The Celtics dynasty defined the sport's first modern decade. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Oscar Robertson between them set the ceiling for centers, scoring forwards, and all-purpose guards for thirty years afterward. The league in this period was small, structurally easy to dominate if you had a very good team, and relied heavily on the work of players whose names most current fans recognize and whose games many do not know.
Between 1956 and 1969 the NBA expanded from eight teams to fourteen, the three-point line did not exist, the shot clock was still relatively new, and the game was played at a pace that would look breakneck to a modern viewer. Pace and the absence of a three-point line also explain why era-adjusted scoring and rebounding numbers from this decade look strange today.
