King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies) [Hardcover]

Aram Goudsouzian (Author), Harry Edwards (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies | Publication Date: May 1, 2010

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, Russell 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All students of the game will feast on King of the Court. "--Library Journal

"Captures the complexities of the man behind the fame. . . A valuable resource for American history as well as sports."--Choice

"If you don't know much about Russell, this is a good place to start. If you do, it will help place him in context."--Providence Journal

"Goudsouzian captures the complexities of the man behind the fame, both his strengths and his foibles."--Choice

"A full, authoritative, incredibly well-researched biography of Russell's life and career, just dense with information on every page."--Espn

From the Inside Flap

"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

"Not only is King of the Court one of the most impressive and important sports biographies to come along in many a season, easily in the same class as David Maraniss's When Pride Still Mattered (on Vince Lombardi) and Wil Haygood's Sweet Thunder (on Sugar Ray Robinson), it is also one of the truly incisive books on the intersection of race, civil rights, and popular culture that have appeared in some time. Having grown up in Philadelphia, I was always a Wilt Chamberlain man and always will be, but King of the Court convinced me that Bill Russell defined his age in ways that Chamberlain never did. Russell was a man for all seasons. This is a biography befitting Russell's stature."--Gerald Early, author of One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture

"Before there were crossover dribbles or slam dunk competitions, before they even kept statistics for blocked shots, Bill Russell dominated the game we call basketball. The respect he demanded as a black man during America's turbulent Civil Rights era made him the personification of a winner in life. King of the Court, like Russell's defense, locks it down, and puts it all in its proper context. Long live the King!"--Dr. Todd Boyd, author of Young, Black, Rich, and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture

"Bill Russell's life story is only incidentally about basketball. For him the sport was not a life; it was his vehicle for social change, a platform that showcased his vision for America as much as his athletic talent. In his magnificent biography, Aram Goudsouzian captures the nuance and meaning of Russell's career. After reading the book, one will never look at Russell or sports in quite the same way."--Randy Roberts, Purdue University

"Brings back the excitement of the great days of the NBA and its legendary players, led by the king of them all, Bill Russell. Best book I've read on basketball in 40 years."--Bill McSweeny, co-author, with Bill Russell, of Go Up for Glory

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520258878
• ISBN-13: 978-0520258877
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aram Goudsouzian is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Memphis. He grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. He earned his B.A. from Colby College and his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is the author of "King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution," "The Hurricane of 1938," and "Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill Russell: Revolutionary, June 24, 2010

By 

John M. Smith "JS" (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies) (Hardcover)

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 involvement in the civil rights movement, the explosive racial history of Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, and the legacy of the Celtics' dynasty. This is unquestionably one of the best sport biographies written in the last decade. Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself.

*Russell won 11 total championships in 13 seasons.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Serious But Still Engaging Account of Russell's Life and Impact, June 8, 2010

By 

Pomegranate Queen (Hellertown, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies) (Hardcover)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book About Sports -- and Much More, July 5, 2010

By 

Jeffrey H. Jackson - See all my reviews

This review is from: King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies) (Hardcover)

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.