Overview
Main description
The only book to tell the unbelievable true story of the NBA's tumultuous first season
In The First Tip-Off, veteran basketball writer Charley Rosen brings readers back to the NBA's humble beginnings, when a colorful cast of characters laid the foundation for the empire that is today's NBA. Basketball pioneers, like Red Auerbach, Chuck Connors, Ed Sadowski, Joe Fulks, and Peter “Press” Maravich-father of “Pistol Pete”-all play a role in a league of hard fouls, shady refs, meager facilities, and old school basketball. Featuring a Foreword by Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson and exclusive interviews with the surviving players of that first season, Rosen weaves a fascinating and poignant portrait of a league struggling to gain a foothold in the American consciousness.
Table of contents
Foreword Phil Jackson
Preface
Chapter 1 The First Basket and the First Basketeer
Chapter 2 The First Game
Chapter 3 Genesis
Chapter 4 The Penguin, the Mogul and the Constitution
Chapter 5 The Boston Celtics and the Clown-Prince of the BAA
Chapter 6 The Providence Steamrollers Hit a Road Block
Chapter 7 Paul Birch Fires up the Pittsburgh Ironmen
Chapter 8 Of Money, Time, and Justice
Chapter 9 There’s No “D” in Chicago Stags
Chapter 10 Big Ed Drives the Toronto Huskies to Ruin
Chapter 11 The Evolution and Extinction of the Cleveland Rebels
Chapter 12 The Professor and the St. Louis Bombers
Chapter 13 The Short Flight of the Detroit Falcolns
Chapter 14 The Ethnic Knicks
Chapter 15 Gotty, Jumping Joe, and the Philadelphia Warriors
Chapter 16 The Washington Capitols and The Apprenticeship of Red Auerbach
Chapter 17 The Playoffs
Chapter 18 The First Champions
Chapter 19 Barely Alive
Sources
Acknowledgments
Author comments
Charley Rosen is the author of 13 books and a columnist for FoxSports.com. He is also a former player and was a head coach at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
