After not making his high school basketball team and playing CYO basketball during his freshman year at Villanova, men’s basketball all-time great Paul Arizin took an unlikely path towards eventually being named one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players from the league’s first 50 seasons. Arizin played three seasons for the Wildcats and graduated from Villanova in 1950. He was part of the inaugural Varsity Club Hall of Fame induction class in 1974.
One of the most accomplished collegiate and professional players to ever come out of Villanova, Arizin still holds the Wildcats all-time single game scoring record with 85 points during the 1948-49 season. He went on to be a 1977 inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, was named to the NBA Silver Anniversary Team in 1970 and to the league’s 50
th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. Among the many characteristics Arizin is known for is being one of the first players to extensively use the jump shot to increase his scoring and shooting accuracy.
Paul Arizin was born on April 9, 1928 in South Philadelphia, the son of a French father and an Irish mother. His father was a railroad worker, but sports was an early love for Arizin. He attended La Salle College High School in Philadelphia and graduated in 1946 just one year before another basketball Hall of Famer – Tom Gola – entered as a freshman. Arizin wasn’t confident enough to try out for the school’s basketball team until his senior year, and even then he was cut after appearing in just a few games.
A collegiate basketball career would have seemed out of the question at that point in time, but Arizin would go on to play competitive basketball for most of the next 20 years and spent the entirety of his playing career in Philadelphia. He came to Villanova as a freshman in 1946 and studied Chemistry while playing basketball in several intramural, church and independent leagues. These leagues consisted partly of men returning from military service in World War II and games took place at gyms and halls throughout the city. Arizin played on as many as six or seven teams simultaneously, recalling in an article that appeared in
The Christian Science Monitor that “I just did it because I loved to play.”
The story is told that during a CYO basketball game Arizin was playing in he gained the attention of Al Severance, the head coach of the Wildcats varsity squad. Severance approached Arizin following a game to ask about the possibility of him coming to Villanova, instead finding out that Arizin was already a student on campus. He made the varsity squad and earned a scholarship beginning in 1947-48 and starred for the Wildcats for three seasons. Villanova was 63-17 (.788) with Arizin on the team, making an NCAA Tournament appearance in 1948-49 and tying the existing school record with 25 wins one year later.
Utilizing the jump shot before it was common in the game is not all that Arizin is known for on the court. His bio as a legend of the game on NBA.com describes Arizin as “the original grunter.” A sinus condition which had affected him since his youth led Arizin to cough, grunt and gurgle as he ran down court. He added to his recognizable appearance with a cowlick on the back of his head. It was thankfully the jump shot which gained Arizin notoriety however, and the shot was the origin of his ‘Pitchin’ Paul’ nickname.
Arizin joined Villanova in 1947-48 with the team coming off a 17-7 record one year earlier. He was one of five future Varsity Club Hall of Famers on the 1947-48 squad. The others were Joe Hannan, Brooks Ricca, Tom Sabol and Leo Wolf. After a slow start, Arizin wound up playing center and leading the team in scoring by the end of the year.
Both the Wildcats and Arizin flourished during the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons. Villanova rattled off a 23-4 record in 1948-49 and reached the NCAA Tournament before falling in the first round to eventual national champion Kentucky. New to the sport that season was the
Associated Press national rankings, which debuted on January 17, 1949 with the Wildcats appearing at No. 13 in the 20-team poll. Villanova was ranked in seven of the eight polls released that season, peaking at No. 7 in the January 31 rankings.
Arizin scored 594 points and averaged 22.0 points per game as a junior, and on February 12, 1949 against the Naval Air Material Center set the still-standing school record of 85 points in a game. This was still just Arizin’s third season playing organized basketball, but at the time only Frank Selvy had scored more points in a college game against a non-Division I opponent. Arizin’s mark was ultimately not recognized since it did not occur against an accredited four-year college.
Each of the five future Hall of Famers on the 1948-49 team returned in 1949-50 and the Wildcats went 25-4 to tie the then-school record for wins which had originally been set by the 1937-38 team. Villanova opened the year with seven straight wins before being stopped in consecutive games by Kentucky and Tulane at the Sugar Bowl Tournament in New Orleans. The only losses the rest of the way came at the hands of Louisville and Boston College, both in games played at the Palestra.
Arizin was by this point established as one of the top players in the country and he became the Wildcats first player ever to be chosen as the National Player of the Year (
The Sporting News). Arizin led the nation with 735 points and averaged 25.3 points per game as a senior, with his overall total coming within five points of setting a new national scoring record. He was the first player in Villanova history to score over 1,000 career points and, as of the end of the 2019-20 season, remained in the program’s top 20 in career scoring and ranked fifth in single-season points more than 70 years following the end of his collegiate career. Arizin graduated from Villanova in 1950 with honors.
There have been plenty Wildcats legends to be honored with having their jersey retired over the years, but Arizin is the only one to additionally have his jersey number (No. 11) retired and taken out of circulation. His jersey was retired by Villanova in 1994 and he maintained a frequent presence at games and team functions until his death at the age of 78 in 2006. Just months before he passed away, Arizin presented the award named for him to Kyle Lowry at the Wildcats annual Men’s Basketball Banquet on April 23, 2006.
Arizin’s affinity for the jump shot reportedly began while be was playing in evening leagues during his freshman year at Villanova. In explaining its origin Arizin noted that “It came by accident. Some of our games were played on dance floors. It became quite slippery. When I tried to hook, my feet would go out from under me, so I jumped. I was always a good jumper. My feet weren’t on the floor, so I didn’t have to worry about slipping. The more I did it, the better I became. Before I knew it, practically all my shots were jump shots.”
