What can the film Hoosiers teach us about the meaning of life? How can ancient Eastern wisdom traditions, such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, improve our jump-shots? What can the "Zen Master" (Phil Jackson) and the "Big Aristotle" (Shaquille O'Neal) teach us about sustained excellence and success? Is women's basketball "better" basketball? How, ethically, should one deal with a strategic cheater in pickup basketball? With NBA and NCAA team rosters constantly changing, what does it mean to play for the "same team"? What can coaching legends Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Pat Summitt, and Mike Krzyzewski teach us about character, achievement, and competition? What makes basketball such a beautiful game to watch and play? Basketball is now the most popular team sport in the United States; each year, more than 50 million Americans attend college and pro basketball games. When Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, first nailed two peach baskets at the opposite ends of a Springfield, Massachusetts, gym in 1891, he had little idea of how thoroughly the game would shape American -- and international -- culture. Hoops superstars such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Yao Ming are now instantly recognized celebrities all across the planet. So what can a group of philosophers add to the understanding of basketball? It is a relatively simple game, but as Kant and Dennis Rodman liked to say, appearances can be deceiving. Coach Phil Jackson actively uses philosophy to improve player performance and to motivate and inspire his team and his fellow coaches, both on and off the court. Jackson has integrated philosophy into his coaching and his personal life so thoroughly that it is often difficult to distinguish his role as a basketball coach from his role as a philosophical guide and mentor to his players. In Basketball and Philosophy, a Dream Team of twenty-six basketball fans, most of whom also happen to be philosophers, proves that basketball is the thinking person's sport. They look at what happens when the Tao meets the hardwood as they explore the teamwork, patience, selflessness, and balanced and harmonious action that make up the art of playing basketball.

What NBA team was the greatest ever? For basketball fans, that question can lead to widespread debate.

Sports journalist and basketball enthusiast Kyle Wright has created a new and unique computer formula to rank every team in NBA history. Coining it as the POST formula, Wright assigns ratings to all NBA teams based on how they stack up to other comparable teams during any year-from the number of wins and losses to points scored and points allowed. The result is a complete ranking that takes you from number one to number 1,153.

Wright brings to light other game-stopping details that sports lovers will appreciate, including:

The most dominant teams to ever play The teams with brilliant records but no titles The unimpressive teams that won championships The teams that lost the most through the years "The NBA from Top to Bottom" is for every diehard basketball fan. It achieves nothing but net as it comprehensively identifies and profiles the best and worst teams ever to grace the court.

The most popular outdoor basketball court in New York City is half the regulation size, offers no seating, and has sidelines bounded by a chain-link fence. But the summer league on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village has developed its share of stars and has become known throughout the world for another reason: Here the only thing that matters is the game.

"Inside the Cage" follows the West 4th Street's summer league through a single season, chronicling its legendary history along the way. From 1970s playground legend Fly Williams to NBA veteran Anthony Mason and L.A. Lakers guard Smush Parker, three generations of players have mastered their game at West 4th Street. And the Cage itself -- located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America and frequented by men from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Harlem -- proves that talent can flourish even in the most unlikely places.

In February 1948 the brand-new, all-white Minneapolis Lakers were arguably the greatest basketball team in America, favored to win the World Professional Basketball Tournament later that year. Meanwhile the Harlem Globetrotters, at the center of black basketball, were riding their own incredible 103-game winning streak. Best known to white audiences for their clowning and comedy, the Globetrotters were not even thought to be in the same league with the mighty Lakers. So when these two powerhouses met for the first time--on February 19, 1948, before an audience of eighteen thousand in Chicago Stadium--basketball fans everywhere were in for an eye-opening performance."" "Tricksters in the Madhouse" is the story of this pivotal meeting, a game that would encapsulate the growing racial tensions of the era, particularly the struggle of black Americans to gain legitimacy in the segregated world of sports. Play-by-play, John Christgau recreates the heart-stopping game that would shock white basketball fans raised to view black athletes in separate and unequal terms. Through in-depth interviews and extensive research, Christgau brings this critical match-up to life. By looking beyond the drama in the arena to the broader events of the day, he also puts the game in its sociological context, revealing how, even as it enacted the racial inequities of the time, this crucial game represented an important step toward equality.

