Erving, Cunningham among those paying tribute to Harvey Pollack

Ron Pollack watched his father crunch numbers for years as a member of the 76ers' statistics crew and as a pro basketball employee since 1946.

Harvey Pollack was credited with coming up with the system of tracking rebounds, steals, turnovers, blocked shots and other statistics.

However, "the one number he never came up with was how many lives he touched," Ron Pollack said Friday afternoon at his father's funeral at Goldstein's Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks on North Broad Street.

Those sentiments were echoed repeatedly at a gathering of about 200 to say goodbye to Pollack. Sixers Hall of Famer Julius Erving read a Rudyard Kipling poem over Pollack's casket, which was draped by an American flag and bordered by flowers.

City basketball icon Sonny Hill spoke of a meeting in heaven between Pollack and deceased basketball greats such as Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Arizin, Joe Fulks, Guy Rodgers and other Philadelphia legends, all of whom were chronicled by Harvey Pollack, who died Tuesday at 93.

Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie and coach Brett Brown were in attendance, as were a host of team employees, media members and family and friends.

Born in Camden and raised in North Philadelphia, the graduate of Simon Gratz High and Temple University was the sole remaining original NBA employee still working in the league.

On Jan. 1, Pollack was injured in a single-car accident and remained hospitalized. His signature moment came the night Chamberlain scored 100 points against New York on March 6, 1962. Pollack handed Chamberlain a piece of paper with "100" written on it and the photograph of the moment became iconic.

"I've never met anyone who loved what he or she did more than Harvey," former coach and 76ers Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham said. "He loved every second of it. He will be greatly missed because he was a true part of the culture of Philadelphia basketball."