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The Sure Cure. There are plenty of critics of modern basketball and its pellmell, high-scoring format. Says Fordham's Coach Johnny Bach disgustedly: "I look for an N.B.A. team, possibly the Celtics, to score over 200 points some time this season." Since shooting is forced by the clock and favored by the rules on fouls, the N.B.A. players are happily turning into "gunners"—once a term of contempt for the men who did nothing but shoot. "The kids are making shots we wouldn't even dare take," says Detroit's Coach McGuire, a crack playmaker during his career. "The science is going out of the game and it's becoming dull. Who wants to watch Wilt stuff them in? We need playmaking badly." Cousy notes wistfully: "The shooting has reached such a status that the playmaker is now unnecessary."
One of the most persuasive answers to the critics is success itself. With the settling of the Lakers in Los Angeles this year, the eight-team N.B.A. has become a truly national league. N.B.A. attendance, which jumped 23% last year, is up another 20% so far this season. Robertson's Royals, although last in their division, have already doubled last year's total attendance. Each weekend NBC-TV brings the pros' hell-bent skills into 12 million homes across the nation. From its TV contract the N.B.A. makes well over $500,000 and the league is comfortably in the black. Says N.B.A. President Maurice Podoloff, a 5-ft. 3-in. man who looks round and bouncy enough to dribble: "The public certainly likes the game. They come to watch. Believe me, if there's any slackening of interest, we'll find ways of curing it—and in a hurry." Certainly the surest way of curing basketball's troubles, if troubles there are, is to find more men with the all-round talents of Oscar Robertson. To him last week came the ultimate accolade from one professional to another. "I'd pay money," said Syracuse's Coach Hannum, "to watch Oscar Robertson play basketball." And for so long as even Robertson's rivals feel that way, the fans are sure to flock.
* Named for the mulatto who was the first man to be killed by British troops in the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770.