Customer Reviews

They Cleared the Lane: The NBA's Black Pioneers

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They Cleared The Lane: The NBA's Black Pioneers by Ron Thomas, is an informative and entertaining account of the early Black players and coaches of the NBA.It is obvious Mr. Thomas has done extensive research through interviews, and media archives to examine and clarify the enormous social and athletic impact of the early Black NBA players. As a true basketball fanatic, I enjoyed the opportunity to read and learn about some important individuals who help to shape and define the NBA.

They Cleared The Lane by professional sportswriter Ron Thomas is the amazing story of the people who dared to break the color line in professional basketball. Once, racism dominated this sport in America, but the efforts of the first professional black players and coaches changed all that. Filled with anecdotes, engaging stories, and little-known facts, They Cleared The Lane is informative reading that will appeal to all basketball enthusiasts who want to learn more about the history of this beloved sport. They Cleared The Lane is also highly recommended for Black Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

Ron Thomas' They Cleared the Lane is a wonderful read about the history of basketball and its racial integration. Most people don't know that the now prominent NBA struggled through several decades before finding firm financial footing. Also hidden in the history of the sport is its early segregation and the challenges faced by the first black players who integrated the league. The stories are engrossing and emotionally charged and reveal a great deal about the changing fabric of American society.

The book works well as a supplementary text for the course the Sociology of Sport (where I've used it). It would also serve equally well as a supplementary text for courses in race and ethnicity. It is a must read for those who believe themselves to be students of the NBA. We should all thank Ron Thomas for chronicling this very important history.

folks need to Know the Pioneers that Paved the way for Ball today.50-52 Years ago isn't that long ago.alot isn't mentioned of it&hat's really sad to me.but glad to have this Book that speaks on the Past,Present&The Future.A Toast to the Men who Paved the way.

Thomas, Ron. They cleared the lane: the NBA's Black pioneers. 1987. Reprint, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2002

They Cleared the Lane by Ron Thomas is a very good book in many ways for multiple topics involving the influence of African Americans because the book spans from the beginning of the first black professional player in Bucky Lew, to recent stars who are making strides in the game today over the course of seventeen chapters. Along with a glossary, index, bibliography, and being published by the University of Nebraska Press, all signs point to the information being accurate and is directed toward use not just for reading but for use with scholarly articles. I say scholarly articles because as a college student many of the chapters especially one through eight were very useful for my research topic in my senior seminar class which is on the integration of the NBA by African Americans. This book was very useful in helping me find many more sources for my topic, and that was beneficial because of how little it can seem there is on a topic not normally written on.

Finally a book that talks about black sports, that's not about just baseball. To know what these pioneers had to go through just to make it, makes me very proud to say that I'm black. But, you ask why such a poor rating. Because the author, Ron Thomas, did a very poor job of getting his facts first hand. He states that he got the idea about this book when alot of these ball players were still alive. But did not have "time" to interview them, so most of his recollections are through magizine or newspaper articles. Alot of these ball players past away before "he could get to them". Their are a couple of times in the book were he leaves you hanging trying to figure out what he's trying to say, for example when he's explaining that "when they got hungry, it didn't make matters easier because they practiced just a few blocks from the Nabisco plant." My question? When they got hungry, then what, did they have to split the dinner, they had no money. What? But nothing was more frustrating then when the old black ball players were explaining to us "that everyone treated us bascically ok", Mr. Thomas still tried to paint an "evil" side to the white owners and management. Making it seem like no one was willing to help. I think someone else should have done this book. And could've probably done a better job.