The title of this week's blog post is not an exaggeration. This particular game provided the league's roots and the league would simply not be how it is now without this one game. This goes way back to 1964, back in a time where the NBA was a lot different than it is now.
The league had only 9 teams, Basketball itself was not very popular, and players were treated like garbage. Even though the players created a union to represent themselves, the owners ignored each and every one of their requests. Teams did not have full-time trainers, the league forced players to play extreme back to back games, for example, a Friday night game, then a Saturday afternoon game right after, and players were simply not getting paid enough. Players' voices were not being heard. This situation was so serious that there would be meetings and the NBA commissioner would not think that players are worthy enough to come into his office. The players decided that enough is enough and something had to be done. This brings us to the 1964 NBA All-Star game, which would be one of the most important moments in NBA history. Players were so fed up at this point, so they began to discuss with each other in the weeks leading up to the game, and made the decision that if the owners did not give in to their demands, they were not going to play in the all-star game. They were basically going to strike. Players showed up to the game and told them that if owners don't treat them in the proper way, they will not play, and told the owners to go out on the court and tell the audience why there would be no game. This was a risky move from the players, considering the owners had so much power over the players. Owners could have cut any players involved in the strike.
Jerry West stated "The players were controlled by the owners" "All of us felt like we were slaves in the sense we had no rights" "It was the stone ages of basketball". He was right. Players were not even getting paid enough, especially in the conditions that they were forced to play in. In the locker room during the all-star game, 20 players took a vote on what to do, and 11 players stated that they did not want to play unless they were given proper rights. Owners lost their minds, considering this was not just any normal all-star game, but the first all-star game that would be televised. To not have a game would be an absolute catastrophe. Owners would tell many players, "if you aren't going to play in this game, you will probably never play again". The energy in locker room changes as they began to tell each other to go f*ck themselves. Threats were made. The owners finally realized after a while that the players were not playing around. As it became closer and closer to the game, it was the owners who were now panicking. Not having an all-star game would deal a horrible blow to the sport of basketball. Finally, the owners came back into the locker room and caved into every single one of the players' demands. They'd have a pension system in place, they'd have full-time trainers, they wouldn't be forced to play extreme back to back games, and perhaps most importantly, the player association would have a real voice and bargaining power in discussions. On this fateful day of the 1964 All-star game, all the seeds for everything that the league has become were planted.
