Norman Clifford Mager (March 23, 1926 – March 17, 2005) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who played in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

for the Baltimore Bullets during the

1950–51 NBA season The 1950–51 NBA season was the fifth season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Rochester Royals winning the NBA Championship, beating the New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. Notable occurrences * The ...

. Mager is also notable as a key member of the

1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team The 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team represented the City College of New York. The head coach was Nat Holman, who was one of the game's greatest innovators and playmakers. Unlike today, when colleges recruit players from all over the c ...

, the only team in NCAA history to win both the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

and NCAA tournament in the same year.

College career

Mager, a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

from Lafayette High School in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, was a senior during the 1949–50 season. He averaged 3.6 points per game during the season, but had a strong postseason, averaging 12.6 points per game in the 1950 NCAA tournament and was named to the All-Eastern regional team. He was also important in the Beavers' NIT run, averaging 4.7 points per game.

Professional career

Baltimore Bullets (1950-1951)

Following the close of his collegiate career, Mager was drafted in the fifth round of the

1950 NBA draft The 1950 NBA draft was the fourth annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). This is the first draft after the Basketball Association of America (BAA) was renamed the NBA. The draft was held on April 25, 1950, before the 1950–5 ...

by the Baltimore Bullets. Mager played 22 games for the Bullets, averaging 4.6 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. However, his career came to a premature end in the wake of the

CCNY Point Shaving Scandal The CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1950–51 was a college basketball point-shaving gambling scandal that involved seven American schools in all, with four in the New York metropolitan area, two in the Midwest, and one in the South. However, most o ...

, where it was revealed that players on the team had taken money to manipulate the point-spread of several games. Mager was thrown out of the NBA and other members of the CCNY team were banned for life from the league.

Personal life

Mager became an executive with a janitorial supply company, retiring in 2000. He died of cancer on March 17, 2005, in

Boynton Beach, Florida Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about 57 miles north of Miami. The population was 68,217 at the 2010 census. In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 78,679 according to the University o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mager, Norm 1926 births 2005 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) draft picks Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players Banned National Basketball Association players Basketball players from New York City CCNY Beavers men's basketball players Deaths from cancer in Florida Forwards (basketball) Lafayette High School (New York City) alumni Sportspeople from Brooklyn