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Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA
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About This Book
A vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black players who shaped the NBA Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation's imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol for post-civil rights the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto the playing field, and now they were ruining everything. Enter Black Ball , a gripping history and corrective in which scholar Theresa Runstedtler expertly rewrites basketball's "Dark Ages." Weaving together a deep knowledge of the game with incisive social analysis, Runstedtler argues that this much-maligned period was pivotal to the rise of the modern-day NBA. Black players introduced an improvisational style derived from the playground courts of their neighborhoods. They also challenged the team owners' autocratic power, garnering higher salaries and increased agency. Their skills, style, and savvy laid the foundation for the global popularity and profitability of the league we know today.
Reviews
"Runstedtler records with the grace of a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sky hook ..."
"Runstedtler, who combines an academic historian's depth of knowledge with a novelist's sense of story and character, cuts through McKay's cardboard ..."
"Black Ball is a timely read at a moment when professional athletes are more outspoken than ever on social issues, and when it's clear that sports and society are inextricably linked."
"A scholarly look at 1970s pro basketball and how the NBA became synonymous with being a Black league ..."
"A strong, engaging look at a poignant, neglected aspect of pro sports."
"The book is built around an impressive review of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as scholarly papers."
"Runstedtler's superior storytelling, buoyed by expert research, casts a new light on the league's complex history."
"Runstedtler's feat is showing that the public narratives that emerge about the N.B.A."
"This low-key but important title fills some glaring gaps in the history of American sports, economics, race relations, and politics."
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