Ex-NBA player and New York Supreme Court judge Barry Kramer dead at 82
Former NBA player and lawyer and judge Barry Kramer died on Saturday at the age of 82.
A native of Schenectady, New York, Kramer was named an All-American while playing collegiately for NYU before being selected by the San Francisco Warriors in the 1964 NBA Draft.
He played 33 games for the Warriors and also played for the New York Knicks in 19 games in the same 1964-1965 season.
However, he chose to leave basketball behind to pursue a career in law instead, graduating from Albany Law School in 1968.
Kramer also appeared briefly for the ABA’s New York Nets in the 1969–70 season.
Kramer also excelled in law and was appointed to the Surrogate Court by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1993 before being elected to the New York Supreme Court in 2009.
Barry Kramer became a nationally known basketball player in college for NYU
Kramer later became a lawyer and then a judge on the New York Supreme Court
“I can’t tell you how many people who grew up in Schenectady looked up to Barry Kramer,” said Bob Pezzano, who, like Kramer, attended Linton High School Albany Times-Union.
‘They wanted to jump like Barry. They wanted to be able to go to the hoop and end up like Barry. People today may not realize that NYU was a power at that time. They were the cream of the crop in New York City, which was great for college basketball at the time. … He had a classic game against Duke when he scored 34 points. People loved him in the garden. Twice he scored 42 points at Madison Square Garden.”
Kramer also visited Linton at the same time as NBA icon Pat Riley, formerly a professional player and coach and currently the president of the Miami Heat.
“Barry Kramer was the greatest player in Schenectady history. I knew him well. He taught me so much when I played with him,” Riley told the Associated Press.
“And he was just a great friend and man. I idolized him. They always compared Barry and me, asking, “Who’s the best at Schenectady High School?” Barry Kramer or Pat Riley?’ And every time they asked me, I said, ‘Barry Kramer knocked my tooth out in a one-on-one match to make me stronger. He was the best player in Schenectady, New York that day.”
Kramer was also inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.