In THE GAME WITHIN THE GAME, Frazier breaks down the game of basketball and tells in specific terms how teams that share the ball and play defense, utilizing all five players on the court, usually win.& nbsp; Frazier calls many of today??'s players ???athletes??? and not ???all-around basketball players.??? The NBA has tried to promote individual players and high-flying dunks, but Frazier shows that from the Celtic dynasties of the 1960s to the World Champion Detroit Pistons of 2005, the teams that play ???old-school??? team basketball are the teams that win.& nbsp; The others are shown on the highlight reels, but they go home trophy-less. In his folksy, lively language, Frazier will pinpoint the players and teams he likes today, and the ones he feels need to make an attitude and player adjustment if they are ever to play at the championship level.& nbsp; Finally, the book will cover the game??'s evolution in the past 60 years and where it is heading over the next decade.

NEW MATERIAL FROM THE 2005-2006 SEASON "It's not about me versus Dean, or me against Roy or Dean against Vic Bubas. Duke and Carolina will be here forever."
---Mike Krzyzewski
For fifty years the rivalry between Duke and Carolina has featured famous brawls, endless controversy, long-nurtured hatred---and some of the best basketball ever played in the history of the sport. For Duke and UNC players and fans, the competition is not about winning a prize, trophy or title---it's about bragging rights and raw pride.
"Blue Blood" is a thrilling chronicle of the Duke-Carolina rivalry as it has evolved over the last fifty years. With unparalleled insider access, veteran journalist and author Art Chansky details the colorful, revered, and respected rivalry---for the first time ever.
The Duke-Carolina rivalry has fostered more than thirty former players from the two schools playing or coaching in the NBA; it has enchanted a nation of spectators to watch games between the archrivals---garnering some of the highest regular-season TV ratings in history. "Blue Blood" celebrates the history of this rivalry, the traditions, the heritage, and, most importantly---spectacular basketball. "You can see the beads of sweat on coaches' and players' faces as the tale by this former sports editor for the "Durham Morning Herald" unfolds."
---"News & Record" (Greensboro, NC)
"A book on this rivalry was long overdue, and Chansky does it justice. This is sure to become a staple of every Tar Heel or Blue Devil fan's library."
---"InsideCarolina.com"
"A holy text for both sides of the rivalry. . . . This book is a coffee table necessity for anyone that claims to have a background incollege basketball . . . you need to read this book cover to cover as many times as possible until you can recite from it."---"The East Carolinian"
"I'm biased, but I think this is the greatest rivalry, not just in college basketball, but in all of sports."
---Dick Vitale, ESPN
"Art Chansky has more than learned what Duke-Carolina is all about; he's "lived" it for more than thirty years. His columns, commentaries, and characterizations have long been on the money, and "Blue Blood" puts them all together in an anticipated and entertaining work that reads more like a novel. But truth "is" stranger than fiction, and Chansky tells it just like it is."
---Curry Kirkpatrick, who has covered Duke-Carolina for "Sports Illustrated,""" ESPN, and "ESPN the Magazine"

"Players and Pretenders" tells the story of the flip side of basketball's "March Madness," where the game is played by average players for love, not for money. At the end of the 1970s at Bard College, where there was no pretense of institutional support, Charley Rosen gathered his hoops hopefuls and put together a basketball season whose impact reached far beyond the court. Writing with a humorous touch, Rosen details the Running Red Devils' season, simultaneously examining the lives of those who made it so memorable and providing a glimpse of how the team members existed off the courts as both players and pretenders. His book playfully depicts the 1979-80 basketball season at Bard College and the "sports for fun" side of the game.

Sports Illustrated's chief NBA writer, Jack McCallum, only planned to spend the preseason with the Phoenix Suns as an "assistant coach" -- and then write a story about his experiences. Instead, he stayed on with the Suns throughout their exciting and controversial 2005-2006 season. Gaining access to everything from locker-room chats with superstar point guard Steve Nash, to coaches' meetings with maverick coach Mike D'Antoni, McCallum learned what makes this wildly popular, innovative, and international assemblage of talented players and brilliant coaches tick -- making Seven Seconds or Less an all-access look at one of the greatest shows in sports.

