The following is a list of the National Basketball League player articles that do not presently have tables representing their career statistics. Feel free to remove names upon addition of statistics.
My mission for creating this list is to see to it that all NBL player pages have a stats table attached, and that anyone who is looking up such articles can take for granted that they can see the player stats at a glance. I have the same goals in mind for the NBA, WNBA, and ABA. This list does not concern the NBA stats of men who played in the NBL, then later played in the NBA. Such NBA stats are covered at the equivalent NBA player list.
Players are listed according to their rookie season, and listed alphabetically within their section.
With the NBL being one of the first professional basketball leagues ever, it was therefore a league that existed while professional basketball was "just starting to figure things out". This is absolutely reflected in the statistics. The statistics that were recorded, and survive to this day, exclusively pertained to scoring points. No rebounds, no assists, no fouls, no turnovers, and it was way before steals and blocks started being tallied in the 1973-74 NBA season. The entirety of the NBL's stats recorded, from an individual player standpoint; were games played, field goals made, free throws made, free throws attempted (intermittently), and points. Not even field goals attempted. This is why I made a table template and legend unique to that of NBL players. While NBA stat tables do not conventionally detail field goals attempted, free throws made, or free throws attempted; I decided that NBL stat tables can, due to the need to have any stats at all in the tables if the tables are to exist.
For anyone who would suggest that putting NBL stats on player pages could be undue weight due to the stats being a fringe interest, and that parlaying the stats of a league that has not existed since the 1940s does not have translatable relevance to the present day; I respectfully disagree. I would like the stats to be there, verified, for anyone who would be interested in them. The NBL was an extremely important league in shaping how the NBA is today, even having MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. I believe it would be more unfair to keep the stats off of NBL player pages, especially the likes of Leroy Edwards or Bobby McDermott: great basketball players who never had a playing role in the NBA. I think that putting these stats on Wikipedia is a great way to showcase the output of individual players, while also revealing how statistical trends and trajectories are different from that of any given era of the NBA. Such comparison would especially apply to NBL players who then played in the NBA, and the side-by-side element would be very useful for analysis and research.
It is worth appreciating how long ago in which this era of professional basketball transpired. So long ago, that it is exceptionally rare for an NBL player to be living in the present day. The youngest members of this crowd are aged in their 90s, and who knows how long it will be before they are all gone. As for the few who do remain, including centenarian Johnny Macknowski, I think it is very important to remember and respect the history of these players while they are still with us, and to continue to do so when they are not.
Optional edit summaries:
Do you, fellow editor, want to help bring stats to Wikipedia's NBL player articles? [[User:Mungo Kitsch/Guides/List of NBL (United States) player articles without statistics tables|Click here to see all the articles you can add stat tables to]].
Do you, fellow editor, want to help bring stats to Wikipedia's NBA and/or NBL player articles? Click [[User:Mungo Kitsch/Guides/List of NBA player articles without statistics tables|here]] or [[User:Mungo Kitsch/Guides/List of NBL (United States) player articles without statistics tables|here]] to see all the articles you can add stat tables to.