Seventy years ago this October, a group of athletes from New York City drove upstate to cross the border into Toronto. The occasion: the first-ever regular season game in the Basketball Association of America, the short-lived precursor to the NBA.
En route to Toronto, the first squad of the New York Knickerbockers was stopped at the border by a skeptical customs inspector. Who were these self-proclaimed professional athletes with names like Schectman, Kaplowitz, Hertzberg and Militzok? He’d heard of the New York Rangers, but not the Knicks.
“I don’t imagine you’ll find many people up this way who’ll understand your game, or have an interest in it,” said the patrolman.