Here is an article about how the 24 second shot clock was invented. It's kinda interesting because apparently one of the guys that took part in it was Dolph Schayes (wayyyy before my time). Better known to suns fans as the father of Danny Schayes, the greatest center that the Suns have ever had jk. Him and Klein were the dynamic duo dubbed either Schklein or Kleayes depending on who you asked. I remember in one of those games in the playoffs against Houston in 95 or 96, the two of them put together actually outplayed the Dream statistically. Man that was a wild time to be a suns fan 
Schayes remembers when shot clock was born
Innovation that changed face of game celebrates 50th anniversary
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:20 p.m. ET Aug. 9, 2004
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Dolph Schayes and some teammates scrimmaged in a small, stuffy high school gym exactly 50 years ago. The short workout helped rescue the NBA and transform professional basketball from a chesslike contest into a fast-paced, gravity-defying game.
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<script></script><noscript><a HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3349.msn/B1394462.28;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;code=98283;ord=24767?" target="_blank"><img SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N3349.msn/B1394462.28;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;code=98283;ord=24767?" BORDER="0" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="250" ALT="Click Here" /></a></noscript>“I remember we were all huffing and puffing,” the 76-year-old Hall of Famer said. “It was summer, so we were out of shape anyway. It certainly changed the tempo of play. It was all running. No standing around. It made the game more fun to play.”
It was Aug. 10, 1954, and a group of team owners and governing board members in the fledgling National Basketball Association — Danny Biasone, Red Auerbach, Ned Irish, Eddie Gottlieb and Clair Bee — sat in the bleachers at Vocational High School in downtown Syracuse and watched as the 20-minute pickup game was played with a 24-second shot clock.
“There wasn’t really a clock,” recalled Schayes, a 12-time NBA All-Star who played from 1949-64 with the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers and was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer when he retired. “There was a guy on the sideline keeping it with his watch and yelling out the time. Twenty. Ten. Five, four, three ...
“None of us at the time realized the significance of it. Arguably, it can be said it’s been the most important rule change in the history of the game,” Schayes said.
On Tuesday, Schayes will help Syracuse city officials mark the 50th anniversary of that game at a ceremony at the school, now Blodgett Elementary School. Fittingly, a basketball game involving local high school players will follow.
“It changed the game of basketball, and it happened here in Syracuse. It’s a fact to be proud of,” said Syracuse Parks and Recreation commissioner Pat Driscoll, who would like to see a permanent memorial built to celebrate the moment.
In Springfield, Mass., at the National Basketball Hall of Fame, a display case explains the clock’s history, said Dean O’Keefe, a museum spokesman. The clock’s history also is included in the biography for Biasone, a Hall of Famer who owned the Syracuse Nationals and was one of the NBA’s founding members.
The Hall of Fame has nothing special planned this year for the shot clock’s golden anniversary, O’Keefe said. Neither does the NBA, spokesman Mark Broussard said.
In those early days, NBA games were low scoring, played at a poke-along pace that was threatening to kill pro basketball as a spectator sport before it even got started. With no shot clock, a team with a lead in the fourth quarter simply stalled until the clock ran down.
The lowest scoring game in NBA history was on Nov. 22, 1950, when the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. Fort Wayne outscored the Lakers 3-1 in the final quarter.
At Yale University, coach Howard Hobson was proposing a radical 30-second shot clock. Other colleges scoffed at the idea as a gimmick. In Syracuse, Biasone thought it could be the change needed to make the NBA game more exciting.
After years of lobbying, Biasone finally persuaded his associates to come to Syracuse to watch an exhibition game.
In a 1992 interview with The Associated Press, Biasone explained that he came up with his magic number through simple arithmetic. At that time, each NBA team was averaging 60 shots a game, which meant that each game featured 120 shots. Since each league game lasts 48 minutes, or 2,880 seconds, that total divided by 120 equals 24.
