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Over and Back: The NBA’s 25th anniversary team revisited

By Jason Mann

George Mikan reaches for basketball during Minneapolse Lakers practice at 69th Regiment Armory. (Photo by Seymour Wally/NY Daily News via Getty Images)
George Mikan reaches for basketball during Minneapolse Lakers practice at 69th Regiment Armory. (Photo by Seymour Wally/NY Daily News via Getty Images) /
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Jason Mann and Rich Kraetsch take a look at the NBA’s Silver Anniversary team in 1971 and what it says about where the NBA stood at the time in the latest episode of the Over and Back Classic NBA Podcast.

Topics discussed on the episode:

  • The merits of the actual choices of the team: Paul Arizin, Bob Cousy, Bob Davies, Joe Fulks, Sam Jones, George Mikan, Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Dolph Schayes, and Bill Sharman
  • The decision to not include then-active players like Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor
  • The background of the selection committee that chose the nominees for the team, including Celtics coach/GM Red Auerbach, Knicks president Ned Irish, and Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb, and how their biases may have shaped the selections
  • A deep dive on some of the lesser-known nominees for the team, including Bob Feerick, Tom Gola, Slater Martin, George Yardley, and Max Zaslofsky
  • The fact that 1971 was the 25th anniversary of the founding of the BAA, not the formation of the NBA in 1949 — thus ignoring the legacy of the NBL, one of two predecessor leagues for the NBA
  • Players who seem to have been overlooked in the process, including Cliff Hagan, Jack Twyman, and Larry Foust
  • Who Jason and Rich would have chosen for their Silver Anniversary teams

Download this episode of the Over and Back Classic NBA Podcast.

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