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.

Today, it is nearly impossible to talk about the best basketball players in America without acknowledging the accomplishments of incredibly talented black athletes like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. A little more than a century ago, however, the game was completely dominated by white players playing on segregated courts and teams. In Breaking Barriers: A History of Integration in Professional Basketball, Douglas Stark details the major moments that led to the sport opening its doors to black players. He charts the progress of integration from Bucky Lew—the first black professional basketball player in 1902—to the modern game played by athletes like Stephen Curry and LeBron James. Although Stark focuses on the official integration of basketball in the late 1940s, the story does not end there. Over the past 60-plus years, black athletes have continued to change the game of basketball in terms of style, social progress, and marketability. Spanning the early 1900s to the present day, no other book features such a comprehensive examination of the key events and figures that led to the integration of professional basketball. In Breaking Barriers, these crucial steps in the history of the sport are placed within the larger context of American history, making this book an essential addition to the literature on sports and race in America.

For a professional player, basketball isn't just a fun game?it's a job. Millions of people are watching your every move, expecting you to make every shot and block your competitors'. You have to give your all for every game, and when you're not playing, you're sharpening skills, working on plays, and studying your opponents. Dedication extends beyond the season. You must follow strict diets and workout plans to stay in shape throughout the year. You must learn to manage the pressure of constant travel and stardom. Is it worth it? This book, which was reviewed by 11-year National Basketball Association (NBA) veteran and three-time NBA champion Devean George, offers an authentic look at what life is like as a pro basketball player. You'll learn: ? What kinds of skills it takes to play in the NBA ? How players climb the ranks to reach the NBA ? What daily life is like for an NBA player ? The types of workouts and dietary plans NBA players use ? How NBA players prevent and treat injuries Go behind the scenes and see what it's really like to be an NBA star!

The history of basketball has always belonged to champions like the Celtics, the Lakers, and the Bulls. Yet the game's history cuts much deeper than that. The bottom line, the record books and retired jerseys, can never fully do justice to this wild, chaotic, and energetic game. In between the championships, there's the sight of Earl Monroe, spinning and cajoling his way to every corner of the court; or Allen Iverson, driving headlong into players twice his size. The real history of the game is not its championships, which are indisputable, but the personalities of its heroes, which are, at least, undisputed. It's in the larger-than-life pathos of Wilt, the secret ties that bind Larry Bird to the flashy ABA, and Michael Jordan when he flew a little too high. From the prehistoric teachings of Dr. James Naismith to pioneering superstars such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant, you'll never see roundball the same way again.

Professional Basketball in 1939-40: On the Cusp of Depression and War By: John Hogrogian Professional basketball began its modern history in 1946, when the postwar economy put money in the hands of working people. Basketball promoters were invested in the professional game as a new winter spectator sport. Only after 1960 did the sport begin to achieve the big-time status that it now enjoys. The postwar sport was built on an ill-funded, unglamorous industry that survived through the hard times of the Great Depression. There is little historical treatment of that earlier game. Pro Basketball in 1939-40 takes a detailed view of one season, as the Depression ground on. World War II, however, had started in Europe and would soon change everything about pro basketball in the United States.

This edited collection conceptualizes professional basketball not just as a sport but as an historically, culturally, and economically embedded entity. The chapters analyse the fact that the sport of basketball contains alternative logics that can easily clash, and by treating professional basketball as the negotiation place of these multiple demands, ideas, and logics, the editors have identified three areas in which these clashes manifest: the realization of the game; the cultural impact of professional basketball and the global outreach of professional basketball. The book is explanatory and qualitative, offering new perspectives and touching on topics including gender, diversity, racism, and minority experiences within professional basketball. As such it will be of interest to sport sociologists, as well as those researching the history of sport, sports marketing and cultural studies.