"Inner City Hoops," A Historical Account of Chicago Basketball is a unique publication. Both basketball junkies and social historians will enjoy the content. You will read about the top sixty basketball players in the history of Chicago.

The author gives readers a first hand look at what it's like to grow up in the inner city and make the most of the opportunities that present themselves through sports and education. This account gives you the view of the person who actually lived the inner city experience in Chicago. The reader sees a real-life view through the eyes of Calvin Davis, who gives this historical account along with his personal story. It will be exciting to learn how Chicago basketball has evolved over the past one hundred years, and how it has served as an avenue for upward mobility. This work of contemporary history gives the view of respected basketball historian Dr. Larry Hawkins, who speaks about the "Golden Triangle" where basketball talent in the city of Chicago was developed in the 1920s and 1930s. Sports Researcher, Robert Pruter who wrote the article about Early Phillips Teams indicated that "The Golden Triangle" allowed future basketball phenoms to develop their outstanding basketball skills which would change the face of basketball in the inner city in the years to come. You'll read about community spirit and growth, as well as indifference to racism. The Bronzeville neighborhood on the inner south side of Chicago and the near west side neighborhoods were the places where African Americans from the southern states migrated approximately 35 years after the civil war. This influx of African Americans led to Phillips High School becoming the first black high school in Chicago in the 1920's. The author, Calvin Davis grew up in Bronzeville more than 40 years later and sharpened his basketball skills at all 3 parts of the Golden Triangle. Calvin talks about his time as a member of the notorious Jr. Trotters, the city of Chicago's first traveling AAU type all star team of the modern era. You will read about the famed 2-2-1 press they employed that hunted down opposing ball handlers until they wilted from the relentless pressure, and how they beat any team, any time, any place, and anywhere. You'll also read about the success stories that were a result of the opportunities created, and the discipline learned in basketball that carried over into life skills. A large number of Jr. Trotters went on to not only College, NBA and European League basketball careers after college, but also to a variety of Professional Occupations. Many of them continue to give back to their communities today. In Calvin's case, after leaving the Trotters, he continued as an Honor - Student-athlete at Dunbar High on Jim Foreman's basketball team. He became a Scholarship Basketball Player at William Penn University, a Teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, an Elementary and High School Basketball Coach, a Citywide Sports Coordinator, a School Administrator, the Director of Sports Administration, Driver Education and Facilities for the City of Chicago's Public Schools, and now the author of "Inner City Hoops," a History of Chicago Basketball. The Bronzeville area in Chicago was the first home for many black families from the south and served as a home for many successful athletes. Basketball has been a springboard not only to the NBA, but to college scholarships and professional occupations for individuals like Calvin and countless others. The history in this book will expand the knowledge of readers, and provide enjoyment as well. The book was designed to be written as if a general basketball conversation is being held. As you read about the individual exploits of players, you'll feel the respect the author has for their talents along with his love for the game.

"Steve Nash" is a celebration of the basketball giant's road to stardom--a story with many new chapters yet to be written. Steve Nash loved bouncing a ball, shooting hoops and fantasizing about playing with the pros. Forced to change high schools to pursue his dreams, he became a regional star in British Columbia, but was totally overlooked by all but one American college recruiter. At Santa Clara University in California, he led his beloved Broncos to new heights and earned enough attention to become a first-round 1996 NBA draft pick of the Phoenix Suns. From there Steve moved to the Dallas Mavericks, and continued to work to make himself better. After Steve agreed to join Canada's team for the 2000 Olympics in Australia, his passionate leadership and yeoman effort made him a national hero and proved a turning point in his career. Back in Dallas, Steve emerged as a confident floor general in the Mavs' run to the playoffs. Then came the big signing with the Suns, two MVPs and life beyond basketball with the Steve Nash Foundation. Handling his fame with a quiet humility, Steve has become a role model, with his own vision of what's important in life.

