The SID calendar sheet on October 30th: Premiere for the “Shot Clock”

There are 44 lightbulbs in it, red and white, plus a bell that goes off after 24 seconds. It’s hard to believe that this rather simple technical device changed the NBA and basketball forever almost 70 years ago.

We are talking about the first “shot clock”, the throwing clock that limits the attack time. On October 30, 1954, the box celebrated its premiere in the first game of the new NBA season between the Rochester Royals and the Boston Celtics. Today, the clock is indispensable, there are now advocates for an introduction in handball as well.

Danny Biasone, first owner of the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers), developed the clock on which the seconds count down from 24 to 0. The aim was to make the game faster. Holding the ball for a long time paralyzed the league, the result was often administered, there were far too few throws.

In 1950 the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers 19:18. Lowest score in an NBA game to date. It couldn’t be more unattractive, the clock made such excesses history, others followed suit. The world association FIBA ​​introduced a 30-second time limit in 1956; in 2000, based on the NBA, it was reduced to 24.

In Syracuse / New York, the birthplace, there is a replica of the first clock in Armory Square. The shot clock says “changed basketball and saved the NBA”. It’s just more than a tin box.