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Past NBA players might've not made as much money as players make today, but when you play or even show up to the bench, you should get paid something, right? For Carl McNulty, that wasn't the case. And oddly enough, he didn't mind.
In the 1954-1955 season, the NBA was a pretty different league. For context, there were only nine NBA teams but ended with eight after the Washington Bullets withdrew mid-season with a 3-14 record. This was the season where the shot clock was introduced, NBC finally had the licensing rights to broadcast a few more games, the league was finally making a profit, and the tip-in was the most revolutionary move in basketball (a move McNulty invented).
Why did Carl McNulty never get paid?
The answer to this question comes down to two reasons: alcohol and poker. As a 6-foot-3 guard who grew up on a farm in Indiana, basketball was the last thing on his mind. All he wanted to do was work at his parent's farm, but since he was the 1950s version of Dennis Rodman, he wanted to see how far basketball could take him. McNulty eventually earned a scholarship to play at Purdue. Not a lot of stats were recorded during this time, but here's a couple of notable ones:
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- Averaged 18 points his senior year.
- Finished a game with 27 rebounds (a record for the Boilermakers that stood for almost 100 years).
He was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers in the third round of the 1952 draft but was immediately traded to the Milwaukee Hawks. Before he could play, McNulty was required to spend the next two years in the U.S. Navy. Once the two years passed, he lost the motivation to play but was eventually convinced by the Hawks.
McNulty's debut NBA game against the Detroit Pistons where he scored 2 points in 14 minutes in a nine-point loss. On the train ride back to Milwaukee, McNulty hated that his teammates partied and gambled after games. Since he never signed a contract to play with the Hawks, he chose to never come back.
While McNulty's NBA career only lasted one game, he did still become a legend in basketball. As a high school basketball coach in Indiana, McNulty won 13 sectional titles. But to the NBA, he'll always be known as the only guy who played for free.