The true story of basketball lives as much off the court as on the hardwood; it is about politics and race and cultural clashes as heated as a final-four buzzer-beater. This story unfolds in all its gritty and colorful detail in Under the Boards. From the birth of the Larry Bird legend to the ascendancy of a hip-hop-infused NBA to the backlash against bling and the contemporary American game, Jeffrey Lane traces the emergence of a new culture of basketball, complete with competing values, attitudes, aesthetics, and racial and economic tensions. The revolution Lane describes resonates in the way Latrell Sprewell's assault on his coach forever changed NBA power relations; in legendary coach Bob Knight's entanglement in high school basketball history; in the dramatic shift in attitude toward European players; in the impact of the deaths of two rappers on rookie Allen Iverson's career; and in conflicting cultural models rooted in ideals of black masculinity and white nostalgia. In these moments Lane's book documents a profound change in basketball and in American culture over the last thirty years. Jeffrey Lane is the founder and director of Schoolhouse Tutors, a mentoring program for middle and high school students in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

In the winter of 1892, the new instructor of physical training at Smith College, a diminutive young woman with a heavy accent, introduced her students to an adaptation of James Naismith's new game of Basket Ball. An immediate if unexpected success, the game spread to other women's schools across the country, and soon its founder, Senda Berenson (1868-1954), was called upon to codify its distinctive set of gender-specific rules. Emphasizing team passing and position over individual play, the version she instituted defined women's basketball for seventy years and eventually earned her the honor of being the first female elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, as Ralph Melnick points out, Berenson's pioneering role in the history of women's athletics was more a matter of accident than destiny. A Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, prone to ill health throughout her childhood, she enrolled in the Boston Normal School for Gymnastics in the fall of 1890 with the hope of strengthening herself so that she could pursue a career as a pianist, dancer, or painter. Instead, she soon became both a practitioner and a proponent of a new approach to women's physical education, one aimed at providing a ""natural outlet of the play instinct,"" developing ""endurance and physical courage"" as well as ""quickness of thought and action,"" and promoting through team work the ""power of organization"" women needed to achieve full social equality. Extending her work into the factories and blighted urban tenements of America, Berenson later won the recognition of Jane Addams, Margaret Sanger, and other progressive reformers. Believing that ""Americans have forgotten how to play,"" she wanted to teach others to live ""joyfully - beautifully."" For Berenson, the physical culture of exercise and games, played not for competition but for personal and social development as well as sheer enjoyment, was but another form of art. This convergence of athletics and aesthetics was hardly surprising, Melnick explains, because the single most important influence on Senda Berenson's life was her brother, the renowned art critic and connoisseur, Bernard Berenson. The two siblings wrote frequently to each other over the course of their lives, and the author draws heavily on their correspondence throughout the book to create an intimate and insightful portrait of a remarkable American woman.

Texas Western College, then a small and unknown school tucked away in the far corner of West Texas, came out of nowhere to pull the biggest upset in the history of college basketball in 1966. The Miners' 72-65 victory over the University of Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, in the finals of the NCAA Tournament topped one of the most remarkable stories in the history not only of basketball, but of all sports. It's a story of triumph of character and heart over hardship and seemingly impossible odds. Their accomplishment also had a big impact on society. For the first time, five African-Americans started in the finals of the NCAA Tournament. The victory overcame many prejudices against the ability of African-American athletes to function in a team concept and opened doors for them throughout the South and other parts of the country.

