NEPA authors adapting Eastern Basketball League book for documentary

Jan. 22—WILKES-BARRE — The authors of the book "Boxed Out of the NBA: Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League," are working to to adapt the book into a documentary.

And they need help.

The book, written by Scranton natives Syl Sobel and Jay Rosenstein, is the fascinating story of what was the next-best pro league after the NBA for more than 30 years.

The book tells the story of some of the best players in the world back when the NBA had only 10 or fewer teams, there were quotas on African American players, and there was a ban on players tainted by college gambling scandals.

Now the duo is preparing to adapt the book into a documentary, and along with the funds needed to produce a documentary, they need Eastern League game film and TV interviews from the late 1940s to the late 1970s. And that's a problem.

"To do a sports documentary that's interesting and packed with action, you need a lot of footage," Sobel said. "We do have some film that fans shot with handheld cameras back in the 1970s, but we definitely need more. That's why Jay and I are reaching out to newspapers and TV stations in Eastern League cities to see if they'd be willing to help us try to find old game film."

Why is finding this film a problem?

"It's been more than 40 years since the last Eastern League games were played in the late 1970s, and that's a lot of time for film to be lost or destroyed," Rosenstein said. "The worst we heard of was when Hurricane Agnes flooded Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1972 and destroyed all of the great game film being stored at WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre."

Another issue was that many TV stations in that era would cut costs by erasing videotapes so they could be reused.

So, if anyone has Eastern League game film or is otherwise willing to help, contact Syl Sobel at — syl.sobel@gmail.com — or Jay Rosenstein at — rosenstein4@verizon.net.

About the book

Sobel and Rosenstein, both 66, said former NBA great Paul Arizin once said that "the best 80 best basketball players in the world are in the NBA and the next best 80 players are in the Eastern League."

That might be the best testament to the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which existed between 1946 and 1978 and featured some of the very best players in the country.

According to information by the book's publishing company, Rowman & Littlefield, the book tells the story of the Eastern Professional Basketball League — fast, physical, and often played in small gyms — including the Kingston Armory where the Wilkes-Barre Barons played.

The Barons played most of their seasons in the Kingston Armory (109th Field Artillery) on Market Street. Other teams were located in Sunbury, Williamsport, Trenton, Camden, Wilmington, Allentown, Hazleton and more.

Sobel and Rosenstein offered information about the book:

"During the early years of professional basketball, the Eastern League was the next-best professional league in the world after the NBA. It was home to big-name players such as Sherman White, Jack Molinas, and Bill Spivey, who were implicated in college gambling scandals in the 1950s and were barred from the NBA, and top Black players such as Hal "King" Lear, Julius McCoy, and Wally Choice, who could not make the NBA into the early 1960s due to unwritten team quotas on African-American players."

"Anyone who grew up in an Eastern League town will love the memories the book will bring back," Sobel said.

Boston Globe writer and ESPN contributor Bob Ryan wrote the forward for the book.

R0senstein and Sobel said their dads first took them to Eastern League games when they were seven years old.

"We fell in love immediately. We grew up as huge fans, used to listen to games on the radio, emulated the players in our own basketball games in the alley behind Jay's house. We went to college together, been friends for 60 years, and when we'd get together we'd start talking about the Eastern League."

They talked about some of the best players they saw.

"Hal 'King' Lear, Wally Choice, Richie Gaines, Tommy Hemans, Roman Turmon, Allie Seiden, Bobby McNeill, Stan Pawlak — the list goes on. Julius McCoy was the league's all-time top scorer, but he was a 6-3 post player. What would he have done in the NBA? Would have been fun to see. He could score on anyone. And Swish McKinney, just so much fun to watch and, boy, could he shoot!"

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.