Early Stars of Basketball

We all know about players like George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, and Bill Russell, but who were the stars of basketball before these guys? Not many people know the answer to this question; few, if any, have heard of Bobby McDermott, LeRoy Edwards, Mel Riebe, Gene Englund, or Ed Sadowski. But in a bygone era of basketball history, these guys were the best of the best. They were the true pioneers of professional basketball.

Gene Englund

Englund was a six-foot-five forward who played his college basketball at the University of Wisconsin. Englund was never really a superstar, but he was an above-average player who would finish third all-time in scoring in the National Basketball League (NBL).

Englund would play one season in the NBA, appearing in 46 games during the league's inaugural season for both the Boston Celtics and Tri-Cities Blackhawks. By the time the NBA formed, however, Englund's career was nearly over.

LeRoy Edwards

Edwards was one of the first college basketball stars. The six-foot-four center played only two seasons for the Kentucky Wildcats but helped guide them to an NCAA championship in 1933. He would leave Kentucky after his sophomore season to join the Oshkosh All-Stars of the National Basketball League. While with Oshkosh, Edwards would lead the league in scoring from 1938 through 1940. He would also win league MVP during those years.

Edwards is the second all-time leading scorer in NBL history, behind only Bobby McDermott, with 3,221 career points. Edwards had a relatively short career, even by 1930s standards. He played only from 1936 through 1942, but despite that, he left an indelible mark on the game of basketball. Edwards would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970, a year before he died.

Bobby McDermott

Of all the guys listed, McDermott was the most like a modern player. McDermott was a shooter—the first great shooter in professional basketball. Though, by some accounts, he was only about a 30 percent shooter, this was vastly better than other outside shooters of his day, who were lucky if they made 10 percent of their shots. During McDermott's time, basketball was primarily an inside game, where big men roamed the paint and guards were not generally scorers.

McDermott would change all of that. Not only was he a good shooter, but he was also one of the few guards able to slash to the hoop for layups among the giants in the paint. Ironically, for a shooter, McDermott had very poor shooting form. He would shoot from his chest, which made his shot easier to block, but he was accurate enough that coaches let it go.

McDermott was also one of the first true high-school-to-pro players in the game's history. He quit school after one year and joined the Brooklyn Visitations of the American Basketball League.

McDermott would continue to play for the Visitations and helped lead them to the ABL championship in 1935. He would join the New York Professional League for one season before joining the Original Celtics. McDermott continued to bounce around from league to league and team to team until 1941, when he joined the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons of the National Basketball League.

McDermott's peak came with the Pistons and the NBL, as he would go on to become the league's all-time leading scorer and help lead Fort Wayne to two NBL titles. By 1947, McDermott's playing days were drawing to a close. He decided to join the Chicago American Gears as a player-coach despite receiving a nice offer from the newly formed Basketball Association of America (BAA).

During the 1946-47 season, McDermott was paired with a young, rising center named George Mikan. The Gears would go on to win the NBL championship. The next season, Mikan tried to convince McDermott to make the jump with him to the Minneapolis Lakers, but McDermott declined and continued to play in smaller leagues. When the NBL and BAA merged in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association, McDermott did not follow suit.

He would eventually retire from basketball, and very little is known about what happened following his playing career. McDermott died in 1963 and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Mel Riebe

Riebe, a 5-foot-11 guard from the College of Wooster, is widely considered to be the greatest player in the histories of both the Cleveland Chase Brassmen and Cleveland Allmen Transfers. Riebe played for the Cleveland teams from 1943 until they folded in 1947. He would then go on to join the Boston Celtics.

With the Allmen Transfers, Riebe would lead the NBL in scoring in 1944 and 1945. He would also become the first player in league history to average more than 20 points per game, which he accomplished in 1945 when he averaged 20.2 points per game.

Riebe was a scoring machine in his early days, but he lacked some of the other fundamentals that set players such as McDermott and Edwards apart. That is likely one reason he is less remembered than the other two.

When Riebe later joined the Cleveland Rebels, aging and the increased level of talent began to slow him down. After the 1946-47 season, Riebe left Cleveland and joined the Boston Celtics. He would play a season and a half with the Celtics before finishing his career with the Providence Steamrollers.

Riebe died in 1977 without having been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He remains one of the notable early professional basketball stars who has not been enshrined in Springfield.

Ed Sadowski

Sadowski, a Seton Hall product, joined the ranks of professional basketball in 1940 with the Indianapolis Kautskys. He then played with the Rebels alongside Mel Riebe. The pair made a formidable duo but were unable to lead the team to significant success.

In 1946, he joined the Toronto Huskies. He appeared in only 10 games because he also served as the team's first head coach. After being released by the Huskies, Sadowski once again returned to the Rebels.

Sadowski would later join the BAA's Boston Celtics, where he played one season, averaged just under 20 points per game, and became the first Boston Celtics player to earn All-BAA/NBA honors.

He would go on to play for the Philadelphia Warriors for two seasons and later for the original Baltimore Bullets.