There was more than slippery floors for Arizin to contend with during the early years of his career. Many of the buildings had low ceilings, and Arizin’s NBA.com bio describes his shot as “[firing] line drives into the basket. That shot, with its low trajectory, remained a part of his arsenal throughout his career.”
This technique evaded the defensive efforts of some of the best players in the sport at the time. In an obituary posted on ESPN after Arizin’s death, Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes recalled pregame scouting reports in which teams tried to stop Arizin. “Someone would bring up Arizin’s jump shot and we’d try to figure out how to stop him. ‘Let’s stop it,’ we’d say, but we knew we couldn’t. His jump shot was perfect. There was no stopping it.”
Arizin played 10 years for the Philadelphia Warriors and was an NBA all-star each season. The prime of his career was interrupted when he was drafted and served in the Marines for two years during the Korean War, but Arizin returned stronger than ever beginning with the 1954-55 season.
Arizin was a territorial selection of the Warriors in the 1950 NBA Draft and earned $9,000 as a rookie during the 1950-51 season. He ranked in the top 10 in the NBA in both scoring (17.2) and rebounding (9.8) that season, leading the Warriors in rebounds and ranking a close second to future Hall of Famer Joe Fulks in scoring. The inception of the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award was still a year away, but Arizin settled for being part of a team which posted a 14-win turnaround from the season prior to his arrival.
There was to be no sophomore slump in 1951-52, as Arizin emerged as unquestionably one of the league’s top players. He led the NBA with 25.3 points per game in his second professional season, at the time posting the third-highest single-season scoring average in the history of the still-fledgling league which had played its inaugural season just five years earlier. Arizin also averaged a career-high 11.3 rebounds per game and led the NBA with a .448 field goal percentage during the 1951-52 season. His highlights from the year included playing 63 minutes in a triple-overtime contest against the Minneapolis Lakers on December 21, 1951. That performance set a record of minutes played in a game; the mark stood for nearly 40 years. Arizin also made his second All-Star Game appearance that season and scored 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting in the showcase game. He was named the game’s MVP and led the East to a 108-91 win.
Arizin was drafted by the Marine Corps just before the 1952-53 season began. He attended boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island and from there was stationed at the Quantico base in Virginia.
“I was not a combat Marine,” Arizin said of the two years he served during the Korean War. “I have all the admiration in the world for those people. They are the world’s greatest as far as I’m concerned. Even though I wasn’t a combat Marine, I was still a Marine and that’s something. When I finished with boot camp…I was transferred to Quantico and I managed to play ball there for the remainder of my tour…two years. My first year we played for the Marine Corps championship in San Diego against a recruit depot out there. We were told when we left – we flew on a service plane – if you guys don’t win you’re not coming back, you’re going to Korea. Now that’s pressure. You talk about pressure in NBA games, it doesn’t amount to that. We fortunately won and we didn’t go to Korea.”
Decades after his career ended, “Pitchin’ Paul” is remembered as one of the pioneer players in the early years of the NBA. The league trailed baseball and football in popularity, gaining popularity thanks to stars such as Arizin and the likes of George Mikan, Bob Cousy, Larry Foust, Bill Sharman, Dolph Schayes and Arizin’s teammate Joe Fulks.
Philadelphia posted records of 12-57 in 1952-53 and 29-43 in 1953-54 without Arizin. Fulks retired after the end of the 1953-54 season. Arizin returned in 1954-55 and was second in the NBA with 21.0 points per game, trailing new Warriors teammate and future Hall of Famer Neil Johnston. The next season Philadelphia won its second NBA title.
Arizin led the Warriors with 24.2 points per game during the 1955-56 championship season, while Johnston (22.1), forward Joe Graboski (14.4) and playmaker Jack George (13.9) also ranked in the top-20 in the NBA scoring. Arizin finally crossed paths with Tom Gola, who was playing his rookie season for the Warriors nine years after he followed Arizin into La Salle College High School.
In 1956-57 it was Gola’s turn for military service and the Warriors finished in third place with a 37-35 record despite Arizin winning his second league scoring title with a 25.6 points per game average. He earned a spot on the All-NBA First Team for the second time in his career. Arizin surpassed 10,000 career points during the 1958-59 campaign, reaching that milestone faster than any player before him. He averaged a career-high 26.4 points per game that season and ranked second in the NBA in scoring. Arizin reached the 15,000 point plateau on December 1, 1961 with a 33-point effort against the Lakers.
When the Warriors moved to San Francisco after the 1961-62 season, a 34-year old Arizin elected to stay in Philadelphia where he had played for his entire career. Although his NBA career was over, his professional playing days were not. Arizin played in the Eastern Basketball League from 1962 to 1965 for the Camden Bullets. He concluded his NBA career with 16,266 points (22.8 ppg.), 6,129 rebounds (8.6 rpg.) and 1,665 assists (2.3 apg.) in 713 games. Arizin also appeared in 49 career playoff games, averaging 24.2 points and 8.2 rebounds.
References
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Paul Arizin (Wikipedia)
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Cut from H.S. team, Arizin rose in NBA (ESPN; Ken Shouler; December 13, 2006)
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Paul Arizin Bio (NBA.com; NBA.com staff)
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Hall of Famers (HoopHall.com)
