How Dick Bavetta went from Teeing up Tony Zonca to the NBA Hall of Fame

It was January 1973 and I found myself sitting on the bench with the Hamburg Bullets in some ancient, ill-lit gym for a weekend Eastern Basketball League game.

That’s all I remember about the occasion.

I was there as the team’s PR director and assistant GM.

As usual, we were losing.  Early in the second quarter one of the officials, Dick Bavetta, made what I considered a bad call.  I mildly protested.  Without hesitation Bavetta hit me with a technical.

During the next timeout our point guard Billy Angelis, who played college ball at St. Joe’s in Philadelphia, complained to me.  “Geez, Tony we’re having enough trouble out here without you getting teed up” and giving our opponent two foul shots and the ball.

I remember we lost the game, but not by two points, thank the basketball gods.  Afterward, I ran into Bavetta in the locker room area.  “Dick, why did you tee me up?” I asked.  “It was early in the game, I didn’t swear, I didn’t show you up.  I didn’t even stand up.  Damn, now I owe the league $25.”

That was the league fine for every technical.

“Aw, I just wanted to keep the game under control,” he said, which every official on every level relies on in similar circumstances.

We chatted amiably for a bit and I mentioned one of my best friends was John Vanak, who by then was a fulltime official in the NBA for 10 years.

Bavetta came alive.  “You know Vanak?” he said.  “He’s one of the guys I most admire up there.  He’s one of the best.  Hey, can you put in a good word for me with him?”

“After you teed me up?” I said hopefully.

“Aw, forget it,” he said.  “I won’t turn it in.”

The next week I called Vanak on an off day for him.  He got a kick out of the story.  “How is he?” he asked.  “Do you like his work?”

I told Vanak I thought Bavetta was one of the top two or three officials working the respected league.  He said he would ask around.

I discovered later that Bavetta had failed in a couple of tryouts in the NBA.  It wasn’t his work that hurt him; it was his size.  Bavetta reminded me of Don Knotts, the slightly built comedian who had a role on the TV sitcom “Three’s Company.”  He even facially resembled Knotts.

The NBA preferred their officials to be tall and athletically built, which wasn’t always the case.

Anyway, two years later Bavetta got his shot in The League.  He became the Cal Ripken of officials.  He became the first NBA official to earn a yearly salary of $200,000.  He worked more than four decades and didn’t retire till he was 75.  At one point he did not miss an assignment for 2,635 games.  

The crowning moment of his career was his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bavetta is famous for another event.

It was 2007 and Charles Barkley was working a TV game with Marv Albert.  Bavetta was working the game.

“Hey, I can outrun Dick Bavetta right now,” said the then-43-year-old Barkley, who never met a cheeseburger he didn’t like.

“I believe he would beat you in a footrace,” Albert teased.

One thing led to another, and prior to that season’s All-Star Game, Barkley and Bavetta were lining up to race.  They were supposed to run two lengths of the floor.  Bavetta was 67 at the time and eight years away from retirement.

After a couple of Barkley-induced false starts they took off.  Barkley, obviously enjoying himself, held the lead near the end and began back-pedaling and finally fell to the floor.  Seeing this, Bavetta did a swan dive.

The two men came together and Bavetta surprised a gassed Barkley with a kiss on the lips.

Even during the years I covered the Sixers, I never had the opportunity to meet up again with Bavetta.

Good thing.  A man hug is as far as I would have gone.