John Baum Builds Legacy Beyond Basketball

Each year there are tons of talented players around the country that are cut from their high school teams for one reason or another. Whatever potential they may have had is often never realized for the most part they’re never able to put their skill on display.

For former New York Nets forward John Baum, his story was a bit different. He didn’t play basketball in high school at all, instead concentrating more on baseball and soccer, but once college rolled around that changed.

As Baum tells Nothin’ But Nets, his height initially stood out to members of the basketball team, but he was able to prove himself once he got on the court.

“After high school I attended a non-accredited business school called Peirce Junior College. I attended there primarily because my parents wanted me to figure out what I wanted to do and to get a feel for life after high school and then make a decision from there. Some of the guys on their basketball saw me and asked if I played and they told me to come down to practice with them and I eventually joined the team,” Baum said.

Within a couple of years, the coaches at Peirce were able to tap into the potential that Baum had displayed and he quickly made some noise within basketball circles in the Philadelphia area. Before long, Temple University was on the phone offering him a chance to join the team.

Prior to joining Temple however, Baum’s skill on the diamond was recognized. He was offered a chance to join the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

“My athletic love was always baseball and I was a better baseball player than a basketball player. I was a centerfielder and just before entering Temple, I was asked to consider going into the minor league system of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I had communication with the baseball coach, but that the basketball coach squashed that decision for me. The team’s current centerfielder told me years ago that during freshman year, the baseball coach was telling the team that if he was able to get me on the team, I would have been the team’s centerfielder.”

With his baseball career put to rest, he focused his efforts on basketball. Although he was still very new to the game, he was able to make the transition to Division 1 college basketball without skipping a beat, an accomplishment he credits to his experience in other sports.

“I think primarily I was athletic from my baseball and soccer experience. I was very green, but I knew a little bit about basketball from playing at Peirce. It was the first chance that I had to play for a basketball coach, too, so that helped. Freshman couldn’t play varsity, so I had a year to learn the game from a D1 coach.”

During his first year, he was second on the team in scoring and helped guide the Owls to the NCAA Tournament, a surreal experience for someone who hadn’t even been playing just a couple of years prior.

“That was really unbelievable. Here’s a guy that never played in high school so he never got the chance to play in front of a crowd. We advanced to the tournament and that was exciting.”

In two more years with the school, both of which he was the leading scorer, Baum established himself as one of the better players in school history. He capped off his tremendous career with an NIT Championship.

“It was unbelievable and to this day I think about the fact that I was one of few college players to win their very last college game. At that point, only 20 or 25 teams were allowed to go to the NCAA Tournament, so the NIT was nearly on the same level as far as excitement and expectations. We had lost our regular season championship game on a buzzer-beater so we were sitting around and just hoping to get an invite to the NIT. Long story short, we were the 16^th team chosen and ended up winning and it’s something that I’ll never forget.”

Though he had his professional baseball aspirations shut down years before, a professional career in basketball was still on the table after he left Temple. That was made a reality when the Chicago Bulls of the NBA and the Los Angeles Stars of the ABA drafted him.

“I was excited, but I was not surprised to be honest. When my career ended, I was the second leading scorer of all-time with Temple and the number one rebounder in the school’s history. I was the 22^nd or 23^rd overall pick with Chicago and was the first player chosen by the Stars and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit with both teams.”

In the end Baum wound up choosing to head for the NBA, but it was not a decision that came easily.

“I went out to LA to talk with the people there and it was recognized that I was going to be drafted by them. At the time, Bill Cosby, who’s a Temple alum, was filling in for Johnny Carson during that particular week. Once he found out that I was being drafted by LA, he asked me to stay at his property with him for the week. My decision came down to the fact that I wanted to play in the NBA, though. I was a first round pick and the ABA offered more, but I grew up watching the NBA and that’s where I wanted to be.”

Before he could get his career off of the ground though, he had to complete his duty to the military after being drafted ruing the Vietnam War.

“To avoid my name going into the draft pool, I joined the National Guard and spent eight months there before graduating from Temple. In October or November, I got that unfortunate letter from the government that I would have to serve and there’s really no getting around the military. By the time I finished my active duty, the season was just about over.”

He almost entirely missed out on his rookie year and as his second season came around, he was stuck behind Hall of Famer Chet Walker and All-Star Bob Love. At the conclusion of the season, an opportunity presented itself with the New York Nets of the ABA.

“I played around half the games in my second year in the NBA and I just wasn’t very happy about that. Dick Motta, the coach of the Bulls at the time, like many coaches, didn’t trust rookies and didn’t play them very much. After the second year, I saw that the ABA was making a lot of noise in terms of getting players to jump from the NBA, so I figured it was a good decision. Lou Carnesecca had recently left St. John’s to coach the Nets and he was very good friends with my coach at Temple, so my coach told me that Lou said he would love to have me.”

Within the first few games of the ABA, Baum realized that this style of play was much better suited to the type of player that he had developed into as opposed to the slower-paced NBA.

“I loved the ABA right away, to be honest with you. I loved the pace of the game and I loved that they had some great players, the guards and the forwards in the ABA in my mind were as good as the NBA. I loved the excitement that came with the three-point shot and the fast-paced play with so many athletic guards and forwards.”

He joined the Nets mid-season, but when his second year with the team came he was inserted into the starting lineup, a first for his professional basketball career. Though he enjoyed his time with the starters, his fondest memories came when he was used as a jack-of-all trades bench player.

