NBA impressario Gottlieb to be honored with historic marker

THEY CALLED Eddie Gottlieb "The Mogul" because of the ability and power he had to get things done. In the early days of the NBA, he was the man who got the league moving in the right direction. Heck, he was putting the schedules together by hand in the 1970s.

A lot of that same persistance and determination have been the impetus behind installation of a historic marker that will be unveiled today at South Philadelphia High School.

Gottlieb, founder of the Philadelphia SPHAs and former coach and owner of the Warriors, who is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., was a 1916 graduate of South Philly High, and it is where he discovered basketball.

Local author and historian Celeste Morello, who has been behind almost 40 other markers being erected throughout the city, took on the Gottlieb cause after being amazed by how much he did for a sport still in its infancy.

"You get a guy like Gottlieb, and he standardized everything," said Morello, a Norristown native, but longtime South Philadelphia resident. "Because of him, the sport is played uniformally from coast to coast."

The NBA, which honors Gottlieb by naming its rookie of the year award after him, will pay all of the expenses for the marker. The marker itself, according to Morello, costs close to $1,900, and the permit and installation are $350.

Morello said the Sixers' Harvey Pollack, a protégé of Gottlieb's, got the ball rolling with the NBA. From there, John Hareas, an NBA vice president, worked behind the scenes.

"The NBA has been wonderful how they've run with this," said Morello.

The marker will be unveiled at Broad and Snyder at 11 a.m. Former Sixer Dikembe Mutombo will represent commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA. Soon after, Deke will be catching a 2 p.m. flight to his native Africa.