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A masterpiece from Hideki Matsuyama to take Masters lead

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Alliance Landfill participating in Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful spring cleanup program

WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Scranton natives Syl Sobel and Jay Rosenstein, co-authors of the book &ldquo;Boxed out of the NBA: Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League,&rdquo; said former NBA great Paul Arizin once said that the best 80 best basketball players in the world are in the NBA and the next best 80 players are in the Eastern League.
				That might be the best testament to the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which existed between 1946 and 1978 and featured some of the very best players in the country.
				According to information by the book&rsquo;s publishing company, Rowman & Littlefield, the book tells the story of the Eastern Professional Basketball League &mdash; fast, physical, and often played in small gyms.
				The authors, Sobel and Rosenstein, both 65, grew up as best friends in Scranton, which like Wilkes-Barre, was home to one of the Eastern League&rsquo;s anchor franchises, the Scranton Miners and Apollos. In fact, Rosenstein was a statistician for the Scranton team.
				The Barons played most of their seasons in the Kingston Armory (109th Field Artillery) on Market Street. Other teams were located in Sunbury, Williamsport, Trenton, Camden, Wilmington, Allentown, Hazleton and more.
				&ldquo;Not only were there great players in the league, they blended so well into the communities,&rdquo; Sobel said. &ldquo;We can remember the Scranton Miners&rsquo; players going to high schools to scrimmage the high school teams. The players and the fans loved each other and got to know each other.&rdquo;
				Rosenstein and Sobel agree that many Eastern League players would be stars in today&rsquo;s NBA. They said the reason so many of the great players were not in the NBA was due to race.
				&ldquo;Back then, the NBA had quotas when it came to minority players,: Sobel said. &ldquo;Because of the quotas, there was no room for them on NBA rosters. And the NBA really didn&rsquo;t want them because they were scorers. The NBA only wanted them to be role players.&rdquo;
				Sobel and Rosenstein offered information about the book:
				&ldquo;The Eastern Professional Basketball League (1946-78) was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the northeast and featuring the best players who just couldn&rsquo;t make the NBA &mdash; many because of unofficial quotas on Black players, some because of scandals, and others because they weren&rsquo;t quite good enough in the years when the NBA had less than 100 players.
				&ldquo;In &lsquo;Boxed out of the NBA: Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League,&rsquo; Sobel and Rosenstein tell the fascinating story of a league that was a pro basketball institution for over 30 years, showcasing top players from around the country.
				&ldquo;During the early years of professional basketball, the Eastern League was the next-best professional league in the world after the NBA. It was home to big-name players such as Sherman White, Jack Molinas, and Bill Spivey, who were implicated in college gambling scandals in the 1950s and were barred from the NBA, and top Black players such as Hal &ldquo;King&rdquo; Lear, Julius McCoy, and Wally Choice, who could not make the NBA into the early 1960s due to unwritten team quotas on African-American players.
				&ldquo;Featuring interviews with some 40 former Eastern League coaches, referees, fans, and players&mdash;including Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim, former Temple University coach John Chaney, former Detroit Pistons player and coach Ray Scott, former NBA coach and ESPN analyst Hubie Brown, and former NBA player and coach Bob Weiss &mdash; this book provides an intimate, first-hand account of small-town professional basketball at its best.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;Anyone who grew up in an Eastern League town will love the memories the book will bring back,&rdquo; Sobel said.
				Rosenstein talked about the three-point line that maybe didn&rsquo;t begin in the Eastern League, but was surely advanced by the league.
				&ldquo;Some of the greatest three point shooters were in the Eastern League,&rdquo; Rosenstein said. &ldquo;
				Boston Globe writer and ESPN contributor Bob Ryan wrote the forward for the book.
				&ldquo;Bob Ryan was a big help to us on this book,&rdquo; Rosenstein said.
				Sobel is the author of five children&rsquo;s books on U.S. history and government. He is an award-winning journalist, attorney, contributor to the Op-Ed pages of various newspapers, and was for many years the director of publications for a federal government agency.
				Rosenstein was a reporter for the American Banker newspaper and a financial writer for a federal government agency. He retired in 2020 to pursue his interest in writing books for adults and children.
				Sobel and Rosenstein live in the Washington D.C area.
				<ins>Testimonials </ins>
