Daily News co-worker Mark Perner points out that if the Spurs can pull out Game 7 Thursday night, San Antonio's Gary Neal (who spent two years at La Salle before transferring to Towson) will become the 11th different player to attend a City 6 school and win an NBA title since 1957. Sixers broadcaster Malik Rose (Drexel) is the only one among them to win more than one title.
Why start with 1957? Well, the 1956 NBA Champions were the Philadelphia Warriors, who had no less than seven Big 5 players — Jack George, Tom Gola and Jackie Moore (La Salle), Ernie Beck (Penn), Paul Arizin, Larry Hennessy and Bob Schafer (Villanova).
City 6 players on an NBA Champion since 1957 (*Injured during regular season and did not play in postseason):