Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

 TV viewers know that The Rifleman, played by Chuck Connors , was a fine long-gun shot. While he hardly ever missed with his rifle on the TV series , he was not a sharpshooter with a basketball . In his one season with the Boston Celtics , he shot 24% from the field and 46% from the foul line. Connors holds the dubious distinction of breaking the first backboard in NBA history. But it wasn't via a slam dunk. It was the result of an errant-too-strong set shot that hit the front of the rim and shattered the glass backboard. The backboard Chuck Connors shattered This happened in 1946 - prior to the emergence of "shatterproof backboards". I personally found this incident to be difficult to perceive, but apparently "the brick' launched by a 6'6", 2-sport pro athlete was sufficient to do the job. 

 There are various links between the late actor/pro athlete Chuck Connors and former NBA players Larry Bird and Chuck Person. Connors played for the Boston Celtics in the late 1940's and had the distinction of being the first pro basketball player to break a backboard (per Wikipedia): During his tenure with Celtics in  1946 , Connors became the first professional basketball player to  break a backboard . He did so during pre-game practice before the Celtics' first home game of their inaugural season with a shot and not a  slam dunk , which is what typically breaks a backboard in modern basketball.  He played 53 games for Boston before leaving the team early in the 1947–48 season. Chuck Connors played the role of Lucas McCain in the popular TV series, The Rifleman , in the 1950's. McCain was portrayed as a man of peace - who somehow managed to kill at least one or two bad guys per episode. Chuck Person was named "Chuck" by his parents after Chuck Connors and ...