A BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN ACCOUNT OF THE NBA’S GLORY
DAYS, AND THE RIVALRY THAT DOMINATED THE ERA In the
mid-1950s, the NBA was a mere barnstorming circuit, with
outposts in such cities as Rochester, New York, and Fort
Wayne, Indiana. Most of the best players were white; the
set shot and layup were the sport’s chief offensive
weapons. But by the 1970s, the league ruled America’s
biggest media markets; contests attracted capacity
crowds and national prime-time television audiences. The
game was played “above the rim”–and the most marketable
of its high-flying stars were black. The credit for this
remarkable transformation largely goes to two giants:
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. In The
Rivalry, award-winning journalist John Taylor
projects the stories of Russell, Chamberlain, and other
stars from the NBA’s golden age onto a backdrop of
racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor’s
electrifying account of two complex men–as well as of a
game and a country at a crossroads–is an epic narrative
of sports in America during the 1960s. It’s hard to
imagine two characters better suited to leading roles in
the NBA saga: Chamberlain was cast as the athletically
gifted yet mercurial titan, while Russell played the
role of the stalwart centerpiece of the Boston Celtics
dynasty. Taylor delves beneath these stereotypes,
detailing how the two opposed and complemented each
other and how they revolutionized the way the game was
played and perceived by fans. Competing with and
against such heroes as Jerry West, Tom Heinsohn, Bob
Cousy, John Havlicek, and Elgin Baylor, and playing for
the two greatest coaches of the era, Alex Hannum and the
fiery Red Auerbach, Chamberlain and Russell propelled
the NBA into the spotlight. But their off-court
visibility and success–to say nothing of their
candor–also inflamed passions along America’s racial and
generational fault lines. In many ways, Russell and
Chamberlain helped make the NBA and, to some extent,
America what they are today. Filled with dramatic
conflicts and some of the great moments in sports
history, and building to a thrilling climax–the 1969
final series, the last showdown between Russell and
Chamberlain–The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical
question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied
by the ultimate team player, Bill Russell, trump sheer
talent, embodied by Wilt Chamberlain? Gripping,
insightful, and utterly compelling, the story of Bill
Russell and Wilt Chamberlain is the stuff of sporting
legend. Written with a reporter’s unerring command of
events and a storyteller’s flair, The Rivalry
will take its place as one of the classic works of
sports history. From the Hardcover
edition.
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