▶ A basketball game dominated by short Jews.
There is a movie called ‘Uncut Gems’ (2019) starring Adam Sandler. This is a work that attracted attention as it was directed by brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, who are as famous as Korea’s Ryu Seung-wan and Ryu Seung-beom. A noisy and hectic movie from start to finish, it’s still recommended. Sandler appears as a Jewish jeweler in New York, and Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett appears as himself. Sandler asks a scene that caught his eye while the opal stone and basketball were tangled together. Do you know who scored the first NBA point?
The correct answer is Ossi Schechtman, a Jewish player for the New York Knicks. The first game of the NBA’s predecessor, the BAA, was held in Toronto on November 1, 1946. I also won the match.
Since I have long legs and am Jewish, everyone will be surprised. Ben Stiller, who is well-known as a Jewish actor, often makes self-deprecating jokes about his short stature. My short stature was passed down to me, but my father, who was a bus driver, drove with a thick phone book on his back.
Despite such jokes, the early days of American basketball were dominated by Jewish youth. Jewish origins were prominent among players, coaches, and club officials. I was somewhat familiar with it because it was an interesting read in New York’s immigration history. The main cast, Adam Sandler, and the directors, the Safdie brothers, are both Jewish and basketball fanatics. The old timers have an urban legend that the old name of the Washington DC NBA team, the Wizards, was the Bullets, meaning they were as fast as a bullet, and when Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin was shot and killed, the Jewish team owner at the time, Abe Paulin, was so shocked that he decided to change the name. will remember It is said that the background to the decision was the gun crime that was rampant in DC at the time, rather than the Rabin murder. This also has a history engraved as a trauma for Koreans in this region. It reminds me of that gloomy fall of 1993, the launch of the Korean Safety Countermeasures Committee, the production of crime prevention videos, etc.
Basketball is the only American professional sport that was born out of invention rather than evolution. There is a birth certificate that says it was invented in 1891 by Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, for the purpose of indoor physical training during the winter.
This American sport, which spread mainly through YMCAs and military bases, attracted the youth of Jewish immigrant families in the early 20th century, thanks to the environment of the New York slums where they lived. Because it was possible in a small space and without any special facilities. The starting point is no different from that of the black youth who later became involved in basketball.
The reason that Jewish people, who were not tall on average, were able to play leading roles in the basketball teams of schools in big cities such as New York and Phila was because at the time, it was not a game of height, but of agility. For second-generation immigrants living at the bottom of society, in the ghetto, basketball was an outlet for liberation from their frustrating and overwhelming daily life. The pent-up energy burst out on the court.
“The game is all about tension, trickery, deception, skillful dodging, and overall smart guile,” said a sports editor for the New York Daily News in the 1930s, typical of Jewish remarks. This encounter between the Jewish community and basketball is said to be well covered in a 2008 documentary film called ‘The First Basket.’
As I read this story in New York Immigration History, I couldn’t help but think of our second generation Korean Americans, especially the boys. When I go to school, the kids who are good at sports are the best and most popular, but I can’t help but say that my kids have a disadvantage in terms of physique. Taekwondo?
For a while, I saw Korean teenagers being crazy about B-boying and understood it in that context. You’re finding what you’re good at. Still, it’s not the main thing like football, basketball, or baseball…
no. It’s mainstream now. These days, when I see BTS, I applaud and say, “Our kids are the best.” I hope and believe that the true colors of Korean boys will shine like well-cut jewels in the K-pop boom.
Jaewook Jeong>
