Albersheim's 2015 November Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/14/2015
Since the beginning of the NBA, there have only been 4 NBA commissioner’s (first year 1946). Of the 4 commissioners, Lawrence Larry O’Brien served the shortest term. O’Brien was the NBA commissioner from 1975-84 before David Stern took his place.
Larry O'Brien was appointed in 1975 by the National Basketball Association to serve nationally as its commissioner, where he directed the successful ABA-NBA merger that brought the American Basketball Association into the NBA, negotiated television-broadcast agreements with CBS Television, and saw game attendance increase significantly. He continued this service through 1984. The NBA Championship Trophy was renamed in 1984 the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy in honor of his service to the sport of basketball.
However, his league was troubled by public relations issues through his tenure, especially after the merger. He was generally pushed by his staff into many of his decisions, most notably by his successor as NBA commissioner, David Stern. Many consider Stern the driving force behind the television contracts with CBS and rise in game attendance, as well as several crucial issues that predicated the rise of the NBA in the early 1980s.
O'Brien was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in his birthplace, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Unlike today, back in the 1970’s – 80’s, it was not very common that a sporting goods store would stock a large amount of these official leather NBA game balls if at all. This may have also been due to the demand by the fans (there wasn't a high demand). If you did have the opportunity to purchase one, they were exorbitantly expensive. Because the NBA wasn’t the financial giant that it is today, teams rarely gave these balls away. If you were a diehard fan; you were more likely to purchase a rubber version of the ball during this time period. However, this is the real deal that the players used.
We offer an original and extremely scarce "Wilson" leather NBA game ball. Exhibiting some nice wear throughout, this historic sphere dates from Larry O'Brien's days in the 1970’s as league commissioner. On the bottom seams, it appears the original owner wrote their intials on the ball. We would say finding an original NBA ball from this era would be on the scarcity level (or close to that) of an official ABA basketball from the 1970’s.
On a side note, per the Wilson sporting goods catalog in 1978, brand new official NBA balls were selling retail for $62 each, limiting many casual fans from even contemplating a purchase of one of these balls.
This is a fairly nice example that is fully inflated.