A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun
Two Jewish basketball players were selected by the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA draft last week. The Nets had both the 26th and 27th picks in the first round of the draft. They used their first pick to select Ben Saraf, a 6 foot 6 inch point guard, an Israeli who has been playing for the Ratiopharm Ulm team in the German league. Then the Nets chose Danny Wolf, a 7-footer who plays forward and center for the University of Michigan. The two players will join one other Jewish player in the National Basketball League, Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers, as well as Sacramento Kings player Domantas Sabonis, who is in the process of converting. There is a long history of Jewish involvement in the NBA. Many early NBA players were Jewish, including Adolph “Dolph” Schayes, Sidney “Sonny” Hertzberg, Max “Slats” Zaslofsky, and Louis Herman “Red” Klotz , as well as more recent players including Larry Brown, Amar’e Stoudemire and Omri Casspi. Renowned coaches Red Auerbach and Red Holzman were both Jewish, as is Adam Silver, the current NBA Commissioner, and current and former team owners including Abe Pollin, Micky Arison and Herb Kohl. What is another NBA Jewish connection?
2006 NBA Draft by bikeride from Canton, CT, USA is licensed under CC by 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A. The New York Knickerbockers, now known as the Knicks, were named after the baggy-kneed pants that were very popular among Jewish teenagers on New York’s Lower East Side in the early 20th century. Basketball was a favorite pastime among these youth as basketball courts were easy to set up in small courtyards and alleyways behind the tenement buildings.
B. The first basket ever scored in the NBA was by Jewish player Oscar Benjamin “Ossie” Schectman of the New York Knickerbockers. Schectman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, was later elected to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
C. The Golden State Warriors were formerly the Philadelphia Warriors. Their original roots were as the Philadelphia Sphas, with the name being an acronym for the South Philadelphia Hebrew All-Stars.
D. Before they were an independent team playing basketball and providing comedy and entertainment, the Harlem Globetrotters were an early member of the NBA, under the leadership of Abe Saperstein, the son of Jewish immigrants from Łomża, Poland.
E. Basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891. He was a physical education instructor looking for activities for his students to do in the cold winters. He used soccer balls and peach baskets, and ultimately created a list of 13 rules that governed the game during its initial growth. But in fact, Naismith got his inspiration from a Jewish friend in junior high school, Harry “Hoops” Hooperstein. Naismith was invited to a Passover seder at Hooperstein’s house. After the seder, the boys were playing, and suddenly Hooperstein grabbed some of the leftover matzah balls that his mother made, and which were definitely sinkers, not floaters. He and Naismith started tossing them into a garbage can and keeping track of who “sunk more baskets.” The memory of this Passover fun inspired Naismith fifteen years later to create what became basketball.
✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡ ✡
© 2025 MMJZ Services, Inc.