Doing some research for my book, I came across the AP article in the Phoenix paper, Arizona Republic, titled, “Fifty Years Later-Shot Clock Has Timeless Value”.  In the article, it outlines how Danny Biasone, the Father of the 24 Second Clock, arrived at that number.  We all know how the clock changed the game. The “24 Second Clock” made it’s debut on October 30,1954, with the Rochester Royals defeating the Boston Celtics, 98-95.  The first year scoring jumped from 79.5 points per game to 93.1 points per game.

Here’s how Biasone arrived at the 24 second number.  At that time each NBA team was averaging 60 shots a game, meaning each game featured a 120 shots in a 48 minute game or 2,880 seconds.  So if you divided 120 shots into 2,880 seconds you come up with the number 24.  And the “Analytics” think they are so  smart.

The arrival of the “24 Second Clock” did not happen overnight.  On November 22,1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19 to 18.  This game got the ball rolling and Biasone finally succeeded in getting the NBA to adopt the “24 Second Clock.” 4 years later in 1954.

For the people who don’t know including my wife, Dan Biasone was the owner of the Syracuse Nationals, who by the way, I played for and he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.  Somewhere up there Danny is smiling at us.