ISBN: 9780520258877

Bill Russell was not the first African American to play professional basketball, but he was its first black superstar. From the moment he stepped onto the court of the Boston Garden in 19… Mehr…

Bill Russell was not the first African American to play professional basketball, but he was its first black superstar. From the moment he stepped onto the court of the Boston Garden in 1956, he began to transform the sport in a fundamental way, making him, more than any of his contemporaries, the Jackie Robinson of basketball. In "King of the Court," Aram Goudsouzian provides a vivid and engrossing chronicle of the life and career of this brilliant champion and courageous racial pioneer. Russell's leaping, wide-ranging defense altered the game's texture. His teams provided models of racial integration in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1966, he became the first black coach of any major professional team sport. Yet, like no athlete before him, Russell challenged the politics of sport. Instead of displaying appreciative deference, he decried racist institutions, embraced his African roots, and challenged the nonviolent tenets of the civil rights movement. This beautifully written book-sophisticated, nuanced, and insightful-reveals a singular individual who expressed the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. while echoing the warnings of Malcolm X. King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution Goudsouzian, Aram / Edwards, Harry, University of California Press<

ISBN: 9780520258877

""King of the Court" provides a highly nuanced and sophisticated analysis of the great African American basketball player from his earliest days up to the present time. With great skill a… Mehr…

""King of the Court" provides a highly nuanced and sophisticated analysis of the great African American basketball player from his earliest days up to the present time. With great skill and much insight, Goudsouzian makes clear that Russell was a very complicated man who was full of contradictions in his own private life and in relationship to his business associates, teammates, opponents, the media, and the larger sporting public."--David K.Wiggins, George Mason University Media > Book, [PU: University of California Press]<