1954 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Bob Cousy

The first overtime All-Star Game; per Wikipedia, an MVP vote taken before regulation ended had initially favored Jim Pollard, but a second vote after Cousy's overtime performance named him MVP instead.

Box score

East won in overtime.

Bench (10+ points): Bill Sharman (14)

Bench (10+ points): Bob Davies (18)

Game context

The fourth All-Star Game, and the first held in New York City, drew a big-city crowd of 16,487 to Madison Square Garden on January 21, 1954, for a game that turned into a genuine classic. Minneapolis center George Mikan finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds, but it was Lakers forward Jim Pollard who put up the game's top scoring line, 23 points, keeping the West within striking distance throughout. Late in regulation, with the East clinging to an 84-82 lead, Mikan was fouled and calmly sank both free throws to force overtime, extending a game that, remarkably, still had neither team over 100 points — a distinction noted by historians as the last All-Star Game in which both teams stayed under the century mark even after an extra period was needed. In overtime, Boston's Bob Cousy took the game over, scoring 10 of his game-high-adjacent 20 points in the extra session alone to carry the East to a 98-93 win. Cousy finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists across 34 minutes, and Rochester's Bob Davies chipped in 18 points for the West in a losing effort. The game produced one of the more unusual MVP-selection stories in the award's early history: because the honor was still new (formally established only the year before), a preliminary vote taken as regulation wound down had reportedly favored Pollard for his strong all-around game, but once Cousy took over in overtime and sealed the East's win, voters revisited the choice and awarded him the trophy instead, a reminder that the MVP-selection process in these early years was considerably looser and more improvisational than the credentialed media voting the league would later formalize. Joe Lapchick, coach of the New York Knickerbockers, led the East in front of his home fans, while Minneapolis's John Kundla, fresh off yet another Lakers championship run, coached the West; both assignments continued to go to coaches of the division's regular-season pace-setters at the time selections were made. The game's setting in New York carried symbolic weight for a league still working to establish major-market credibility, and Cousy's overtime heroics in the country's largest media market — a performance that foreshadowed the deep, often duel-defining place Boston's stars would occupy in All-Star lore across the rest of the decade — made for an ideal showcase moment for both the Celtics guard and the growing spectacle of the All-Star Game itself, just a year before the introduction of the 24-second shot clock would transform the pace of every NBA game, All-Star or otherwise.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 1954 NBA All-Star Game
• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History