shaving scandal while at Kentucky, and he would leave the game with one of the highest scoring averages per game in his final season.
In fact, Groza’s scoring numbers in his final season are much better than the statistics for some of the greatest players to have ever played in the NBA as examined right here at Hoops 4 the Soul.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Oct
7
NBA Europe Live Tour Brings Back Some Old Names & Faces
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Basketball as a global game was even more apparent this weekend as the NBA Europe Live Tour continued with the Toronto Raptors holding off Virtus Lottomatica Roma in a 93-87 preseason victory in Rome.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com