Hoop Lore

FOREWORD

Jim Barnett

Have you ever wondered how professional sports came to be so powerful and influential in our daily lives? Are you amazed at the immense salaries professional athletes command today? What is the genesis for this popularity with athletes and the fierce competition they provide?

If you are specifically interested in basketball, and particularly the NBA, Connie Kirchberg’s “Hoop Lore” (A History of the NBA) is a must read. This story is the most comprehensive I have seen in all of my travels throughout the basketball world; it is an informative, moving history lesson for all basketball fans. The pages take you from the YMCA with Dr. James Naismith in 1891 and weave you through more than a century of basketball growth. You read about the Buffalo Germans in the early 1900’s, the barnstorming Harlem “Rens” and the Original Celtics with Joe Lapchick in the Roaring 20’s. I learned how basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936 in Berlin, as James Naismith watched at the age of 74. This spawned his idea to start a national collegiate tournament which formed the basis of the NCAA tournament today.

This is a book about people with dreams and a passion for the sport of basketball. It includes the players of the early NBA as well as those through the recent 2004-2005 season. It chronicles the struggles and failings of the early organizations: the NBL, BAA, ABL, and the ABA to name just a few. How interesting to learn that George Steinbrenner owned the Cleveland Pipers in the ABL in 1960 and hired the first black professional coach in any sport. How enjoyable to read of the Celtics’ dynasty and the battles between Russell and Chamberlain, the heroics of Baylor and West, and the dominance of Oscar Robertson. Ms. Kirchberg writes in livid detail of the Magic Johnson - Larry Bird era and the transition to superstar Michael Jordan. She brings to light the importance of Commissioner David Stern, who oversees the NBA and has been the most influential marketer of this league. In short, everything is covered in its entirety in an easy, fun filled read. And if you are looking for a reference book on the NBA, this is your bookend.

Hoop Lore is a history lesson, a compelling story, and a walk down memory lane told with accuracy and social conscience. It is a must read for all basketball fans, particularly those of us who “think” we know the game.

---Jim Barnett

Jim Barnett began his NBA career in Boston as the 8th overall pick in the 1966 draft and went on to play with some of the game’s top talents, stars the likes of Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Elvin Hayes, Rick Barry, Walt Frazier, and Julius Erving. During his 11 years in league, Jim posted averages of 11.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 3 assists. He is currently in his 22nd year as a television analyst for the Golden State Warriors.

Imagine a professional basketball league dominated by stationary, two-handed set shots and player salaries of $5,000 a year. Now fast-forward to today’s NBA, where slam dunks are routine and a teenager can collect endorsement fees of $90 million without setting foot on a professional court. Hoop Lore is the story of how we got from there to here.

Although current NBA players are among the most recognizable and wealthy athletes in the world, few people, including the majority of the players themselves, are aware of how it all came to be. In truth, establishing professional basketball was a war. A battle for survival. Only the strong survived, and it took players, owners, coaches, and fans decades of hard work, personal sacrifices, and astute vision to bring it all together. This book explores that struggle, taking the reader on a thorough but fast-paced journey through the history of professional hoops where the sky is—amazingly—no longer the limit.

To suggest the game has evolved since its creation in 1891 would be the equivalent of comparing a 1950s television to today’s high definition plasma set; there really is no comparison, either in programming content or picture quality. Still, as with basketball, the basic idea existed to be built upon, improved, changed, and rearranged. When all is said and done, television is still about watching stories unfold on a screen, be they in grainy black and white or glorious, razor sharp color. And basketball is still about putting a ball through a net.

Some would argue that today’s rugged, high wire act that is the NBA bears little resemblance to the early days. They are wrong. Many similarities remain, both in substance and style. Whether or not evolution has improved the game is another question. The answer depends on who you ask, but few would dispute the bottom line: basketball, be it nineteenth or twenty-first century style, remains a passionate game of attitude to all whom embrace it.

Ask a pre-NBA player who drove himself to games in a beat-up jalopy for little more than gas money what he has in common with today’s world renowned stars. Ask a kid playing hoops at a local playground what he has in common with the average NBA player making $5 million a year. Ask his little brother or his girlfriend what they have in common with celebrities sitting courtside at today’s multimillion dollar arenas. All will probably react with a shrug or quizzical look. But give them a minute and they’ll tell you: a racing pulse, sweaty palms…and an indescribable feeling deep in their gut.

HOOP LORE:

A History of the National Basketball Association