Or if you’re really into hoops, just follow Harvey Pollack’s Statistical Yearbook, which is merely The Bible when it comes to stats, encompassing everything imaginable. Known simply as “The Book,” Pollack – then the public relations director for the Philadelphia 76ers – put out his first one of 24 pages in 1967.
When the most recent edition came out earlier this season, it was up to 354 pages.
“Nobody put out a book before me,” said Pollack, whose PR job was actually his sidelight, since he worked full-time for the city until 1980. “Walter Kennedy (then Commissioner) was the first to make it mandatory for every team to put out a media guide. Up to that point everything was mimeographed.”
It didn’t take long to see Pollack’s book outclassed the rest in terms of providing both useful and – let’s be honest – useless information. The more he kept including, the bigger it grew. Through the years, the word – and his notoriety – has spread.
“Once I started breaking down all the dunks and doing the plus-minus (a painstaking process that entails breaking down each box score to determine how many points a player’s team scores and gives up while he is on the court), the book became the most popular in the league.
“I’d get calls all the time at 1 o’clock in the morning, ‘How many dunks did you have for Shaq? We’ve messed up.’ Everybody knows the book. I get requests from here to Croatia. But with all the stuff in my book, none of it’s in the NBA Guide.”
You mean there’s no room there for breaking down the meaning of every NBA player and coaches’ tattoos, topped by Allen Iverson’s 23? Or that Alec Stivrins and Bobby Jones played for the most teams in a season (5), while Chucky Brown and Tony Massenburg played for the most teams (14)?
There’s all that plus so much more in Pollack’s book, which might not make any best-seller list but is still a real page-turner. It’s truly a labor of love for Pollack and his staff, which ranges from his 66-year-old son, Ronnie, to a bunch of interns, who surely had no idea what they were signing up for.
And no idea they would be working with a legend, who not only has been the Sixers’ official scorer for decades, but since July 2003 decided to go after the Guinness record for most consecutive days wearing a different T-shirt. He broke that a few years ago and now is closing in on 10 years.
“I have 500 in reserve,” he laughs. “(Flyers and former Sixers owner) Ed Snider has given me the most. But I have shirts from Japan, France, England. A group of nuns from a school here has given me 311.”
So Harvey has his stats, his shirts and assorted other pieces of memorabilia he has collected over 90 years of a Wonderful Life that would make George Bailey jealous. There’s just one thing he doesn’t have.
The Sign.
You have to go back over 50 years to that incredible night in Hershey, Penn., where Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors. Pollack was rather busy that night, not only working for the team, but also filing stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer – which didn’t travel the 90 miles to the game – as well as two wire services.
Pollack also managed to find a local photographer in attendance to try to capture the moment for posterity. That’s where that iconic picture of Wilt cradling the ball while holding up a simple sign came about. Pollack grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scribbled down the number for Chamberlain to display: 100!
He has no idea what happened to that piece of paper amid all the craziness. “That’s my biggest regret,” he says wistfully, nearly 51 years later. “I didn’t save that sign.”
And then it’s onto another story, this one about how that ball from that game somehow disappeared, meaning the one they tried to auction off at Sotheby’s was really a fake.
Yes, Harvey Pollack, who besides all this has managed to write movie and theatre reviews for a local newspaper chain going on six decades, has a million of them.
Unfortunately, for stat freaks and basketball aficionados who devour his every word, he’s only one in a zillion,
Book it.
Jon Marks has covered the Philadelphia 76ers from the days of Dr. J and his teammate, Joe Bryant (best known as Kobe’s dad). He has won awards from the Pro Basketball Writer’s Association and North Jersey Press Club. His other claim to fame is driving Rick Mahorn to a playoff game after missing the team bus. Follow him on Twitter.