# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/al-cervi
# Generated: 2026-08-13T06:38:03.124Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/al-cervi"
name: "Al Cervi"
slug: "al-cervi"
description: "Alfred Nicholas Cervi was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Basketball Association (NBA). One of the strongest backcourt players of the 1940s and 1950s, he was always assigned to defend against the opposing team's best scoring threat. He earned the nickname \"Digger\" because of his hard-nosed style of defense. He won the National Basketball League championship in 1946 with the Rochester Royals while being an All-NBL First Team in three straight seasons. He stayed with the NBL with the Syracuse Nationals in 1948, where he became player-coach that same year, which was the last one prior to joining the NBA. In that first year in the NBA, the Nationals won 51 games and reached the Finals, where they lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in six games. Cervi led the team back to the Finals in 1954 and 1955, which each saw the Nationals play in a Game 7; denied in 1954 to Minneapolis, the Nationals won Game 7 in 1955 for their first NBA championship. After twelve games in 1956, Cervi was fired from the Nationals, having coached them to eight postseason appearances in nine seasons. He coached one season with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1958 but elected to leave coaching for more lucrative ventures. Cervi was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985."
tagline: "American basketball player and coach (1917-2009)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Al_Cervi.jpeg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Basketball Players"
  slug: "basketball-players"
profileType:
  name: "Basketball Player"
  slug: "basketball-player"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3665646"
birthDate: "1917-02-12"
deathDate: "2009-11-09"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           48.85
  momentum:             2.858783008036739
  historical:           12.24032
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%89%BE%E5%B0%94%C2%B7%E5%A1%9E%E5%B0%94%E7%BB%B4"
    title: "艾尔·塞尔维"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%81%D9%8A"
    title: "آل سيرفي"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%81%D9%89"
    title: "آل سيرفى"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%A1%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99"
    title: "אל סרבי"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%B7%D5%AC_%D4%BF%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%AB"
    title: "Էլ Կերվի"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3"
    title: "アル・セルヴィ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Cervi"
    title: "Al Cervi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B8%2C_%D0%AD%D0%BB"
    title: "Керви, Эл"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1346751"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump