The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball (Paperback)

~ John Taylor (Author)
Key Phrases: neutral court game, sportswrit ers, Bill Russell, Breda Kolff, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taylor (The Count and the Confession) offers a vivid account of the fledgling days of the National Basketball Association and the intense competition between two of its biggest early stars: Bill Russell (of the Boston Celtics) and Wilt Chamberlain (of the Philadelphia 76ers). While both players were dominant men who anchored their respective teams, their personalities differed greatly. The quiet, reflective Russell turned a serendipitous showing in front of a scout into a legendary career largely through willpower and hard work, while the outgoing Chamberlain was a much more naturally gifted athlete whose skills drew attention and offers while he was barely a teenager. Taylor highlights this distinction, asking, "[C]ould determination trump talent?" Along with examining the physical and psychological battles between the two, Taylor depicts the NBA's raucous nature in the 1950s and '60s, when fights between players were frequent, and the brash Celtics coach Red Auerbach was routinely pelted with rotten tomatoes, lit cigars and eggs. Looking at everything, from each player's private demons to the racially charged era in which they competed, Taylor's book is by turns an intimate profile and a spirited look at the foundation of modern professional basketball.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Few individual rivalries in sports match the legendary mano-a-mano basketball duels between Boston Celtic Bill Russell and the much-traveled Wilt Chamberlain. Russell led his team to 11 championships in 13 seasons, and while Chamberlain's teams won 2 titles, only once was he part of a championship team while Russell was active. Chamberlain became the poster child for individual accomplishment--he scored 100 points in a single game--but Russell, 35 years after his retirement, still epitomizes the ultimate winner, the teammate for the ages. Taylor, author of The Count and the Confession (2002), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, was initially drawn to the subject because, like much of his work, it dealt with the psychology of conflict. But as he interviewed many of those involved on the periphery of his subject--Russell declined to participate and Chamberlain is dead--he realized he had a potentially larger canvas. The rivalry coincided with--and accelerated--the NBA's metamorphosis from a relatively minor league to the media giant it's become today. It also produced two of the most celebrated black sports superstars in the post-Jackie Robinson era and in that context advanced race relations in America. While placing the rivalry in historical context, Taylor shows that Wilt wanted to win every bit as much as Russell but never quite understood, as Russell did, how to sublimate his ego for the betterment of the team. A serious work of sports history, this volume compares favorably with the best works of John Feinstein and David Halberstam on sports. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812970306
• ISBN-13: 978-0812970302
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #182,796 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN INCREDIBLE READ FROM START TO FINISH, October 27, 2005

By	andy behrman (los angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball (Hardcover)

The funny thing about "The Rivalry," is that you don't have to be a huge basketball fan to really enjoy this book. You don't even have to like basketball. Although my dad (a huge basketball fan) gave this book to me (we spent years watching basketball on television and going to Knicks games when I was a kid), and I thought I knew all about Russell and Chamberlain (I didn't!), Taylor has written an amazing book of an important part of sports history. And "The Rivalry" is not just about basketball history, but about competition, winning and "the game." My sister will get the book next!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Account of Sports and Social History, October 25, 2005

By	Marc Winter (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball (Hardcover)

Rather than reading a biography of Red Auerbach, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, turn to this period book! Here you get everything: a complete portrayal of the situation of African American who were just starting to segregate professional sports outside of the Brooklyn Dodgers. But at the same time it is an introduction to a time, when athletes were not the superstars of today.
On top of that, you get enough biographcal information on Russell and Chamberlain, but also on Cousy, Auerbach and many others.
The book is very well written and starts right with information, no tedious introduction to plough through.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Basketball I've ever read, December 23, 2005

By	RoyHobbs (Buffalo NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball (Hardcover)

This book is hard to put down. Taylor goes beyond the Rivalry and relates all the history of the period and that's what I liked best about the book. The Rivalry is the main story but all the added information about the NBA, Coaches, Politics, Civil Rights really made this a great read.
BTW - my all time, all star team, best at each position:
Russell, Pettit, Bird, Robertson, Jordan.