Dolph Schayes was known around the NBA as the Rainbow Kid.
He was famous for unlimited range from the perimeter, and he thought a high-arching shot had a better chance of hitting its mark than a line drive. He reasoned that a ball dropped from straight above a bucket would drop in more easily than a line-drive shot at the same target. In practices, he'd often shoot at a 14-inch basket fitted inside the regulation 18-inch hoop to improve his free throw accuracy.
Schayes' scientific approach to shooting got results. Twice in his career he hit 90 percent of his free throws and three times he led the league at the charity stripe. In 1950, he set a record with 35 rebounds in a game. A year later, he grabbed 1,080, the first player to notch 1,000 in a season. He was also the first player in league history to reach 15,000 points. When he retired in 1964, he had played more games (1,035) in more seasons (16) than any player in the history of the league. He had scored more points than any player except Bob Pettit. It is now commonplace for broadcasters to celebrate players for posting double-doubles, but Schayes averaged double digits in points and rebounds over 11 consecutive seasons, from 1951 through 1961.
"The only big man who had the shooting range of Dolph Schayes was Larry Bird," said Carl Braun, the Knicks' All-Star guard from the 1950s who competed against Schayes for 14 years. "He was the only guy who had legitimate 25-30 foot range," said Hall of Fame coach Alex Hannum, who coached Schayes for three years. "You could add five points to his career [average] if they had the 3-point shot back then."
Schayes' 25-30 footer was referred to his as the Sputnik, named after the Soviet satellite from 1957.
Besides distance shooting, Schayes was known for consistency and durability. He played in 12 consecutive All-Star Games from 1951 through 1962 and once played in 706 consecutive games. He began the streak on Feb. 17, 1952 and played through Dec. 27, 1961. He was finally forced to sit out after shattering his right cheekbone in a collision with the Philadelphia Warriors' Al Attles.
Beyond a doubt, Schayes was the greatest player ever to compete for the Syracuse Nationals. An Ice Belt franchise with rabid fans, the Nats enjoyed a tremendous advantage on their home court at the War Memorial Auditorium. Schayes was known as "Mr. Nat." He played all 16 of his seasons (1949-64) with Syracuse and helped them to their only title in 1955.
Dolph Schayes was born in New York City on May 19, 1928, just two months before the birth of another city kid and NBA great, Bob Cousy. Encouraged by his father, Schayes was active in most sports by the age of 10. By the time he graduated from grammar school, he had grown to 6-foot-1, tall enough to be the center for Creston Junior High. Playing for DeWitt Clinton High, he set a Bronx public school record by scoring 30 in a game against Christopher Columbus. And so by the time he graduated DeWitt Clinton in 1944, Schayes, now 6-7, had drawn the attention of New York University's legendary coach Howard Cann. Schayes accepted a basketball scholarship.
As a freshman eligible, he played center for NYU's varsity, a team that included future NBAers Ray Lumpp, Frank Mangiapane and Sid Tanenbaum. In Schayes' first season, the NYU Violets played for the 1945 NCAA title against Oklahoma A&M. Just 16 years old, Schayes found himself up against Bob "Foothills" Kurland, a 7-foot junior renowned as the best college player of his day. After the 1944 season, the NCAA changed its rules to prohibit goaltending because Kurland had led his Aggies to a 27-6 mark by mastering the technique of swatting shots away on their downward flight.
With the new goaltending rule, many observers thought the Aggies would be less effective. But they finished the '45 campaign with a 23-4 mark. In their Finals matchup, Kurland got the better of the smaller Schayes, outscoring him 22-6, as Oklahoma A&M prevailed for the national championship, 49-45.
In the years to come, coach Cann observed Schayes' incredible drive to improve. He even started to eat his lunch in the gym so that he could shoot a few extra baskets between classes. By his senior year, he was a gangly 6-9, still weighing less than 200 pounds. But he had won the Haggerty Award, voted by New York sportswriters as the outstanding player of the year in the New York area.
It seemed a foregone conclusion that the New York Knicks would scoop up Schayes, as they had done with so many other area players. His NYU teammates Lumpp and Tanenbaum had gone on to play for the Knicks. True to expectations, New York, then of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), drafted him in 1948. But there were two pro leagues competing for players and the Tri-Cities Hawks of the National Basketball League (NBL), then in a fight with the BAA for players, also bid for Schayes. But the Hawks were cash-poor and, realizing they would not be able to sign him and not wanting to lose him to a BAA team, transferred their negotiating rights to Syracuse.
Schayes still wanted to go to the Knicks, but team president Ned Irish cited a league rule that prevented them from paying a rookie more than $6,000. Rumor had it that the rule had frequently been violated, so Schayes wanted more. Syracuse offered $7,500 and Schayes accepted.
