[3] He was the athletic director and head basketball coach at Long Island University (LIU), compiling a 174–94 record in eleven seasons.

The Sixers were so desperate to find a coach that they actually took out an ad in The Philadelphia Inquirer, which was seen by one of Rubin's friends, stockbroker Jules Love.

[6][5] Rubin joined a team whose only holdover from its championship run six seasons earlier was aging veteran Hal Greer.

[4] It was written by Steve Gordon, directed by Carl Reiner,[8] starred John Amos and Dick O'Neill and also featured Abe Vigoda.

[9] The comedy was about a black couple who worked as a gardener (Amos) and a cook (Lillian Hayman) for a white liberal advertising executive (O'Neill) and his wife (Billie Lou Watt) and the homecoming of their militant son (John Danelle).

He explained, "...The play, with interminable and unfunny dream sequences, with dialogue that seems to have been picked up wholesale from a TV situation comedy and characters of no real comic depth or perception, does not have a great deal going for it.