That Piece Of Paper From Princeton Comes First

When he was a kid, TigerBlog loved to watch games in the old ABA.

He was a big fan of the Knicks in the NBA — and that was before anyone told him he'd spend much of his adult life knowing basically everything about Bill Bradley's time at Princeton — but there was always something special about the ABA.

Maybe it was the red, white and blue ball. TB had one of those, which he used on the hoop in his backyard. Maybe it was the three-point shot, which originated in the league.

Maybe it's because most of his favorite players all seemed to be in the league at one point, especially guys like Julius Erving, David Thompson, George Gervin, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Billy Paultz, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore ... and George McGinnis.

TigerBlog was saddened by the news last week that McGinnis had passed away at the age of 73. The longtime member of the ABA's version of the Indiana Pacers before he entered the NBA with the 76ers, McGinnis was a pure scorer who averaged 20 points per game for his pro career, which includes the Pacers and then the Sixers, Nuggets and the NBA Pacers. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2017.

Quick - where did McGinnis go to college? 

While you mull that over, he only played one varsity season (freshmen were ineligible then) before leaving for the ABA, back when you had to prove financial hardship to join the NBA before your college eligibility was up. That one season was 1970-71, and here was the All-American team from that year: 

First team
Sidney Wicks, UCLA
Austin Carr, Notre Dame
Artis Gilmore, Jacksonville
Jim McDaniels, Western Kentucky
Dean Meminger, Marquette

Second team
Curtis Rowe, UCLA
Paul Westphal, South Carolina
Johnny Neumann, Mississippi
John Roche, South Carolina
Dave Robisch, Kansas

For his part, McGinnis was a third-team selection — from Indiana, where he averaged 29.9 points per game. That was only good for third team? 

Princeton played Indiana when McGinnis was a freshman and when McGinnis would have been a junior, winning 82-76 at UCLA a night before losing to the top-ranked Bruins 76-75 on Wicks' buzzer beater (it's one of the 10 greatest games Princeton men's basketball has ever played) and then winning 68-60 in the NIT opening round, in what was the first postseason game Pete Carril coached at Princeton.

Around the same time that McGinnis left Indiana to go to the ABA, Princeton's own Brian Taylor considered it as well. Taylor averaged 23.5 points per game in 1970-71, the year Princeton didn't go against McGinnis. 

At the end of the season, Taylor was invited to try out for the U.S. Pan Am team, which would be a precursor to the 1972 Olympic team. TB found a story in the Daily Princetonian that said that Taylor was concerned about attending the tryout because it would interfere with his summer work, and that in turn would impact his financial aid situation. 

It was possible, the story said, that he would have to sign a pro contract. At the time, of course, pros were ineligible for the Olympics and Pan Am Games, which were strictly for amateurs.

Taylor did in fact return to Princeton for the 1971-72 season (he is 15th in program history still with 1,239 points despite only playing two seasons) before himself joining the ABA the following year, first with the New York Nets, with whom he'd win the league's Rookie of the Year award. He'd average 13 points per game during his pro career, which also took him into the NBA when the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976.

The story that TB read about Taylor included this quote: "Getting that piece of paper from Princeton comes first."

And get the paper he did. Taylor actually finished up after his pro career, graduating with the Class of 1983. He has gone on to a great career in education and service and is one of the most outstanding human beings to ever come through the Princeton basketball program.

Oh, and something else that TB saw in that Prince story. It was this blurb, including a quote from then-USA basketball chairman Tex Winter:

Winters admitted the '72 Olympic team might be the best ever "if we can develop and train.'' This is quite a prediction since no U.S. basketball team has ever been defeated in Olympic competition, despite scares in recent years from rapidly improving Russian and Yugoslavian teams.

How'd that work out?