The current financial stature of NBA players, many of whom are multimillionaire entrepreneurs, owes a debt to the courageous actions of 20 influential figures dating back to 1964. That year, the All-Star Game held in Boston was poised for a prime-time broadcast on ABC, marking a pivotal point for the then-nascent league.
However, the game nearly proceeded without the participation of the players themselves. On a Tuesday evening in January, amidst snowy conditions, Boston Celtics icon Tommy Heinsohn—who at the time served as the president of the National Basketball Players Association—persuaded his fellow players to stage a boycott of the event if the league’s nine owners refused to acknowledge and engage in negotiations with the union.
“The owners held significant control over the players,” Jerry West, who was scheduled to compete for the Western Conference that evening, recounted to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times in 2011. “We all felt like we were essentially enslaved, lacking fundamental rights. Back then, nobody earned substantial income. It was necessary to find employment during the summer months. It truly was a primitive era for basketball.”
The owners earnestly urged the players to reconsider their boycott before, with evident anger, directing them to vacate the locker rooms and proceed to the court.
As the scheduled start time drew near, and ABC’s executives threatened to pull the broadcast, league commissioner J. Walter Kennedy conceded to the players’ demands. These demands included the establishment of a pension plan, improvements to working conditions, a more accommodating schedule, and the ability for the union to collectively negotiate contract terms with the owners.
This concession proved sufficient to entice the players to emerge from their protest, just in the nick of time for the game’s commencement, ultimately resulting in a 111-107 victory for the East. However, the true beneficiaries were all those who have participated in the NBA throughout the more than five decades that have followed.
They have since reaped substantial financial rewards from a game and a league that has evolved into a significant source of prosperity for its players, largely attributable to the influence that its workforce has come to exert.
