Sidney Harold Tanenbaum (October 8, 1925 – September 4, 1986) was an American professional basketball player. He was twice a consensus first-team All-American (in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

and

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

) and twice a Haggerty Award winner (1946 and 1947). He went on to play professionally for the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

and the Baltimore Bullets.

Early life

Tanenbaum was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in its Brownsville neighborhood, and was Jewish. He was an all-scholastic player at Thomas Jefferson High School. He met his wife, Bobbie Wolfson, in college when he was a junior.

Basketball career

A 6' 0" guard/forward, Tanenbaum played college basketball at New York University, where he was captain of the team in 1947, and was a two-time All-American and two-time Haggerty Award winner as the outstanding player in the metropolitan area. He also won the 1947 Bar Kochba Award, which honored him as the best

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

athlete in the nation, and was named first team All-Met in all four of his varsity seasons."Sidney Tannenbaum"
''Jewish Sports''"Tanenbaum, Sidney Harold"
''Jewish Virtual Library Wilbur Wood, the sports editor of the '' New York Sun'', wrote of Tanenbaum in 1947: "He is the finest all-around basketball performer ever to don Violet livery." He left NYU as the school's all-time leading scorer, with 992 points. NYU annually awards its top student-athlete the Sid Tanenbaum Memorial Award. Tanenbaum played two seasons (1947–49) in the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...

as a member of the

and Baltimore Bullets. On February 11, 1949, the New York Knicks traded him to the Baltimore Bullets for Connie Simmons. He scored 633 points in 70 games and tallied 162 assists. He was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 1997 into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal life

After his basketball career, Tanenbaum lived in

Woodmere, New York Woodmere is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 17,554 at the 2016 census. Woodmere is one of the Long Island communities known as the Five Towns, ...

, with his wife Barbara and sons Steven and Michael (an optometrist). He owned a machine shop specializing in metal spinning and stamping in Far Rockaway, Queens, known as the Able Metal Spinning and Stamping."Sidney Tannenbaum, Ex-Player", ''The New York Times'', September 5, 1986, page A20

Murder

Tanenbaum was murdered on September 4, 1986, aged 60, when he was stabbed to death by a local 37-year-old woman in his shop. Police described Tanenbaum as "something of a benefactor in his neighborhood" who often gave money to people living in the streets. According to reports, he was stabbed because he decided to stop lending money to his attacker after assisting her many times in the past, and when he turned his back she attacked him. His killer, Molly Dotsun, was sentenced to 21 years in prison. The basketball courts at the park in North Woodmere, New York, are named after Tanenbaum. Since 1986, they have hosted the Sid Tanenbaum Memorial Basketball Tournament that raises scholarship money for students in the Five Towns.

BAA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

Sid Tannenbaum
at ''Jews in Sports'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tannenbaum, Sid 1925 births 1986 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) players Deaths by stabbing in New York (state) Jewish American sportspeople Jewish men's basketball players Male murder victims Murdered American Jews NYU Violets men's basketball players New York Knicks players Basketball players from Brooklyn People from Woodmere, New York Sportspeople from Hempstead, New York Basketball players from Nassau County, New York Guards (basketball) 20th-century American Jews