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Sports Quiz
Basketball: Double Dribble
Get ready for the second half of our basketball quiz, featuring even more great Jewish "roundball" and "b-ball" players (those are two nicknames for basketball!). Here’s the tip-off!
1. The first points ever scored in an NBA game were by a Jewish player! In 1946, Ossie Schectman made NBA history as a member of the Knicks, by throwing the first _____ in NBA history!
2. Many Jewish players are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. One is Dolph Schayes, who was an NBA All-Star 12 years in a row, mostly with the 76ers. He retired while holding 5 NBA records, including highest scorer! He is credited with redefining his position on the court, now sometimes called the power:
3. Barney Sedran is considered one of the greatest pros of basketball’s early days. Nicknamed “The Mighty Mite,” Barney is the shortest player ever in the Hall of Fame, standing only 5-foot-4! But he was a skillful player who once scored 34 points on a court too poor to buy any:
4. Barney and his friend Max Friedman were known as The Heavenly Twins. He was stuck in Europe after serving in World War I, so he started a basketball league for his fellow US troops. The game caught on, and Max ended up organizing a 600-team tournament for all of Europe! This led to the game becoming part of the _____ Games:
5. Hall of Famer Sam Balter was the only American Jew to win a Gold Medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. This was the first time basketball was an Olympic sport (thanks to Max in Question 4!). But also, the 1936 Olympics are historically important, especially to Jews, because they were hosted by the:
6. Tal Brody was born in New Jersey and led the U.S. team to the Maccabiah title in 1965, then switched to the Israeli team, leading them to the title in 1969. He made aliyah in 1970, then led his Israeli team to be the European Cup champs in 1977. But who convinced him to stay in Israel to begin with? None less than Israeli Army hero:
7. The first time the WNBA had a draft, in 1997, Jamila Wideman was the third one picked. She played for three WNBA teams in four years, and then an Israeli team that took the championship! During the WNBA off-season, Jamila created a program at her college, Stanford, so the women’s basketball team can tutor poor kids, and another that teaches teens how to play ball and read instead of committing crimes. Jamila’s WNBA teams included the:
8. Max Zaslofsky set a record as the youngest All-NBA First Team member in 1946, when he was 21 years old. The record stood for almost 60 years (broken by LeBron James)! He retired as the 3rd highest scorer ever, and was named one of the best players in the first 25 years of the NBA. Max’s first pro team was in Chicago, named for a different horned male animal than the Bulls! They were called the:
9. Neal Walk was drafted into the NBA second… but second only to Kareem Abdul Jabbar! Neal played for five years in the pros, and then for Israel! Even after spinal surgery, he still played basketball, and in 1990 was named _______ Athlete of the Year by (the first) President Bush!
10. Eddie Gottlieb excelled as a player, coach, and owner, but he is best known as one of the founders of the NBA itself! He did it by merging two existing leagues. The team he coached, the Philadelphia Warriors, won championships both before and after the merger! But first he was a player, leading his team to 7 pre-NBA league titles. “NBA,” of course, stands for National Basketball:

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