The 24-second shot clock made its NBA debut on Oct. 30, 1954, with the Rochester Royals defeating the Boston Celtics 98-95. The change had its intended effect. According to NBA records, scoring jumped that first year from 79.5 points per game to 93.1.
Schayes remembers when shot clock was born
Innovation that changed face of game celebrates 50th anniversary
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:20 p.m. ET Aug. 9, 2004
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Dolph Schayes and some teammates scrimmaged in a small, stuffy high school gym exactly 50 years ago. The short workout helped rescue the NBA and transform professional basketball from a chesslike contest into a fast-paced, gravity-defying game.
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<script></script><noscript><a HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N3349.msn/B1394462.28;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;code=98283;ord=24767?" target="_blank"><img SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N3349.msn/B1394462.28;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=300x250;code=98283;ord=24767?" BORDER="0" WIDTH="300" HEIGHT="250" ALT="Click Here" /></a></noscript>“I remember we were all huffing and puffing,” the 76-year-old Hall of Famer said. “It was summer, so we were out of shape anyway. It certainly changed the tempo of play. It was all running. No standing around. It made the game more fun to play.”
It was Aug. 10, 1954, and a group of team owners and governing board members in the fledgling National Basketball Association — Danny Biasone, Red Auerbach, Ned Irish, Eddie Gottlieb and Clair Bee — sat in the bleachers at Vocational High School in downtown Syracuse and watched as the 20-minute pickup game was played with a 24-second shot clock.
“There wasn’t really a clock,” recalled Schayes, a 12-time NBA All-Star who played from 1949-64 with the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers and was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer when he retired. “There was a guy on the sideline keeping it with his watch and yelling out the time. Twenty. Ten. Five, four, three ...
“None of us at the time realized the significance of it. Arguably, it can be said it’s been the most important rule change in the history of the game,” Schayes said.
On Tuesday, Schayes will help Syracuse city officials mark the 50th anniversary of that game at a ceremony at the school, now Blodgett Elementary School. Fittingly, a basketball game involving local high school players will follow.
“It changed the game of basketball, and it happened here in Syracuse. It’s a fact to be proud of,” said Syracuse Parks and Recreation commissioner Pat Driscoll, who would like to see a permanent memorial built to celebrate the moment.
In Springfield, Mass., at the National Basketball Hall of Fame, a display case explains the clock’s history, said Dean O’Keefe, a museum spokesman. The clock’s history also is included in the biography for Biasone, a Hall of Famer who owned the Syracuse Nationals and was one of the NBA’s founding members.
The Hall of Fame has nothing special planned this year for the shot clock’s golden anniversary, O’Keefe said. Neither does the NBA, spokesman Mark Broussard said.
In those early days, NBA games were low scoring, played at a poke-along pace that was threatening to kill pro basketball as a spectator sport before it even got started. With no shot clock, a team with a lead in the fourth quarter simply stalled until the clock ran down.
The lowest scoring game in NBA history was on Nov. 22, 1950, when the Fort Wayne Pistons defeated the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18. Fort Wayne outscored the Lakers 3-1 in the final quarter.
At Yale University, coach Howard Hobson was proposing a radical 30-second shot clock. Other colleges scoffed at the idea as a gimmick. In Syracuse, Biasone thought it could be the change needed to make the NBA game more exciting.
After years of lobbying, Biasone finally persuaded his associates to come to Syracuse to watch an exhibition game.
In a 1992 interview with The Associated Press, Biasone explained that he came up with his magic number through simple arithmetic. At that time, each NBA team was averaging 60 shots a game, which meant that each game featured 120 shots. Since each league game lasts 48 minutes, or 2,880 seconds, that total divided by 120 equals 24.
The 24-second shot clock made its NBA debut on Oct. 30, 1954, with the Rochester Royals defeating the Boston Celtics 98-95. The change had its intended effect. According to NBA records, scoring jumped that first year from 79.5 points per game to 93.1.
