Max Zaslofsky
Many people tend to ignore the very early years of the NBA (or BAA as it was called for 3 years), but there were some pretty good players back then, and Zaslofsky was probably the league's first star player, even before George Mikan came along.
In 1946-47, the very first year of the BAA, Zaslofsky was named to the All-BAA First Team at only 21 years old, and he remained the youngest player named to the First Team for nearly 50 years, when LeBron James took that honor away from him. With all of the great young players who have come through since then, wouldn't you have thought one of them would have made the First Team? As it stands, he is still the second-youngest ever given that honor.
In 1947-48, he led the league in scoring and would have been named the MVP if the award existed back then. His 21.0 points per game doesn't look so impressive today, which may be another reason that he is overlooked, but the average team only scored 72.7 per game back then, because there was no shot clock to increase the speed of the game. If you adjusted his scoring average for today's faster-paced league, his average would be 28.8, which is considered a pretty good average.
Another reason people don't remember him is that his best years were spent with a team that no longer exists. He was named to the All-BAA or All-NBA First Team in each of his first four seasons with the Chicago Stags, but when they went out of business in 1950, his rights were given to the New York Knicks in the dispersal draft. The fact that there is no team around to celebrate his accomplishments makes him more likely to be forgotten.
Zaslofsky never won a title as a player, but he did play in the NBA Finals 4 times, twice as the best player on his team, and once as its second option. The fourth appearance was after his prime, but the fact remains that he was largely responsible for 3 teams appearing in the NBA Finals, a huge accomplishment in any era.
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