Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
November 28, 2003, Washington Post

You Can't Beat the Clock

There have been lots of low-scoring games in the National Basketball Association (NBA) this season. In one game, the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Toronto Raptors 73-56. In another, the Indiana Pacers outscored the Denver Nuggets 71-60.

But these games are not even close to the lowest-scoring game in NBA history. On Nov. 22, 1950, the Fort Wayne (later Detroit) Pistons beat the Minneapolis (later Los Angeles) Lakers 19-18! That score sounds more like a high-scoring lacrosse game or a third-grade hoops contest than a pro basketball game.

So how did it happen? The Lakers had George Mikan, a center with an unstoppable hook shot and a 28-point-per-game average. Mikan was the Shaq of 50 years ago. The Pistons figured that the best way to beat Mikan and the Lakers was to play keep away with the ball and not let Big George shoot. In those days, there were no rules that said that a team had to shoot within a set time limit.

So the Pistons played keep away almost the entire night. The Pistons took only 13 shots during the 48-minute game. These days, Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson takes that many shots in a quarter.

In the early years of the NBA, there were lots of low-scoring games, and the people who ran the league decided that something had to be done. They were afraid that no one would want to come to games if the teams scored a basket only every few minutes.

So Danny Biasone, the owner of the Syracuse Nationals, invented the 24-second shot clock. The clock and a new rule forced a team to shoot the ball and at least hit the rim within 24 seconds. Otherwise, a buzzer on the clock sounds and the team has to give the ball to the opponents.

Biasone used simple math to come up with the number 24. He figured that in the 1950s each team averaged about 60 shots a game. That's 120 shots for both teams. Then he divided the time of the game (48 minutes or 2,880 seconds) by the number of shots (120). That's right, 2,880 divided by 120 is 24.

The clock worked. Within a few years, NBA teams were averaging more than 100 points a game. Coaches could not sit on a lead by having their players pass the ball around or have the team's best ballhandler dribble circles around everyone.

Now, college games have a 35-second clock. There's no clock in many high school and kids games, but it is tricky for young players to stall. You might pass the ball out of bounds or dribble the ball off your foot.

So the next time you are lucky enough to be watching a high-scoring pro or college game with lots of fast-breaking, end-to-end action, remember that it wasn't for Danny Biasone and his wonderful invention, the 24-second clock, you might be watching a 19-18 snoozer.