THE OFFICIAL GEORGE YARDLEY SITE
Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996

Smashing of the 2,000-point barrier

For a record so significant, George Yardley's smashing of the 2,000-point barrier in 1957-58 remains a remarkably unnoticed feat. And for a player who appeared in six All-Star Games and posted a career average near 20 points per game, Yardley is little-remembered. But during a brief span in the late 1950s, he was one of the most potent offensive weapons in the NBA


Yardley might have been better known had he not given up his seven-year-old NBA career in 1960 to go into business to support his family. (Playing in the days of four- and five-figure salaries, Yardley topped out at about $25,000 per year.) He also never played for an NBA championship team. But in his abbreviated career, the 6-foot-5 forward made his mark with an astounding 2,001 points (27.8 ppg) in the 1957-58 season, an NBA record at the time.

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 Beyond his most notable accomplishment, Yardley assembled an impressive resume. The springy-legged, jump-shooting forward--one of only a handful of players who dunked during games in his time---appeared in six All-Star Games. In each of his All-Star seasons he averaged at least 17 points in an era when teams scored only 70 or 80. His Fort Wayne Pistons twice reached the NBA Finals.

Those who shared the court with Yardley knew him as one of the era's true greats.

"George was a scoring machine," onetime teammate Dolph Schayes told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. "Teams couldn't defend us. If they concentrated on me, George scored 20. If they concentrated on George, I scored 20."

Yardley joined the Pistons in 1953 after playing one season of AAU ball, and serving in the military for two years. The NBA was still in its infancy, and the action sometimes had the look and feel of a wrestling match. "The first time around the league as a rookie, they just didn't push you around--they hit you with a clenched fist in the face." Yardley told the Times. "I had a hundred stitches in my face from playing. The weak didn't make it"

Yardley became a starter in his second year and earned the first of six straight trips to the NBA All-Star Game. With top scorer Larry Foust, Yardley (17.3 ppg) led the Pistons to the 1955 NBA Finals against Syracuse. The Nets won in seven games.

Prior to the 1957-58 season the Pistons moved to Detroit. Yardley found himself on a team with aging star Harry Gallatin and a host of youngsters. He was 29, old enough to know his way around the floor but young enough to still use all of ft. Yardley played in every game that year and averaged 39.5 minutes per night.

The five-year veteran kept scoring and scoring and scoring. Late in the season he broke George Mikan's single-season record of 1,932 points, set in 1950-51. But entering the season finale against Syracuse, he was still short of 2,000. Yardley was determined to reach that plateau, and the Nets were determined to stop him. Syracuse double- and even triple-teamed him throughout the game.

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