				<ins>&#8226; &ldquo;Syl and Jay brought me back to my brief playing days in the Eastern League! The small towns, the tiny gyms, the rabid fans, the colorful owners, and most of all the seriously good players who played with an edge because they fell one step short of the NBA. All the characters, the stories, and the brutally tough competition &#8211; it&rsquo;s all here. About time the Eastern League got some love!&rdquo; </ins>
				<ins>&mdash; Charley Rosen, author, basketball commentator, and former Eastern League player and CBA coach </ins>
				<ins>&#8226; &ldquo;The authors recognize men who gave their all to a game that gave little back. Men of character and intellect whose stories may never have been told, some of whom failed themselves but lifted themselves up to honor and play a game they loved. Meticulously researched, this book will impact their families forever.&rdquo; </ins>
				<ins>&mdash; Ray Scott, former NBA and ABA player and coach and former Eastern Leaguer </ins>
				<ins>&ldquo;Boxed Out of the NBA is an outstanding story on an unheralded era of professional basketball. Kudos to Syl Sobel and Jay Rosenstein for shining a light on the Eastern League and its many talented players.&rdquo; </ins>
				<ins>&mdash; John Chaney, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2001, former coach at Temple University, and former Eastern Leaguer (deceased) </ins>
				From the authors
				R0senstein and Sobel said their dads first took them to Eastern League games when they were seven years old.
				&ldquo;We fell in love immediately. We grew up as huge fans, used to listen to games on the radio, emulated the players in our own basketball games in the alley behind Jay&rsquo;s house. We went to college together, been friends for 60 years, and when we&rsquo;d get together we&rsquo;d start talking about the Eastern League.&rdquo;
				They talked about some of the best players they saw.
				&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve probably got to start with Sherman White, Jack Molinas, and Bill Spivey, who were banned from the NBA because of their implication in gambling scandals. They would have been among the very best in the NBA &#8211; ever.
				&ldquo;After that, Hal &ldquo;King&rdquo; Lear, Wally Choice, Richie Gaines, Tommy Hemans, Roman Turmon, Allie Seiden, Bobby McNeill, Stan Pawlak &#8211; the list goes on. Julius McCoy was the league&rsquo;s all-time top scorer, but he was a 6-3 post player. What would he have done in the NBA? Would have been fun to see. He could score on anyone. And Swish McKinney, just so much fun to watch and, boy, could he shoot!&rdquo;
				Rosenstein and Sobel described what life like for the players, holding down jobs during the week then having to travel to games in small towns.
				&ldquo;It was literally a life on the road because every player had to drive from New York, Philly, or wherever else to get to Saturday and Sunday night games in the Northeast &#8211; very often in scary snow and ice on mountain roads, and sometimes getting into accidents.
				&ldquo;Players either drove themselves or, to save gas money, they&rsquo;d arrange with other players, including guys from opposing teams, to form makeshift carpools that would meet at designated spots on the map and usually get everyone home in time to grab some sleep before their day jobs started on Monday morning.
				&ldquo;Given that the pay for Eastern League players typically started around $35 or $50 a game, many players needed those good, steady, better-paying jobs, typically as teachers and salesmen. Even with all the driving and the low pay, practically every Eastern League player we talked to recalled how much fun they had, how many friends they made, and how much their good experiences were worth it all.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;The dedicated and vocal fans were big reasons why towns like Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Sunbury, and Allentown could field competitive teams year after year. John Chaney told us many of these Eastern League players were thought of as &ldquo;heroes&rdquo; in these small towns, and he was right.&rdquo;
				Many funny stories
				&ldquo;Whitey Von Nieda, the league&rsquo;s first scoring leader, told us how Eddie White, owner and coach of the Wilkes-Barre Barons, used to have the backboards at the Kingston Armory tilted slightly to throw off Whitey&rsquo;s bank hook shot.
				&ldquo;Jim Boeheim told us that Art Heyman, when he was playing for Hartford, came onto the court one night and warmed up with Scranton because he didn&rsquo;t like the guys on his team.
				&ldquo;Art Pachter remembered having to pay &ldquo;insurance&rdquo; to a parking lot attendant in Camden to ensure that his car wouldn&rsquo;t have flat tires when the game was over. One night a referee came running up to Art in the parking lot after the game begging for a ride because his tires were flat. Pachter, who claimed the ref had hosed his team and cost them the game, drove off. &ldquo;What do you want me to do?&rdquo; Pachter said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t buy insurance.&rdquo;

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Memories pour out from new book about the Eastern Basketball League