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Book SynopsisToday, it is nearly impossible to talk about the best basketball players in America without acknowledging the accomplishments of incredibly talented black athletes like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. A little more than a century ago, however, the game was completely dominated by white players playing on segregated courts and teams. In Breaking Barriers: A History of Integration in Professional Basketball, Douglas Stark details the major moments that led to the sport opening its doors to black players. He charts the progress of integration from Bucky Lewthe first black professional basketball player in 1902to the modern game played by athletes like Stephen Curry and LeBron James. Although Stark focuses on the official integration of basketball in the late 1940s, the story does not end there. Over the past 60-plus years, black athletes have continued to change the game of basketball in terms of style, social progress, and marketability. Spanning the early 1900s to the pr
Trade ReviewDouglas Stark’s Breaking Barriers: A History of Integration in Professional Basketball is an integral addition to the sporting library, as the first volumes about Black baseball were to chronicling Negro League play and ownership. Copiously researched, the text is a comprehensive, entertaining account of the pioneering teams and figures who toiled long before the days of television deals and shoe contracts. Readers and fans seeking to gain a perspective on today's game should familiarize themselves through this narrative, with the exciting oral history of Black contribution to integrated touring teams, organized leagues, collegiate ball, and the style of play now accepted as standard. -- Bijan C. Bayne, author, Sky Kings: Black Pioneers of Professional Basketball and Elgin Baylor: The Man Who Changed Basketball
In Breaking Barriers, Stark has taken on an important chapter in American Sport and in the history of desegregation in America. The book spans the history of professional basketball from its early years near the opening of the 20th century and concludes with two chapters containing mini-biographies of the major NBA stars of the past half-century. Although the desegregation of professional basket is a central focus of Breaking Barriers, there is a second focus on African American basketball and its players, both before and after segregation. * New York Journal of Books *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Prologue Chapter 1: Early Black Professional Basketball Chapter 2: The World Professional Basketball Tournament Chapter 3: The National Basketball League Chapter 4: Early Black NBA Pioneers Chapter 5: The Rise of African American Stars in the NBA Chapter 6: The Shadow of Michael Jordan Bibliography Index About the Author