The following year, the league merger brought the Nats and Knicks into competition. Although the Knicks reached the Finals in 1951, 1952 and 1953, they didn't win. "Our failure to win a championship can be traced to our not getting Schayes," moaned Irish. "We've always missed because we never had a man who could average 20 points over a season." But Syracuse hadn't won either.
Minneapolis' stranglehold on the league continued through 1954, when Syracuse played them in the Finals. Schayes broke his arm and played the series wearing a cast. His inspirational presence was not enough, however, as the Lakers won the seesaw series in seven games. It was the second close call for Syracuse, which had lost to Minneapolis in six games in the 1950 Finals.
After the 1954 season, Syracuse owner and bowling alley proprietor Danny Biasone -- who Dolph Schayes labeled the "Wilbur Wright of basketball" -- invented the 24-second clock. Now the game took off. The league average went from 79 to 93 points per game in the first year. No longer were NBA games plodding, freeze-the-ball contests.
Syracuse was the first to take advantage of the new up-tempo style. They rode playmaker Paul Seymour and Schayes, both All-Stars, to the Finals against Fort Wayne. Both teams had finished with 43-29 records, but Syracuse was quicker and had four games at the War Memorial. In Game 7, they outlasted the Pistons 92-91 as guard George King hit a free throw and stole a pass in the final seconds. Schayes averaged his usual robust 19 points and 13 rebounds for the series. The Nats kept their unblemished 26-0 homecourt record against Fort Wayne.
"Let me tell you, Dolph Schayes was the ultimate warrior," said Earl Lloyd, the first black player in the history of the NBA, who was Schayes' teammate on the 1955 championship team. "Dolph Schayes was slow afoot. When he jumped for a rebound, you could slide a piece of paper under his shoes. But he was a fabulous rebounder and a tremendous passer. Here's a guy that I have more respect for than most superstars. A lot of these guys are anointed; Dolph Schayes was not anointed."
It was the Nats' first and last title.
New York's missed opportunity in not getting Schayes continued to haunt Irish. In 1957, he offered Syracuse three "first stringers" -- Dick McGuire, Harry Gallatin and Sweetwater Clifton -- in exchange for him. "I don't blame Syracuse for turning down the trade," Irish said later. "Schayes has been holding the team together for years. He's the only player close to Bob Pettit as a one-man powerhouse."
"Schayes is a once-in-a-lifetime player," Biasone said in turning down the offer. "If I trade him, I might as well fold the team."
Schayes posted a personal best 24.9 scoring average in 1957. But for all his scoring, Schayes felt like an incomplete player when camped out on the perimeter. "I feel I'm cheating when I score from the outside," he explained. "Distance shooting is just a trick, like fancy driving or figure skating. Anyone can perfect it with practice. You're not a basketball player if you can't drive. Sometimes when I miss a couple of long shots I ask myself, 'What the hell am I doing out there? I should be under the boards, fighting for rebounds.' Syracuse hasn't got a lot of height, and my job is to get the ball."
While Syracuse would not win another title, as Bill Russell changed the landscape of the NBA for more than a decade beginning with the 1957 playoffs, the Nats never failed to make the playoffs in the Dolph Schayes era.
By the time Schayes, who was then 35 and making $25,000, retired 24 games into the 1963-64 season, the Syracuse franchise had moved to Philadelphia. He retired with 19,247 points, second only to Pettit. Schayes was a six-time All-NBA first-team player and was consistently among the league's leading scorers and rebounders for more than a decade.
Schayes became Philadelphia's coach from 1964 through 1966, winning Coach of the Year in his last season as the 76ers, led by Wilt Chamberlain, won 55 and lost 25. But in the Eastern Division Finals, the Sixers lost to Boston in five games, and Hannum replaced Schayes as Philly's coach. A year later, the 76ers won 69 games and took the NBA title. Schayes coached the Buffalo Braves in 1971 and was replaced after one game in 1972. Again his timing was poor: It was the pre-Bob McAdoo era in Buffalo. He later served as the NBA's supervisor of officials. His coaching mark was 151-172, with a 9-12 record in the playoffs.
Dolph's son, Danny, played 18 years with seven different NBA teams and retired in 1999. It was late in the 2005 season that Dolph Schayes' name surfaced again. Allen Iverson had reached 17,000 points, becoming the fourth member of the 76ers to do so, behind only Hal Greer (21,586), Schayes (19,249), and Julius Erving (18,364).
For his place in history, Schayes was recognized. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972. He had already been selected for the league's 25th Anniversary Team in 1970 and was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996.
In 2005, a writer from the Brooklyn Jewish Press asked, "Where have all the great Jewish players gone?" and referred to Schayes as the "greatest Jewish player of all."
He was more than that. The Rainbow Kid from the Bronx had already gotten his due: The player who had scored more points than any other in the 1950s was recognized as one of the 50 best ever.
Basketball historian Ken Shouler has served as managing editor and a writer for "Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia."