A vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black
players who shaped the NBA
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 then, 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.
Enter Black Ball, a gripping history and 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. Black players
introduced an improvisational style derived from the playground
courts of their neighborhoods. They also challenged the team owners’
autocratic power, garnering higher salaries and increased agency.
Their skills, style, and savvy laid the foundation for the global
popularity and profitability of the league we know today.