Former NBA hall of famer scores as local landlord

By: Emily Laurence

Posted: 3/6/06

The office looks more like a shrine than a real estate waiting room. The walls are covered in framed basketball posters and photos. An autographed action shot of Orlando Magic center Danny Schayes is arguably the most eye-catching. Most of the pictures are of the landlord himself, Danny Schayes' father and Basketball Hall of Fame member, Dolph Schayes.

Dolph Schayes is one of the most respected NBA players of all time. He played for the Syracuse Nationals, back when Syracuse had a professional team, and the Philadelphia 76ers, retiring as the NBA's leading scorer. A total of 1,059 NBA games later, 78-year-old Schayes is now the manager of East Ridge Apartments.

Schayes is still intimidating. His hair may now be white and he's not as lithe as he once was, but he's only a couple inches shorter than he was 50 years ago at 6 feet, 8 inches. It comes in handy being in the real-estate business.

"When the time comes for the rent, I knock on the door and people see this giant of a man and they give me the rent," Schayes said.

Seniors Josh Fecteau and Nevin Stutzman, both said even disregarding the NBA history, Schayes is not the average landlord. "He tries to act as a father," said Fecteau, an information studies major.

According to Stutzman, Schayes will put post-it notes on all the roommates' doors if one person is late paying the rent.

"He doesn't do technology," Fecteau said. "In the two years I've been renting from him, I've only received hand-written notes."

Even though they may not agree with everything their landlord does, such as the time Schayes painted their house periwinkle, they both concede that Schayes was an exceptional athlete.

Schayes traded his playbook for a desk job back in 1966 after coaching the Philadelphia 76ers. Now he is, in his words, "a professional fan of good basketball" and likes watching the Knicks and 76ers.

Though he admits to not being a big SU fan, he still watches the games on television.

"They are always going to be a top team," Schayes said. "They get great players and have great fans,"

However, Schayes said he is not enamored of the zone defenses.

"I don't think that's good basketball," Schayes said.

If anyone knows good basketball, it's Dolph Schayes.

"He's a true superstar," said Earl Lloyd, the first black man to play in the NBA and former teammate of Schayes. "The only problem I've had with Dolph is that Dolph was so good, when you were on the court with him, you had to guard against becoming a spectator because you were almost tempted to just stand there and watch him play."

Schayes was luring people to watch him play from a young age. He initially started playing when he was growing up in the Bronx in New York City, where he lived with his family in a small one-bedroom apartment. Schayes would play three-on-three basketball with his friends on a half court. After a game was finished, the winner would stay on the court and challenge a new team. Even when Schayes' team lost, the new team asked him to play with them. Schayes was also the captain of his high school basketball team his junior and senior year.

By skipping kindergarten and completing seventh and eighth grade in one year, Schayes started playing for New York University when he was 16. That same year, 1946, he found himself playing against Notre Dame in Madison Square Garden.

"It was very exciting, because Madison Square Garden was the Mecca of basketball all over the world, and every game was sold out," Schayes said. "It was just as the war was ending, so there was a lot of euphoria and excitement."

Schayes said being a Jewish basketball player during World War II was not a big deal because many of the players on the NYU team were also Jewish, just like half the city was at the time.

"As I was growing up in the Bronx, I thought the whole world was Jewish," Schayes said.

There were two professional leagues at the time, the National Basketball Association and National Basketball League. Graduating at the age of 20, Schayes was drafted by the New York Knickerbockers of the NBA and the Syracuse Nationals, which started as an NBL team. Schayes decided to play for the Syracuse Nats, because they offered him more money. Schayes said he only expected to play for a year or two because he didn't think professional basketball would last.

The one or two years which Schayes expected to play turned into 15. He became one of the first power forwards in basketball history scoring 19,249 points over the span of his career. Schayes said one of his most memorable moments was winning the 1955 NBA championship with the Syracuse Nats.

In 1963, the Nats became the Philadelphia 76ers. When Schayes was 35, he retired from playing and became the 76ers first coach and it's one of the few things Schayes regrets doing.

"What I should have done was become an assistant coach and learn the ins and outs of coaching, which are completely different than playing obviously," Schayes said. He made the pivot from playing to coaching because at the time 35 was a common age for basketball retirement.

Schayes had just had a knee operation, which contributed to his decision to stop playing. He coached for four years and was fired because the team could not beat the Boston Celtics. Then, the year after Schayes was fired, the 76ers beat the Celtics.

Shortly after his coaching career ended, Schayes was enshrined as a player into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He described the event as an honor because he was picked by his peers. The event included a big dinner, which Schayes attended with his father and family.

Even while living in Philadelphia, Schayes and his wife kept a home in Syracuse. They then moved back here with their four children after Schayes was fired from coaching. Schayes said he chose to settle in Syracuse because it was a good place to raise a family, and his children liked it.

Orlando Magic center Danny Schayes said his father never forced him to play basketball. Instead he describes his dad as a very fun guy to be around.

"Growing up, my dad was always larger than life," Danny Schayes said. "He was physically big, he was personality big and he was always known wherever he went."

Schayes' former teammate Earl Lloyd described him a bit differently.

"If I had to describe Dolph Schayes in one word, it would be 'class,' and to me the definition of class is grace under pressure. That's Dolph Schayes," Lloyd said.