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“The fans labeled me as a super-sub because I was coming in and filling in for Rick Barry and Trooper Washington. During the playoffs, we played Indiana and I was in the locker room as the third forward coming into the game and I was getting dressed and 20 minutes before the game, they get a call that Rick Barry can’t make the game because he had the flu, so coach came to me and told me that I was starting in this Eastern Division, very important, playoff game. I played and had one of my best games as an ABA player and we won the game and I got a lot of press for my excellent game.”

Though he had grown to become a fan favorite with the team and envisioned being with the organization long-term, that thought came crashing down with the news that he had been traded to the Memphis Tams, a cellar-dweller in the ABA.

“It was very, very difficult to be traded. Larry Kenon, who was a standout for Memphis in college, signed with the Nets even though the Tams held his rights. Charlie Finley owned them and he said that the Nets had to compensate them and the league agreed. They said that the Tams could pick anyone off of the Nets roster other than the starting five, so he chose Jim Ard and me. Even though I was looking forward to having another great season with the Nets, it was out of my hands and I wasn’t very happy. I was born and raised in Philly, but then I’m told that I have to go and play in the South, which in 1974 was having some major racial problems, caused me to be pretty unhappy to say the least.”

After just 47 games with Memphis he was traded to the Indiana Pacers, but once the season had concluded he made the surprising decision to retire at just 28-years old.

“I was really frustrated with the politics of professional basketball and how the best players were not playing. We were paid a fair amount of money and were making more than the average person, but at the same time I had graduated with a degree in accounting and was offered a job with Price Waterhouse so I had something to offer other than basketball. I could leave the issues that I was facing and go into a career that I could control and could have for the next 30 years. I really enjoyed playing and I could have continued playing, but I didn’t want to be a journeyman player.”

While he had thought his basketball playing days were over, he was presented with another opportunity that allowed him to keep his career in the finance industry while also pursuing his passion for basketball.

“I was working in Philly and some of the people from the Eastern Basketball Association contacted me. They played on the weekends so I could continue doing my job and get paid to play on the weekends. I was one of the higher paid players in the league and I was sort of treated like a superstar. The owner flew me in on his private plane for the games and then flew me back, so I couldn’t beat that.”

While he was starring for his team and the league, ranking second in points in the EBA, an opportunity with the NBA reared it’s head up even though he had sworn off playing in either the NBA or ABA years earlier.

“One day when I was at work, I received a phone call and the reception said that I had a call from San Antonio. I had a call from Bob Bass, the general manager of the Spurs at the time and he said that they were trying to make it into the playoffs. They said that they could arrange for a tryout, I told him that I was honored, but my employer might not be okay with it. We parted and the next day I get a call, I got offered a contract for the rest of the season guaranteed. That was very, very difficult to say no to, but I did.”

Baum continued on working in the banking and finance industry, but he was eventually sought out by his former university to get back into the fold.

“I was approached me about the Owl Club and they wanted me to come to a meeting. I did and after spending some time at these meetings, they offered me to be an officer for the club and I eventually worked up to become President of the organization after a few years. They reached out about a job within the university and I took a position as the Development Director of the Alumni Association.”

While many thought he would be a natural fit in the athletic department given his storied basketball career at the university, Baum didn’t want to make that jump right away.

“I didn’t want to go into athletics right away because I didn’t want to be just another jock. After six or seven years though, the Athletic Director came to me and offered me the position of Assistant Athletic Director of Development and because I believed they were asking me because of my finance and professional experience rather than my athletic career, I was ready to take the job.”

Throughout his time in this position, Baum has been able to develop a number of different avenues that prospective students can benefit from.

“The biggest thing is that I wanted to have an impact on was the university’s endowed funds because they were kind of low for the size of the university that we are. As a result, I established 20 or 30 endowed funds and they’re the lifelines that will continue giving for years.”

One of the most notable of these funds is the John Chaney Endowed Scholarship Fund, named after the famed Temple basketball head coach. Though it was all towards a good cause, it took quite a bit of work on Baum’s end to make it a reality.

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“When John Chaney was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, I was thinking of a fitting way for the university to recognize him. I began the process of setting up this fund and my goal was to raise $1 million because it would make it sustainable for a number of years. Aaron McKie and Eddie Jones each contributed $250,000 so that was a huge help and I was able to reach the $1 million mark, but I needed Coach Chaney’s permission to put his name on it.”

He continued, “He never wanted special attention and he said that he didn’t need it, so we went back and forth for a long time before I was able to convince him. He’s a smart, smart man and he said that I could set up the fund, but I wanted it to benefit former Temple basketball players that are down on their luck and need it for their kids to be able to attend so that was what sealed the deal.”

He has since retired from the university, but remains involved as a broadcast analyst for the basketball team.

For someone that didn’t begin playing basketball until he was in college, John Baum has been able to make a long-lasting imprint of the lives of many through his efforts both on and off of the court.

Quick Questions

Who was your favorite player growing up?
I would say that my favorite player, coming from Philadelphia, we love Wilt Chamberlain. We had a summer professional league called the Baker League and it was like an All-Star Game every night because current and former pro’s played; Earl Monroe, Billy Cunningham, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Bradley, all of those guys. These big time players were giving back to the community because they could watch these games for free and they wouldn’t have had the chance to go see them during the season because they didn’t have money.

Outside of the guys that made the jump, who are some players in the ABA that could have done well in the NBA?
The ABA had some great guards and forwards and as I think back guys like Roger Brown, who was a star with the Pacers he would have been a star, another name was Donnie Freeman who was a guard that played at Illinois and could score the ball and do a number of things. The third guy was Mack Calvin, who played at USC and was a great player in the ABA and got hurt near the end of his time there.

Who is in your all-time starting lineup?
PG: Tiny Archibald
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Julius Erving
PF: Karl Malone
C: Wilt Chamberlain