Steinbrenner’s Magical Basketball Beginnings
In the wake of baseball mogul George Steinbrenner’s death Tuesday, it’s worth remembering that more than a decade before his baseball reign, he shook up another sport.
Steinbrenner entered the sports franchise business for the first time with his purchase of the Cleveland Pipers, one eighth of the American Basketball League (ABL) formed in protest by Harlem Globetrotter’s owner Abe Saperstein in 1961 after the NBA refused to give him the Los Angeles team to which he felt entitled.
Steinbrenner’s players that season included d**k Barnett, later an important member of the Knicks’ 1970 and 73’ championship teams, and previously a Tennessee State player for John McLendon, who became the first African-American head coach of a professional basketball team when he was hired by Steinbrenner in 1962.
The hiring was historic not just because it was the first time an African-American coached a professional sports team, but also because it had a hand in the Pipers championship that year, despite that being the clubs only season in the ABL.
d**k Barnett said on Steinbrenner: "[Steinbrenner’s] behavior and affiliation mirrored his involvement with the New York Yankees. He was always involved at the micro level. Hands on."
Ironically, Steinbrenner eventually fired McLendon—allegedly after the latter traded one of his players at halftime to the team the Pipers were playing. Whatever the case, the move shows the controversial approach Steinbrenner would come to be known for, an ability to separate the personal from the professional in order to gain professional advantage.
Barnett recalled that the firing of McLendon might have been “an exaggeration,” but acknowledged that Bill Sharman, who Steinbrenner hired, later coached the Lakers to an NBA title in 1972 and a record of 69-13, the then league’s best, demonstrating Steinbrenner’s insight.
Barnett chuckled: "Unlike LeBron James, Cleveland won the first ABL title under Sharman in 1962, with a roster that also included future Celtics guard Larry Siegfried.”
He also spoke of Steinbrenner’s involvement with other members of his franchise. "His involvement with the coaches in the locker room [involved] coming and usurping their authority in the traditional way coaches interact with players," Barnett theorized. "It was [like he did with] Billy Martin at the micro level."
In many ways one wouldn’t be far off in drawing a parallel between Steinbrenner’s methods and those of current Miami Heat president Pat Riley, who is similarly known for usurping coaching authority. In 2006, Riley announced mid-season that he was taking over coaching responsibilities because Stan Van Gundy was stepping down for personal reasons. However, there was widespread speculation that Riley ran Van Gundy out of Miami—and that speculation was somewhat vindicated when Van Gundy's "personal reasons" seemed to evaporate after one season, when he returned to headcoaching with the Orlando Magic. Riley went on to coach that team to the NBA Championship, but re-retired when the team hit misfortune the next season.
d**k Barnett, who actually played for the Syracuse Nationals in the NBA before moving to Cleveland, left the franchise after one season to sign on with the Lakers, who traded him to the Knicks in 1965.
At the same time, Steinbrenner was hatching a plan with Maurice Podoloff, the NBA commissioner at the time, to gain entry back into the NBA via one of Barnett’s would-be future Knicks’ teammates. Steinbrenner signed Ohio State star Jerry Lucas to an exclusive contract with the sub clause that the Pipers and fellow ABL’s Kansas City Steers would merge and enter the NBA. An NBA schedule printed in 1963-4 showed the Knicks opening the season against the Pipers.
The plot thickened when the ABL sued the invested parties to block the franchise move, and Steinbrenner ultimately ended up folding the team as opposed to re-entering the ABL, which itself fell to dust on Dec. 31 of 1962.
Barnett shook his head, and smiled humbly the way only elders do when remembering the beauty of moments passed. "Back then, he was a younger man and obviously very ambitious, creative and imaginative. The Cleveland Pipers were his maiden voyage."
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