New York-bred “lawyer’s lawyer” wins in courts of law and basketball. Fund at The Trust supports nonprofits a wide range of New York City nonprofits.
George Gallantz (1913-2013)
Laly Gallantz (1915-2011)
In 1976, when the National Basketball Association merged with its rival, the American Basketball Association, the man in the middle of the court fight was George Gallantz, a “founding father” of the field of sports law at the Manhattan firm Proskauer Rose.
George was the longtime outside general counsel to the NBA, defending the league against lawsuits as it grew dramatically throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the merger he brokered, the 10-city NBA absorbed the ABA’s four most successful franchises: The Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. The other ABA teams folded.
Most notably, George represented the NBA in a landmark 1970 antitrust case, where NBA star Oscar Robertson sued to block the merger. In that case, the judge’s injunction delayed the merger for six years, until George’s legal team and the league negotiated a settlement.
The deal was literally a game-changer. The league agreed to let players become free agents in exchange for their old team’s “right of first refusal” to match any offer, ending teams’ restrictive control of their on-court assets and allowing the players to earn mega-millions.
“Basketball has never been the same since then,” Oscar Robertson, the legendary point guard and former president of the NBA Players Association, told a New York Times sports columnist in 2016.
George G. Gallantz was born April 23, 1913, in a cold-water tenement in East Harlem. He was educated in public schools in the Bronx and entered the City College of New York at age 15. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1932. Three years later, he graduated cum laude from Brooklyn Law School.
George married Lillian “Laly” Kolko on November 12, 1939. Laly, the daughter of Abraham and Rebecca Kolko, grew up in Rochester. They had one son, Michael, and a daughter, Judith.
After joining Proskauer Rose, George’s most important job was as counsel to the fledgling NBA, founded in 1946. He held that position under its first three commissioners: Maurice Podoloff, J. Walter Kennedy, and Larry O’Brien.
He also served on the board of trustees at the Brooklyn Law School and as chairman of the executive committee of the New York City Bar Association.
Laly Gallantz was an accomplished artist. Several of her still-life oil paintings were exhibited in local libraries and sold at auction. She and George had been married 71 years when she died in 2011.
George lived to be 100 and a day; he died April 24, 2013. His colleagues at Proskauer Rose called him “a lawyer’s lawyer.” In his tribute, Joseph M. Leccese, chairman of Proskauer Rose, remembered George for his commitment, intelligence, friendship, and integrity. His most fitting epitaph might simply be: “You helped so many people,” Leccese said.
And his legacy continues. In 1991, George set up an unrestricted fund in Community Funds, Inc. that has supported dozens of New York’s nonprofits, from hospitals, colleges, and libraries to museums, parks, and special services for those in need.