The NBA hasn’t always been what it is today. In the earliest days, it was kind of cobbled together, and some guys turned down contracts because they had better offers from other employers.
No one made $100,000 a year before Wilt Chamberlain did so in 1965 (Bill Russell immediately asked Boston to pay him $100,001).
Transportation was not what it is today, either. No one flew charter, and the planes in the 1950s and 1960s were not all up to date, and even if they were, they were not what they are today. Nothing was computerized, for instance, and weather reporting was not what we expect today.
Winston-Salem native Tommy Hawkins, who started his career with the Minneapolis Lakers, underscores that with this story of a flight gone wrong. He tells the story calmly, but it’s hard not to think of Buddy Holly’s last trip.
In this case, they were fortunate enough to land in a cornfield rather than crash in one, but modern-day NBA players have no idea what their predecessors went through to build the league into a global powerhouse.
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