History shows that most of the great free throw shooters in basketball history are small guards, but 6’7″ Brown center Arnie Berman proved everyone wrong back in the 1970s. He shot better than 83 FT% during each of his 3 years on the varsity, and as a senior he broke Bill Bradley’s conference record by making 25 FTs in a game against Cornell. He was pretty consistent off the court as well, earning an MBA from New York University and a law degree from Miami. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Arnie about breaking Bradley’s record and a memorable trip to Russia. Today marks the 50th anniversary of that record-setting performance on February 4, 1972, so we take this time to reflect on a little slice of history.
You were known as “The Gym Rat” because you played basketball 365 days/year: who gave you the nickname, and how did you like it? My coach Gerry Alaimo gave it to me and I liked it a lot. It was a very good description because I spent every day of the year in the gym so I did not mind it at all. My teammates liked it too.
In the 1971 season opener as a player at Brown you scored 36 PTS/13-20 FG in a loss at 6th-ranked Maryland in front of 18,000 fans: how were you able to play your best against the best? I always felt that the better the competition, the better I played. 1 year Alaimo gave me a choice of scheduling easy or hard non-conference opponents: that was an easy choice for me so we scheduled teams like Maryland, Ohio State, etc. I thought that it lifted my game to play against very good competition. The summer after my sophomore year I spent about a month coaching at Lefty Driesell’s basketball camp at Maryland. At night we would scrimmage the Terps’ varsity team, who was basically the team that I faced in that season opener. I thought that I was as good as anyone on those top-20 teams.
On February 4, 1972 you broke Bill Bradley’s conference record with 25 FTM (in 26 attempts) in a win at Cornell: what was your secret for making FTs, and do you think that anyone will ever break your record? I assume that someone will eventually break the record. The keys are concentration/practice. I used to practice FT shooting a lot, which came in handy because I would get fouled a lot in games. That goes hand-in-hand with being a gym rat. In my opinion the Ivy League was much better back then: Penn/Princeton were always ranked in the top-20 and Columbia was pretty good as well. As a senior we had more players drafted than any other conference in the nation!
You finished your senior year with 25.3 PPG (10th in the nation) and graduated as the highest scorer in school history with 1668 career PTS: what is the key to being a great scorer? Part of it is making the most of your FT opportunities: I bet I averaged almost 10 FTM/game. Another part was being ambidextrous: I had a good shot from outside but practiced doing things left-handed every summer.
You were a right-handed shooter but perfected a left-handed hook shot: why did you decide to mix it up, and how difficult was it to make it effective? I would just try to use my left hand for everyday activities: eating, opening a door, etc. I would practice my left-handed shot a lot and I became pretty decent: it is just a matter of repetition. If you take 200 layups and 200 hook shots then it becomes a pretty effective weapon.
You were named All-American/Academic All-American: how did you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? It was not easy: you just had to do it. I went to class every morning, practice every afternoon, and the library every evening. I went to a tough private high school in Buffalo where I learned how to budget my time and work hard, which put me ahead of all my teammates by preparing me for college. I was sort of a dull boy!
You averaged a double-double during each of your 3 years on the varsity while starting all 77 games: how did you balance your scoring with your rebounding? Rebounding was very important to me, even back in high school. My high school coach taught me about boxing out and all of the other important things. I think that offensive rebounding went hand-in-hand with scoring. I always considered rebounding 1 of my strengths as a player and it was something that I wanted to be good at.
You represented Team USA on an AAU team that toured the Soviet Union/Israel: what are your memories of being in such turbulent countries during such turbulent times? I will never forget the trip to Russia. We had a layover in Turkey and got to visit the Grand Bazaar. 1 of our assistant coaches was Israeli and as soon as we landed some guys who looked like they were with the KGB came onto our plane and took the coach away! He spent a couple of days in jail and then returned for our 1st game. The refs heard about it and were worried about an international incident but I never felt in danger. There were propaganda signs all over the place: we would ask our guard about them and he would just ignore us. The hotel in Moscow was great but the locker room at the tournament gym in Georgia was horrendous. If we had to relieve ourselves we had to use a hole in the ground: it was primitive to say the least with toilet paper that felt like sandpaper! The meals were good but repetitious: it was lamb every day. The final day we were there I got up at 3AM because it got light early out there. I went to Red Square to take some photos and a couple of Army soldiers walked up to me and told me to stop so I hightailed it back to the hotel. On our flight from Moscow to Georgia I looked out the window and saw a woman on the wing refueling the plane, which was a pretty unusual sight back then. When we opened the vent above our seats to get some cool air a mist came out and the whole plane got foggy. There were a couple of other guys who were Jewish (like me): 1 day we went to explore the Jewish community and they were very nice to us. We wore blue jeans and had we wanted to we could have sold them for a lot of money: all of the Soviet players wanted to buy them! We played the top-2 Russian teams and the Finland Olympic team: I even got my picture in Pravda. That was the year the Russians won the Olympics.
In the spring of 1972 you were selected in the 5th round of the NBA Draft by Buffalo but ended up getting cut during training camp due to injuries: do you think that you would have made the roster if you were healthy, and do you have any regrets about not making it? I have no regrets because it is what it is. I like to think that I would have made it if I was healthy but I do not think about it. A couple of years ago my daughter bought me a book called the Basketball Fact Draft Book. I tried to extrapolate whether I would have been drafted if it was a 2-round modern draft: I would have been like the last 1-2 guys selected in the 2nd round. There were fewer teams back then compared to today. I remember at rookie camp that everyone besides Bob McAdoo had mapped out where they were going if they could not make it in Buffalo, which I did not do. I had a different mindset because I knew that I could go to law school.
You were 1 of 15 recipients of an NCAA post-graduate fellowship for combined excellence in academics/athletics, and later got an MBA from NYU and a JD from Miami: how much importance do you place on academics, and what have you been up to since getting all of your degrees? Academics are important but so is playing basketball, which is where I have most of my great memories. I have been a partner at the law firm of Shutts & Bowen and am now in their West Palm Beach office. We started out with about 40 people and now have 270+ people with several offices throughout Florida. It has been a great career to spend 40 years here. My partners thought that I was fair/objective, which put me in good stead. I enjoyed recruiting other lawyers to come work here, which I liken to recruiting athletes to come to your college. In this day and age it is pretty unusual to spend 40 years with the same firm.
