1. Tony Lavelli averaged 6.9 points per game during his two-year National Basketball Association career while providing half-time entertainment with his accordion performances.
10 Facts About Tony Lavelli
1. 2.
Tony Lavelli aspired to compose musical comedies after he graduated.
3.
Tony Lavelli wrote over a dozen songs while in college, with titles like "I Want a Helicopter" and "You're the Boppiest Bee-Bop", and he appeared as an accordion soloist for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
4.
Tony Lavelli claimed that he had only learned basketball as a teenager to impress his friends, who were mostly apathetic to his music.
5.
Tony Lavelli earned four All-American team selections and one Player of the Year award during his college career.
6.
Tony Lavelli made his Celtics debut on November 24,1949, in a game against the Fort Wayne Pistons.
7.
Tony Lavelli usually played in his basketball jersey, as he had little time to change his clothes.
8.
Tony Lavelli averaged 3.3 points per game with the Knicks and participated in their playoff run, which ended in the 1951 NBA Finals at the hands of the Rochester Royals.
9.
However, Tony Lavelli had joined the Knicks so that he would be close to Juilliard, and he began taking courses there during his tenure with the team.
10.
Tony Lavelli released two records during his life: All-American Accordionist and Accordion Classics.