The First Basket

David Vyorst
writer/producer/director

Narrator Peter Riegert


The First Basket explores through vintage film and current voices, the important Jewish history of basketball while revealing the assimilation of European Jewish people into the American way of life.


At center sage in this documentary is the moment when Ossie Schectman, a Jewish kid from Brooklyn, made the first basket for the New York Knickerbockers back in 1946


This documentary chronicles the elevation of basketball from its roots, (invented by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield MA) to today when it enjoys a huge viewing audience in this sports crazed American way of life. It is a story told through those now old men who made history with their personal and team worthy performances.

This is a story about men, minus any love for women, with only an occasional momentary smile or nod to the mothers who raised the men and the fathers who struggled to bring food into the tenements where the children slept in over crowded conditions. The coaches replaced the players parents in importance, and their homes were secondary to the settlement houses where the children played ball.

This is not an easy documentary to see. It is a tragic yet real portrayal of how these same Jews once eager to be part of the American Culture went on to establish their own Olympic games for Jews only and left their allegiance to American culture in favor of their own State, their own self imposed isolation for which all Americans now contribute financially and the middle east citizens give their lives and livelihood to support the distinctly Jewish/Israel way of life.

But if you like basketball, if you like to see history unfold and if you like to remember or learn about a past way of life and a former era when people seemed to fight less even with war raging, while Hitler rose to fame and fortune, see this documentary. You won't regret the experience.

And if you want to see the "greats" come back to life, see them in The First Basket:

Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Dolph Schayes, Red Sarachek, Barney Sedran, Eddie Gottleib, Abe Saperstein, Ossie Schectman (that above-mentioned kid from New York who scored the eponymous First Basket), Ralph Kaplowitz, Sammy Kaplan and many more.


RT: 86 minutes. Visit The film's website: www.thefirstbasket.com.


Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
RT vine: witches brew