The article below is part of an interview conducted by Better Basketball in Las Vegas on 7/21/06 while ‘Moose’ was attending the National Basketball Retired Players Association Annual meetings. He is a member of the LEGENDS OF BASKETBALL.

by Harry “Moose” Miller

Ghost Written by The Better Basketball Staff

I was born in the Bronx July 28, 1923, but I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. My father was the superintendent of a large apartment building and I used to work for him in the summer. So, for fun I thought I would try to play basketball on the playground nearby. I didn’t know if I was going to be encouraged to stick around, because I was the only white guy, but, I was big and strong and liked the contact, so it wasn’t long before I became one of the boys. That’s where I learned to play the game; the “hard-court” game is what I call it. As far as fundamentals, there was no one to teach us; we taught ourselves what we could. We figured out what was right or wrong. In those days, you wanted to do things the right way. Sometimes, today, I think people want to just get it done regardless of whether it’s done the right way or the wrong way. And I’m not talking about just basketball, but everything. I’ve made it to age 83, so I must have done something right.

I didn’t know anything about organized basketball; we didn’t have any recreation leagues or AAU like we have now. I only knew what I had learned on the street. Then my family moved to the Queens. I was asked to come out for the high school team because I was 6’ 4” and about 200 pounds. This is in the late 1930’s. I then got a scholarship to a prestigious private school. Actually it was a big academic school that wanted to have good athletic teams. They wanted students that could play all sports. I played them all. You might call me an athletic rat instead of just a gym rat. The important thing was I was big and strong. The next thing I know, I got an offer to go to Seton Hall College. Incidentally, the guy who took me there was Chuck Connors, made famous for the TV series “The Rifleman”. He played at the high school academy with me and took me with him to Seton Hall where he introduced me to the coach. After I worked out a couple of days for him, he wanted to sign me up. But I told him, I wasn’t out of high school yet. I had one more year left. He told me I better not go anywhere else or he would blackball me! (laughs) So Chuck Connors and I were eventually at Seton Hall together. Chuck went on to sign a professional baseball contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a very good first baseman. Believe it or not, this is how Chuck made it to Hollywood. I think God mapped out his life early, because the Brooklyn Dodgers had Gil Hodges and so they traded Chuck to the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs shipped him to their farm team in Hollywood California and that was all Chuck needed. The next thing we knew we were watching Chuck on the screen and not on the baseball field! And as I said, his greatest role was the western TV series “The Rifleman” and we used to laugh that the “Rifleman”, this really tough cowboy, was from Flatbush Brooklyn! (laughs)

At Seton Hall, I was on the team with Bobby Davies. Many don’t know that Bobby was the one who started the around the back pass. It was guys like Bob Cousy that made it famous, but it was Davies who started it. Bob Cousy was from my home town. We used to call him “Flinchy” because we would rough him up so much that whenever he came near the big guys, he would flinch. He was young at that time, but he was a tough little guy.

But then the big interruption for everyone was the second World War. I went in to the Marine Corp and played basketball for them. In fact we were rated number three in the country. I think Norfolk Naval Academy was number one. There were no college teams because all of the players were in the military fighting the war. When I came out of the service, I kept getting information from Coach Russell at Seton Hall. He was now at Manhattan College. I went to work out for him but in the meantime got an offer from the NBA, which was just starting up at the time. So I signed a contract with the NBA in their first year. In fact, I signed it in a bar in Manhattan. The guy said, “Hey, come over and have a beer,” and the next thing I know, they put a contract in front of me. It wasn’t a lot of money, but I thought, sheesh, how can you turn down making money for doing something you love? So the guy showed me what all the players were making. At that time, all of the contracts were pretty much the same; there were no big players, no big superstars in those days; no bonuses. So I signed a contract with the Toronto Huskies who are now the Toronto Raptors and by the way, I’m the only surviving member of that team today. In fact, I don’t think there are a lot of guys from any of the 1946 teams still around today.

The league was scheduled to start all of the games on Saturday November 1, 1946. We were scheduled to play the New York Knicks, but in Toronto, you don’t pre-empt the Hockey teams. They had priority over the basketball games. So, they moved our game with the Knicks back one day to Friday October 31^st. That’s how we gained our little claim to fame. Our game became the first NBA game to ever be played. However, we lost 62 to 60. It’s still vivid in my mind because I gave the guy a beautiful pass for the lay-up that would have tied the game and he blew it! I had the shot myself but I gave it up to him because he had a lay-up. I think I handcuffed him because he just wasn’t expecting the pass.

I played two years in the league but I had to eventually quit because of my back, which had been injured in the war. The Boston Celtics bought out my contract because Toronto folded back then.  Now here’s where I’m telling you something that I haven’t told anyone for years. I jumped that contract to go with another league that had just started up. George Mikan was with their featured team in Chicago. I signed with the team in Atlanta. There were about 18 teams in the league and they promised us big money, but they folded after about 2 months. So we were all left in a lurch because the NBA blackballed all the players who jumped into that league. I then went to play in Youngstown, Ohio in the National League. It was at that time that my back started bothering me really bad; I got it busted up during the World War; I knew I was playing on borrowed time all along.

A lot of people ask me about the big money that’s being paid today compared to back then. But I remember when a loaf of bread was ten cents. It now costs a dollar today, and we’re all still buying it and eating it. So I don’t do a lot of comparing to those days. It was different in those days. When I think of how we practiced, I remember one coach who took us through practice, scrimmage, sprints, the whole works, and as we are getting ready to leave the floor, thinking practice is over, he pulls back the curtain on the stage and there stands a team, ready to scrimmage us. I mean, we were already dead; our legs were shot, and we still had to play this team.

There weren’t any strength programs or weight lifting programs back then. If you needed to get stronger, they would tell you to get a job for block company; unloading trucks all day, or something like that. Those companies didn’t have the machines that they have today. You unloaded everything by hand. And that’s how a lot of guys built themselves up.