Shoe, clock pioneers nominated to Hall of Fame

Thursday, April 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- Grady Lewis, who came up with the low-cut canvas basketball sneaker, and the late Danny Biasone, who introduced the 24-second clock to professional basketball, are being considered for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The men, who have been nominated previously, were proposed as contributors by the Veterans Committee on Thursday.

To be elected, a nominee needs 18 votes from the 24-member Honors Committee. Inductees are to be announced next month.

To revive fan interest, Biasone, who owned the Syracuse Nationals, persuaded the infant NBA to begin using the 24-second clock during the 1954-55 season.

He said he came up with the 24-second limit, still used in the BA, by simply doubling the average number of shots -- about 60 --each team was taking then and dividing by the number of seconds in a game.

Lewis played for three Basketball Association of America teams, including the 1948 league champion Baltimore Bullets, and later coached in the league.

He then sold shoes for Converse. In the 1950s he experimented by cutting off the tops of hundreds of Chuck Taylor sneakers until he got a stylish low-cut version that would stay on the feet of the Harlem Globetrotters.