In A Rocket at Heart, Rudy Tomjanovich tells the story of how the son of hardworking Croatian parents from Hamtramck, Michigan, helped the city of Houston change its image from Choke City to Clutch City. With unusual insight and unsparing honesty, Rudy talks about the doubts, the fears, and the obstacles he's overcome in becoming such a successful and well-respected coach. He tells how he learned to be a coach while standing in the spotlight; how he developed his theories of offense and defense that helped the Rockets reach the pinnacle; how he learned when to teach with praise and when to be forceful; and how he learned valuable lessons from Bill Fitch about preparation, from Don Chaney about dignity, and from Del Harris about handling adversity. He also talks, for the first time, about the adversity he himself had to learn from: the devastating punch thrown by Kermit Washington that cost Rudy a season in his prime, and could have cost him his life. Along the way, Rudy shares great stories about all the people he's known and the fun he's had in a life in basketball. He talks about his old roommate Calvin Murphy, and how this seemingly mismatched pair became the closest of friends; about watching Hakeem Olajuwon develop into one of the most extraordinary players ever to play the game; about the enormous challenge of changing a championship team in midseason by making the Clyde Drexler trade, and the satisfaction of beating the odds by winning four straight playoff series without homecourt advantage (and then, a year and a half later, trying that transition game again by adding the always entertaining Charles Barkley to the mix). With remarkable candor and self-deprecating wit, Rudy T. shows us the roads he's traveled and the good times and high points along the way.

This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date basketball-specific training guide in the world today. It contains descriptions and photographs of over 80 of the most effective weight training, flexibility, and abdominal exercises used by athletes world-wide. This book features year-round basketball-specific weight-training programs guaranteed to improve your performance and get you results. No other basketball book to date has been so well designed, so easy to use, and so committed to weight training.This book will have players increasing strength, power, agility, and overall quickness on the court, leading to an increase in rebounds, steals, blocked shots, and overall defensive efficiency. You will build the strength and power needed to dominate the post and under the basket and you will build the stamina and endurance needed to go strong until the final whistle. Both beginners and advanced athletes and weight trainers can follow this book and utilise its programs. From recreational to professional, thousands of athletes all over the world are already benefiting from this book and its techniques, and now you can too!

THE FULL, CANDID STORY OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL COACH! Detailing Bob Knight's most explosive moments on and off the court, and drawing from more than one hundred revealing new interviews with those who have worked and played alongside him, this is the most balanced and comprehensive portrait of the NCAA's infamous coach. Love him or hate him, here is BOB KNIGHT AS HE REALLY IS.

Walt Frazier, one of the greatest guards ever to play the game, writes about "old school ball" and his ideas for reinvigorating the sport In The Game Within the Game, basketball legend Walt Frazier looks at basketball from both a historical and personal viewpoint. When Frazier first started playing the game, discipline and strategy were more highly valued than in today's game, which he describes as having devolved into "a playground fest of dunks and threes." The old-school style of Frazier's past emphasized substance over style, contrary to the current state of the game, where celebrity and flashy moves dominate. In lively and accessible language, Frazier writes about how important "the game within the game" really is. He emphasizes timing and mental skill, far more than dazzling moves, as the strengths that today's players need to hone in order to achieve success. Frazier makes some controversial points, aimed at new basketball players."The game within the game starts with players respecting their coaches, their teammates, and the opposing team. The Indiana Pacers had a good chance of winning the NBA championship last year before Artest erupted. They had a record of 16 wins and only 8 losses at the time the brawl occurred and were touted as the team with the best chance of dethroning the Pistons in the East.Artest had been out of control for a long time. The Pacers tried to rein him in by suspending him earlier in the season, but Artest didn't learn his lesson. He is a product of his times. Basketball is a microcosm of life. Walking down the street today, guys want their props. If you bump into a young guy, he might go off. It's carried over into the NBA. The guys in the league today are young and they often have a similar mindset."

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."

