{"product_id":"black-ball-kareem-abdul-jabbar-spencer-haywood-and-the-generation-that-saved-the-soul-of-the-nba","title":"Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA","description":"\u003cb\u003eA vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black players who shaped the NBA\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation's imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro-basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol for post-civil rights America: the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto the playing field, and now they were ruining everything. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Enter \u003ci\u003eBlack Ball\u003c\/i\u003e, a gripping corrective in which scholar Theresa Runstedtler expertly rewrites basketball's \"Dark Ages.\" Weaving together a deep knowledge of the game with incisive social analysis, Runstedtler argues that this much-maligned period was pivotal to the rise of the modern-day NBA.","brand":"Bold Type Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48124230566077,"sku":"BS-TC0-036975","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0771\/9767\/2637\/files\/9781645036975-HD.jpg?v=1787102821","url":"https:\/\/boundigo.com\/products\/black-ball-kareem-abdul-jabbar-spencer-haywood-and-the-generation-that-saved-the-soul-of-the-nba","provider":"Boundigo Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}