April 23

From Hoopedia

• 1943 - Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich, who scored 19,181 points in 14 NBA seasons, is born in Los Angeles, California.

• 1946 - The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League is founded. This professional league will eventually become the Continental Basketball Association.

• 1950 - The Minneapolis Lakers become the first team to win back-to-back NBA championships by defeating the Syracuse Nationals in six games. The final game is marred by three fights, four Minneapolis players fouling out, and Nats coach Al Cervi being ejected for complaining too vociferously about a call.

• 1953 - The NBA Indianapolis Olympians fold.

• 1969 - Jerry West (right) of Los Angeles scores 53 points as the Lakers edge Boston, 120-118, in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

• 1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays in the final game of his NBA-record 1,560-game career, as the Lakers down Seattle, 121-117. Abdul-Jabbar finishes his career with an NBA record 38,387 points.

• 2005 - As of the beginning of the 2004-05 NBA Playoffs, team rosters feature 24 international players from 18 countries and territories. Almost every team competing in the Playoffs will feature one or more international player. The Playoffs feature 10 international players in the Eastern Conference and 14 in the Western Conference. The San Antonio Spurs have the most international players on a Playoff roster with five.