72 years ago today: The 24-second shot clock makes its NBA debut, and Danny Biasone’s napkin math speeds up the game

Seventy-two years ago today, on October 30, 1954, the NBA played its first regular-season games with a 24-second shot clock. Teams now had to shoot within 24 seconds of getting the ball, or give it up. The league’s first game of the season, the Rochester Royals against the Boston Celtics at Edgerton Park Arena, ended 98-95 for Rochester, and the pro game has run on a 24-second rhythm ever since.

The idea came from Danny Biasone, the owner of the Syracuse Nationals, and his general manager, Leo Ferris. It was one of the rare rule changes that worked right away. League scoring jumped from 79.5 points a game to 93.1 in a single season.

On this day in 1954… the 24-second shot-clock debuted in the NBA.

Which of these wild baskets to beat the shot-clock is your favorite? #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/LfFFX30jhj

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) October 30, 2021

A league that was stalling itself to death

Before 1954, a team with a lead could simply hold the ball. Opponents had to foul to get it back, and games turned into long stretches of dribbling and free throws. Fans paid to watch and got very little action.

The worst example came on November 22, 1950. The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18 in Minneapolis, still the lowest-scoring game in NBA history. Fort Wayne held the ball for minutes at a time to keep it away from George Mikan, who scored 15 of the Lakers’ 18 points. The Lakers made four field goals all night, and Mikan made all of them. Larry Foust won it for the Pistons with a hook shot in the final seconds.

Biasone’s own team was part of another warning sign. In a March 1953 playoff game, Boston beat Syracuse 111-105 in four overtimes. The two teams spent the overtimes fouling each other, and Bob Cousy scored 50 points, making 30 of 32 free throws. Both are still NBA playoff records.

Napkin math in a Syracuse bowling alley

Biasone was born Dante Biasone in Miglianico, Italy, in 1909, and came to Syracuse as a small child. He owned a bowling alley and coffee shop on the east side of the city, the Eastwood Sports Center, and founded the Nationals in 1946. In the spring of 1954, he sat there with Ferris and team scout Emil Barboni and worked out a number.

The math was simple. In the games they liked best, each team took about 60 shots, or 120 combined. A 48-minute game has 2,880 seconds. Divide 2,880 by 120 and you get 24. Ferris is remembered for scribbling formulas on a napkin, and college coach Howard Hobson had pushed a time limit before them, but Biasone was the one who sold it to the league.

On August 10, 1954, Biasone staged a test scrimmage for league executives at Blodgett Vocational High School in Syracuse, his old school. Red Auerbach, Clair Bee and Eddie Gottlieb were among the people watching. Players rushed their shots at first, but the game looked faster almost right away. The owners adopted the clock for the 1954-55 season, along with a second change: once a team committed six fouls in a quarter, every extra foul cost it a bonus free throw.

Opening night with the clock

The Rochester-Boston game was a close one under the new rules. The Royals led 27-17 after the first quarter and 55-42 at halftime. Boston won the third quarter 29-11 to go ahead 71-66, and Rochester won the fourth 32-24 to hold on.

• Final: Rochester Royals 98, Boston Celtics 95, Saturday, October 30, 1954, at Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York. Stan Stutz and Arnold Heft officiated.
• Royals: Bobby Wanzer scored 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting. Arnie Risen added 17 points and 15 rebounds, Bob Davies scored 13, Boris Nachamkin 11 and Tom Marshall 10.
• Celtics: Bill Sharman led everyone with 24 points. Ed Macauley scored 21, Cousy had 18 and made all 10 of his free throws, and rookie Frank Ramsey scored 15 in his NBA debut.
• The free-throw line: The six-foul rule showed up right away. Boston made 41 of 47 free throws and Rochester made 30 of 37, and the teams combined for 57 personal fouls.

Two other games were played that night. The Fort Wayne Pistons won 91-72 at Milwaukee in Bob Pettit’s first game with the Hawks, and the New York Knicks beat the Lakers 94-83 at Madison Square Garden in Minneapolis’ first season without Mikan, who had retired.

The numbers after one season

The change was easy to see in the box scores. Teams went from 75.4 field-goal attempts a game in 1953-54 to 86.6 in 1954-55, and scoring rose by 13.6 points a game. “Danny Biasone saved the NBA with the 24-second rule, make no mistake about that,” said Charlie Eckman, a former NBA coach and referee.

Biasone also got a title out of it. The Nationals, a quick team led by Dolph Schayes, went 43-29 and beat Fort Wayne 92-91 in Game 7 of the 1955 NBA Finals. George King made the go-ahead free throw and then stole the ball in the final seconds. It was the franchise’s first championship. The Nationals moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and became the 76ers, and the Royals are now the Sacramento Kings.

Twenty-four seconds everywhere

Other levels of the game followed slowly. Men’s college basketball did not add a shot clock until the 1985-86 season, starting at 45 seconds, and international basketball cut its clock from 30 seconds to 24 in 2000. The NBA has changed its clock only at the edges since then. Since the 2018-19 season, for example, it has reset to 14 seconds after an offensive rebound.

Biasone died in Syracuse in 1992 at 83. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. Five years later, Syracuse put up a working shot clock monument in Armory Square, honoring Biasone, Ferris, Barboni and the rule that made the modern NBA possible.