Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor
Author: Bijan C. Bayne
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-12-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780810895782

This is the biography of NBA Hall of Fame player Elgin Baylor, an innovator in his sport, a civil rights trailblazer, and a superstar. It is the story of how a kid from the streets of segregated Washington, DC, who didn't attend college until he was over twenty, revolutionized basketball.

Elgin Baylor

Elgin Baylor
Author: Bijan C. Bayne
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1442245719

NBA Hall of Fame player Elgin Baylor was an innovator in his sport, a civil rights trailblazer, and a true superstar. He influenced future NBA All Stars such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and is considered by many to be one of the most important players in NBA history. A prolific scorer who baffled opponents with his twists and turns and inventive moves, Baylor was a force both on and off the court for the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers. In Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball, Bijan C. Bayne tells the story of how a kid from the streets of segregated Washington, DC, who didn’t attend college until he was over twenty, revolutionized basketball and stood up for his rights. In a time when few nationally prominent black athletes spoke out about racial inequality in the United States, Baylor refused to tolerate discrimination. On the court, with his balletic moves and urban style of play, Elgin Baylor lifted the game of basketball off the floor and into the air. Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball includes personal reflections from Baylor’s old schoolyard companions, former teammates, players he coached in the NBA, and noted sports journalists, bringing to life his childhood, college career, and professional life with intimate detail. Basketball fans, historians, and those interested in the impact of sports on the Civil Rights Movement will all find this first-ever biography of Elgin Baylor both fascinating and inspirational.

Boxed out of the NBA

Boxed out of the NBA
Author: Syl Sobel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-04-14
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538145030

The Eastern Professional Basketball League (1946-78) was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the northeast and featuring the best players who just couldn’t make the NBA—many because of unofficial quotas on Black players, some because of scandals, and others because they weren’t quite good enough in the years when the NBA had less than 100 players. In Boxed out of the NBA: Remembering the Eastern Professional Basketball League, Syl Sobel and Jay Rosenstein tell the fascinating story of a league that was a pro basketball institution for over 30 years, showcasing top players from around the country. During the early years of professional basketball, the Eastern League was the next-best professional league in the world after the NBA. It was home to big-name players such as Sherman White, Jack Molinas, and Bill Spivey, who were implicated in college gambling scandals in the 1950s and were barred from the NBA, and top Black players such as Hal “King” Lear, Julius McCoy, and Wally Choice, who could not make the NBA into the early 1960s due to unwritten team quotas on African-American players. Featuring interviews with some 40 former Eastern League coaches, referees, fans, and players—including Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim, former Temple University coach John Chaney, former Detroit Pistons player and coach Ray Scott, former NBA coach and ESPN analyst Hubie Brown, and former NBA player and coach Bob Weiss—this book provides an intimate, first-hand account of small-town professional basketball at its best.

The Book of Basketball

The Book of Basketball
Author: Bill Simmons
Publisher: ESPN
Total Pages: 754
Release: 2010-12-07
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0345520106

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The NBA according to The Sports Guy—now updated with fresh takes on LeBron, the Celtics, and more! Foreword by Malcom Gladwell • “The work of a true fan . . . it might just represent the next phase of sports commentary.”—The Atlantic Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.

Golden Days

Golden Days
Author: Jack McCallum
Publisher:
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 0399179070

"During their 1971-72 championship season, the L.A. Lakers won thirty-three games in a row ... a run of uninterrupted dominance that predated by decades the overwhelming firepower of today's Warriors, a revolutionary team whose recent seasons include some record-threatening win streaks of their own. Tying together the two strands [of the] story is Hall of Famer [Jerry] West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors"--Amazon.com.

The Rise of the National Basketball Association

The Rise of the National Basketball Association
Author: David George Surdam
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2012-10-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0252037138

Today's National Basketball Association commands millions of spectators worldwide, and its many franchises are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But the league wasn't always so successful or glamorous: in the 1940s and 1950s, the NBA and its predecessor, the Basketball Association of America, were scrambling to attract fans. Teams frequently played in dingy gymnasiums, players traveled as best they could, and their paychecks could bounce higher than a basketball. How did the NBA evolve from an obscure organization facing financial losses to a successful fledgling sports enterprise by 1960? Drawing on information from numerous archives, newspaper and periodical articles, and Congressional hearings, The Rise of the National Basketball Association chronicles the league's growing pains from 1946 to 1961. David George Surdam describes how a handful of ambitious ice hockey arena owners created the league as a way to increase the use of their facilities, growing the organization by fits and starts. Rigorously analyzing financial data and league records, Surdam points to the innovations that helped the NBA thrive: regular experiments with rules changes to make the game more attractive to fans, and the emergence of televised sports coverage as a way of capturing a larger audience. Notably, the NBA integrated in 1950, opening the game to players who would dominate the game by the end of the 1950sdecade: Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and Oscar Robertson. Long a game that players loved to play, basketball became a professional sport well supported by community leaders, business vendors, and an ever-growing number of fans.

The Capital of Basketball

The Capital of Basketball
Author: John McNamara
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2019
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1626167206

Washington DC isn't celebrated for basketball. But the Washington area stands second to none in its contributions to the game. Countless figures who have had a significant impact on the sport over the years have roots in the region, including E.B. Henderson, the first African-American certified to teach physical education in public schools in the United States and Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to take the court in an actual NBA game. The District of Columbia's Spingarn High School produced two players - Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing - that are recognized among the NBA's 50 greatest at the League's 50th anniversary celebration. No other high school in the country can make that claim. These figures and many others who have been a part of Washington's basketball past are chronicled in this book, the first-ever comprehensive look at the great high school players, teams and accomplishments in the DC metropolitan area. Based on more than 150 interviews, The Capital of Basketball is first and foremost a book about basketball. But in discussing the trends and evolution of the game, the books also uncovers the turmoil in the lives of the players and area residents as they dealt with issues such as prejudice, education, politics, and the ways the area has changed through the years.

Dynasty's End

Dynasty's End
Author: Thomas J. Whalen
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2005-05
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781555536435

The following summer, Russell stunned the sports world by announcing his retirement, ending his and the Celtics' celebrated reign."

Pink Is For Blobfish

Pink Is For Blobfish
Author: Jess Keating
Publisher: Dragonfly Books
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2019-07-23
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1984893963

It's Pinkalicious meets Fear Factor in this nonfiction picture book introducing the weirdest, wildest, pinkest critters in the animal kingdom! Some people think pink is a pretty color. A fluffy, sparkly, princess-y color. But it's so much more. Sure, pink is the color of princesses and bubblegum, but it's also the color of monster slugs and poisonous insects. Not to mention ultra-intelligent dolphins, naked mole rats and bizarre, bloated blobfish. Isn't it about time to rethink pink? Slip on your rose-colored glasses and take a walk on the wild side with zoologist Jess Keating, whose other books in the World of Weird Animals series include What Makes a Monster? and Cute as an Axolotl. A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, 2016 "The 2016 Ambassador to Young People’s Science and Nature books is unquestionably the blobfish." —Shelftalker "Readers will never look at pink the same way." —Publishers Weekly