1. Bobby McDermott
The number one guy on the list is the most like a modern player. McDermott was a shooter, the first shooter in pro basketball, though by some accounts he was only about a 30% shooter, this was vastly improved from other outside shooters of his day which were lucky if they hit 10% of their shots. During McDermotts time the game was an inside game only where big men roamed like wild animals in the paint and guards were not scorers. McDermott would change all that, not only was he a good shooter but he was one of the few guards able to slash to the hoop in the land of giants for layups. Ironically, for a shooter McDermott had very poor form, he would shoot from the chest which is easily blocked but he was accurate so coaches let it go.
McDermott was also one of the first true high school to pro players in the games history. He quite school after a year joined up with the Brooklyn Visitations of the American Basketball League. McDermott would continue to play in the Visitations and 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 would continue 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 was with the Pistons and the NBL as he would go on to become the leagues all-time leading scorer and help lead them 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 a nice offer from the newly former Basketball Association of America (BAA). In the 46-47 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 and smaller leagues.
When the NBL and BAA merged in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association, McDermott did not follow suit. He would retire from the game of basketball and very little is known about what happened following his career. McDermott died in 1963 and was elected to the Basketball hall-of-fame in 1988.
Season Tm Lg G FG FT FTA PTS FG FT FTA PTS
1941-42 FWZ NBL 21 115 47 79 277 5.5 2.2 3.8 13.2
1942-43 FWZ NBL 23 132 52 80 316 5.7 2.3 3.5 13.7
1943-44 FWZ NBL 22 123 60 80 306 5.6 2.7 3.6 13.9
1944-45 FWZ NBL 30 258 87 128 603 8.6 2.9 4.3 20.1
1945-46 FWZ NBL 34 184 90 119 458 5.4 2.6 3.5 13.5
1946-47 TOT NBL 41 182 99 141 463 4.4 2.4 3.4 11.3
1946-47 CAG NBL 27 123 58 81 304 4.6 2.1 3.0 11.3
1946-47 FWZ NBL 14 59 41 60 159 4.2 2.9 4.3 11.4
1947-48 TOT NBL 53 245 97 132 587 4.6 1.8 2.5 11.1
1947-48 TCB NBL 37 191 67 93 449 5.2 1.8 2.5 12.1
1947-48 SHR NBL 16 54 30 39 138 3.4 1.9 2.4 8.6
1948-49 TOT NBL 63 226 121 164 573 3.6 1.9 2.6 9.1
1948-49 HCB NBL 18 56 37 51 149 3.1 2.1 2.8 8.3
1948-49 TCB NBL 45 170 84 113 424 3.8 1.9 2.5 9.4
NBL 444 2118 970 1360 5206 4.8 2.2 3.1 11.7
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