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1953–54 Fort Wayne Pistons season

NBA team season

Field	Value
team	Fort Wayne Pistons
team_link	Detroit Pistons
end_year	1954
wins	40
losses	32
division	Western
division_place	3
coach	Paul Birch
owner	Fred Zollner
arena	War Memorial Coliseum
radio	WOWO
playoffs	[West Division Semifinals](1954-nba-playoffs-bracket)
(eliminated 0–4)
bbr_team	FTW

(eliminated 0–4)

The 1953–54 Fort Wayne Pistons season was the Pistons' sixth season in the NBA and 13th season as a franchise.

The Pistons finished 40-32 (.556), 3rd in the Western Division. The team advanced to the playoffs, losing in a Western Division round-robin 4–0 to the Minneapolis Lakers and the Rochester Royals. The team was led on the season by center Larry Foust (15.1 ppg, 13.4 rpg, NBA All-Star), guard Andy Phillip (10.6 ppg, 6.3 apg, NBA All-Star), and first round draft choice Jack Molinas (11.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg, NBA All-Star).

Molinas was named to the All-Star team, having played in 32 games before the league banned him for wagering on Pistons games. Molinas was then suspended at the time of the All-Star game and was replaced by teammate Andy Phillip. He later sued the NBA for $3 million, claiming the league's ban was an unreasonable restraint of trade. Judge Irving Kaufman ruled against him in the case.

The Pistons had drafted future Hall of Famer George Yardley in 1950, but they didn't sign him until 1953. Even then, it was a struggle, as Yardley reportedly hated training camp, rejected the initial Fort Wayne offer of $6,000, electing to playing beach volleyball in California. Yardley then became the first rookie to hold out, until accepting an offer of $9,500, and then averaging 9.0 ppg in his NBA rookie season.

Regular season

Season standings

:x – clinched playoff spot

Game log

1953–54 Game log
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72

Playoffs

0–4

References

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/FTW/1954.html 1953–54 Fort Wayne Pistons]
"1953-54 Fort Wayne Pistons Roster and Stats".
(4 November 2011). "Chevette to Corvette No. 28: The 1953-54 Fort Wayne Pistons".
(1961-01-03). "Molinas Presses $3,000,000 Case; Ex-Court Ace Sues N.B.A. for Banning Him After He Bet on Own Team". New York Times.
(1961-01-12). "Molinas Loses Antitrust Suit". New York Times.
(4 November 2011). "Chevette to Corvette No. 28: The 1953-54 Fort Wayne Pistons".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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