Basketball Hall of Fame Part 3

 What's the most iconic thing you think about when you think of the sport of basketball? For me, what I think of is the jersey designs. The colors, the fonts, the numbers...They tell you, in just a fraction of a second, who you are looking at and even, in many cases, where the game you're watching is being held. 

The Basketball Hall of Fame has an incredible collection of jerseys on display, and in fact I would say makes up the largest portion of the collection. In fact, I would say the most surprising and amazing artifact in the museum is a jersey, which you'll see in this post...

The Sheboygan Red Skins were an NBL team that played one year in the NBA before essentially being kicked out. It is one of nine teams in NBA history to not have a single card produced in history. 

Jackets aren't jerseys but fit the best in here. This is from the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, known today as the Detroit Pistons.

A George Mikan jersey! 

Another Mikan jersey, this one rarer! The Chicago American Gears was an NBL team that Mikan played for during the 1946-47 season and one month of 1947-48. When this team folded, the players were dispersed and Mikan ended up with the Minneapolis Lakers, and NBA History was forever changed. Mikan was the first true superstar and the game today is still directly impacted by him...the shot clock exists because there was a game where the way they played was to have him hold the ball above the heads of the opponents (and he was only 6-10, but that was tall at the time) and the final score was 16-15 in a game. Goaltending also exists as an attempt to thwart him. 

1937-38 season Jersey Reds jersey from the ABL.

Bob Davies' Rochester Royals jersey from the 1948-49 season. 

Paul Seymour's Syracuse Nationals jersey

Max Zaslofsky's 1946-47 Chicago Stags jersey. 

Here we go...to me, the most amazing artifact in the entire museum. This isn't just "a" Wilt Chamberlain jersey...it's THE jersey...yes, the one he scored 100 points in, that fateful night back in 1962. The night he set the all-time scoring record that still stands, along with multiple other records still on the books.

Yeah, THIS jersey!

Amazingly, it was saved by the Warriors' PR director Harvey Pollack, who also wrote the 100 on the piece of paper Wilt is holding in this famous photo (the only image known from the game) 

This is the jersey Russell Westbrook wore the night he cemented becoming only the second player in history to average a triple double (with the caveat that Wilt Chamberlain would have if the NBA had bothered to count blocks and rebounds before 1973)

Devin Booker's jersey from the night he scored 70 on the Celtics- a game I watched as it happened.

Rookie season Allen Iverson jersey

This display case honors the 2020 inductees.

Jason Kidd's jersey from the night the Mavs won the Championship. My mom's favorite player!

Sadly, the McGinnis ball was the ONLY ABA artifact I saw in the entire Hall of Fame.

Even legendary Referee Dick Bavetta has his jersey in the Hall. 

But wait, what if you say the jersey isn't the most iconic part of basketball, but the ball is? Well stay tuned because next time we will look at a whole bunch of historical basketballs and trophies!