King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution

I'm not really a sports person, but I could not stop reading this book. I found myself drawn into the stories that Goudsouzian tells. One is the story of Bill Russell himself, an amazing athlete and quirky personality who rose to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time and a founder of the Celtics mystique. But this is not simply a biography of one man. Goudsouzian also narrates the civil rights movement and the "rise of the black athlete" through the story of Russell's life. Like all good books about a single person, Goudsouzian puts Russell the man into his times to show how each shaped the other. Russell became a crusader for racial equality and black pride both in his on-the-court play and his off-the-court life. This is also the tale of the evolution of modern sports and how basketball went from being a small-time enterprise to an enormous cultural influence in America, thanks in large part to men like Russell. Goudsouzian is a master historian who has done an amazing amount of research, but he's also a fabulous writer. The book sizzles with a "you-are-there" style of sports writing that puts the reader into the heat of the action. At the same time, Goudsouzian is able to step back with the historian's breadth of vision to show us what it all means and why the life of this one man -- impressive on its own terms -- points to larger themes in American history. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in recent US history, especially African-American history, as well as the history of sports in America.

No basketball player defined the sixties the way that Bill Russell did. From 1959 to 1969, Russell led the Boston Celtics to ten NBA championships, including eight straight.* During this period, Russell was the central force of the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport. The Celtics helped transform the NBA from an obscure professional basketball league into a prominent sport that has become an important part of American popular culture and entertainment. Russell's Celtics revolutionized the NBA. Before he joined the Celtics in 1956, professional basketball was essentially a lily-white, slow, earthbound sport. But Russell helped change all of that. He infused a black aesthetic into basketball and altered the patterns of the game. The changes could be seen in the way Russell rebounded the ball: he flew into the air, snatched the ball off the rim, and in one motion whipped an outlet pass to Bob Cousy or K.C. Jones, igniting a fast-break. Traditionally, basketball coaches taught their players never to leave their feet on defense. Russell ignored this rule. He leaped off the parquet floor and blocked shots, frustrating and intimidating shooters. Sometimes he simply jumped and caught a player's errant shot in midair. Russell's defense stretched the possibilities of the game. He cultivated a faster and more athletic sport. In Aram Goudsouzian's King of the Court, we learn that Russell challenged racial boundaries on and off the court. When he arrived in Boston in December 1956, Russell was the only black player on the Celtics and only 15 African Americans held roster spots in the NBA. Russell was not the first black player in the league, but he was the NBA's first black superstar. Over the course of his thirteen seasons, Russell and the Celtics symbolized integration in American life. By 1969, Russell's last season, the NBA had become a predominantly black sport. But Russell refused to believe that his integrated teams were evidence of racial progress in America. Goudsouzian documents the courtside racial taunts that Russell heard, the hate mail he received, and the discrimination he faced in the South and in Boston. Goudsouzian is a master storyteller whose vivid narrative shows how Russell embodied the tensions of the civil rights movement and how he confronted racial discrimination. In King of the Court, readers will learn how Russell became one of the first outspoken, politically active black athletes in America, at a time when athletes avoided controversial social and political issues. Russell's defiant behavior off the court challenged traditional standards of behavior for black athletes, paving the way for younger, more militant black athletes. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Russell, the history of the NBA, or the civil rights movement. Goudsouzian covers it all: the Wilt-Russell rivalry, the commercial growth of professional basketball, Russell's relationship with Red Auerbach, his inv

I've been a fan of Goudsouzian's work since I came across his seminal biography of Poitier a few years ago. I admired that book as a successful effort at chronicling Poitier's career and personal relationships without descending to the cheap but all-too-common trick of sensationalizing his romantic life and Hollywood connections in order to move books. In King of the Court, Goudsouzian maintains the same even, academic tone to his work. His account of Russell's basketball career is thoroughly researched but not overlong at 280 pages. The author's writing style is succint yet engaging. In terms of content, I particularly liked how Goudsouzian intertwined accounts of Russell's successes in sport with commentary on the racial and political climate of the times. In this way he paints a balanced portrait of Bill Russell as both athlete and cultural symbol. Overall an excellent read.