Hoop Lore: A History of the National Basketball AssociationMcFarland, 13 lut 2007 - 347 In an age where teenage hoop stars sign multimillion-dollar endorsement deals before their first professional tip-offs, it's hard to imagine a time when basketball was among the least publicized of all professional sports. After the game's creation in 1891, establishing a viable professional league was an intense struggle, requiring decades of hard work and dedication from players, owners, coaches and fans. While the game evolved from two-handed set shots, fruit baskets, short-shorts and tiny gyms to slam dunks, shoe endorsements, global popularity and massive urban arenas, the NBA established itself as one of the world's dominant professional leagues. This work, the first comprehensive history of the National Basketball Association, offers a detailed look at how and why the NBA was able to overcome the obstacles that had crushed its predecessors and competitors to become the most successfully marketed league in professional sports. Covered here are Naismith's invention of the game; the rise and fall of the NBL, BAA, ABL and ABA; early teams like the Buffalo Germans and the Harlem Rens; basketball's Olympic debut in 1936; the first professional superstars; dominant franchises; and the current state of the league. Appendices offer lists of early professional basketball leagues and commissioners of the NBA, NBL and ABA. |
Spis treści
Foreword by Jim Barnett | 1 |
Preface | 3 |
Introduction | 5 |
Peach Fuzz | 7 |
Play Ball | 13 |
To Pay or Not to Pay | 21 |
Color Lines | 31 |
Around the Bend | 39 |
The Greatest Show on Earth | 181 |
The Good the Bad and the Global | 192 |
Intermission | 202 |
The Greatest Show on Earth II | 210 |
Promised Land | 216 |
The Dark Age | 226 |
Staying Alive | 238 |
The Money Tree | 247 |
Double Trouble | 47 |
One for the Money | 59 |
Tick Tock | 67 |
Dynasty by Committee | 77 |
Starlight Star Bright | 86 |
Tremors | 98 |
The Real Deal | 109 |
Survival of the Fittest | 122 |
A Matter of Style | 132 |
Last Hurrah | 143 |
A Fighting Chance | 154 |
Saviors | 162 |
Glory Days | 171 |
The Air Apparents | 258 |
The Young and the Restless | 264 |
The Global Revolution | 273 |
A New Foundation | 281 |
Renovation | 288 |
Early Professional Basketball Leagues | 299 |
Professional Basketball Commissioners | 300 |
Miscellaneous NBA Statistics and Awards | 301 |
Miscellaneous ABA Statistics and Awards | 306 |
Chapter Notes | 309 |
Bibliography | 321 |
329 | |