On the night of March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, right up the street from the chocolate factory, Wilt Chamberlain, a young and striking athlete celebrated as the Big Dipper, scored one hundred points in a game against the New York Knickerbockers.
As historic and revolutionary as the achievement was, it remains shrouded in myth. The game was not televised; no New York sportswriters showed up; and a fourteen-year-old local boy ran onto the court when Chamberlain scored his hundredth point, shook his hand, and then ran off with the basketball. In telling the story of this remarkable night, author Gary M. Pomerantz brings to life a lost world of American sports.
In 1962, the National Basketball Association, stepchild to the college game, was searching for its identity. Its teams were mostly white, the number of black players limited by an unspoken quota. Games were played in drafty, half-filled arenas, and the players traveled on buses and trains, telling tall tales, playing cards, and sometimes reading Joyce. Into this scene stepped the unprecedented Wilt Chamberlain: strong and quick-witted, voluble and enigmatic, a seven-footer who played with a colossal will and a dancer's grace. That strength, will, grace, and mystery were never more in focus than on March 2, 1962. Pomerantz tracked down Knicks and Philadelphia Warriors, fans, journalists, team officials, other NBA stars of the era, and basketball historians, conducting more than 250 interviews in all, to recreate in painstaking detail the game that announced the Dipper's greatness. He brings us to Hershey, Pennsylvania, a sweet-seeming model of the gentle, homogeneous small-town America that was fast becoming anachronistic. We see the fans and players, alternately fascinated and confused by Wilt, drawn anxiously into the spectacle. Pomerantz portrays the other legendary figures in this story: the Warriors' elegant coach Frank McGuire; the beloved, if rumpled, team owner Eddie Gottlieb; and the irreverent p.a. announcer Dave "the Zink" Zinkoff, who handed out free salamis courtside.
At the heart of the book is the self-made Chamberlain, a romantic cosmopolitan who owned a nightclub in Harlem and shrugged off segregation with a bebop cool but harbored every slight deep in his psyche. March 2, 1962, presented the awesome sight of Wilt Chamberlain imposing himself on a world that would diminish him. "Wilt, 1962" is not only the dramatic story of a singular basketball game but a meditation on small towns, midcentury America, and one of the most intriguing figures in the pantheon of sports heroes.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook

"From the Hardcover edition."

Earl "The Goat" Manigault had what it takes to become a superstar: incredible leaping ability, great timing, and unstoppable moves. He sets a New York City junior high school record by scoring 52 points in one game. In high school and on the playgrounds of Harlem, he astonished opponents with his acrobatic shots, including the patented double dunk. Although seventy-two colleges offered him scholarships, lack of discipline and bad breaks sent Manigault stumbling into a world of heroin addiction and petty crimes for three years. He succumbed to the fast land life that sapped the lives of so many of his friends in the 1960's. The Goat kicked the habit, however, and then returned to Harlem to start his own summer basketball league for black youth. This inspiring story of how one man rebuilts his life is told with vivid, no-holds-barred descriptions of the harshness, humour and love in today's inner city.

"The players today are much better than we were.... But there is one thing that we could do better. We could pass the ball better than they can now. Man, we used to pass that basketball around like it was a hot potato."--Sam "Buck" Covington, former member of the Washington Bruins

n a nation distinguished by a great black athletic heritage, there is perhaps no sport that has felt the impact of African American culture more than basketball. Most people assume that the rise of black basketball was a fortuitous accident of the inner-city playgrounds. In "Hot Potato, " Bob Kuska shows that it was in fact a consciously organized movement with very specific goals.

When Edwin Henderson introduced the game to Washington, D.C., in 1907, he envisioned basketball not as an end in itself but as a public-health and civil-rights tool. Henderson believed that, by organizing black athletics, including basketball, it would be possible to send more outstanding black student athletes to excel at northern white colleges and debunk negative stereotypes of the race. He reasoned that in sports, unlike politics and business, the black race would get a fair chance to succeed. Henderson chose basketball as his marquee sport, and he soon found that the game was a big hit on Washington's segregated U Street. Almost simultaneously, black basketball was catching on quickly in New York, and the book establishes that these two cities served as the birthplace of the black game.

"Hot Potato" chronicles the many successes and failures of the early years of black amateur basketball. It also recounts the emergence of black college basketball in America, documenting the origins of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, or CIAA, which would become the Big Ten of black collegiate sports.

The book also details for the first time the rise of black professional basketball in America, with a particular emphasis on the New York Renaissance, a team considered by experts to be as important in the development of black basketball as the Harlem Globetrotters. Kuska recounts the Renaissance's first victory over the white world champion Original Celtics in 1925, and he evaluates the significance of this win in advancing equality in American sports. By the late 1920s, the Renaissance became one of the sport's top draws in white and black America alike, setting the stage for the team's undisputed world championship in 1939. As Edwin Henderson had hoped--and as any fan of the modern-day game can tell you--the triumphs certainly did not end there.