BOOKS: The Rivalry Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain And The Golden Age of Basketball

Chamberlain and Russell

The “Rivalry”__ number 13 and number 6, There has been nothing like it ever since, at least for basketball fans. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell__Chamerblain on the Sixers, Russell on the Celtics and the whole milieu that swirled around them. It was the golden age of basketball, the fledgling days of the NBA. I must admit Wilt Chamberlain is my all time favorite athlete, so when a friend gave me a copy of, John Taylor’s 2005 book, “The Rivalry Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain And The Golden Age of Basketball,” I couldn’t wait to finish the book I was reading and start Taylor’s book. I wasn’t disappointed. If you are a basketball fan and even if you are not, Taylor’s book is a fine example of social history made accessible through the medium of sports. You don’t necessarily have to like basketball to enjoy this book. Why? The characters of Chamberlain and Russell and the competition that existed between them are so compelling. This book is better than biography because you get not only enough biographical information on Chamberlain and Russell and Red Aurbach to satisfy any fan, but also a social context in which to better understand it. The “Rivalry,” can be seen as a treatise on the psychology of conflict as well as rivalry presented in an entertaining and readable format. Taylor describes the racism that was rampant in the 1960s and how that racism affected blacks coming into the league. But more than that he gets inside the heads of these titanic sports figures and tries to show why they did and said the things they did. The most interesting part to me was the Chamberlain information. There are just so many “Chamberlain stories” floating around. Know one knows if most of them are true. But to many they seem believable because Chamberlain was such an unbelievable athlete and personality. A prime example is the claim that Wilt sleep with 20,000 women. Could that be true? You do the math. He died at 63. But it’s all part of the lure and its what makes reading about Chamberlain so fascinating. If you combine these fascinating personalities with the social context in which they moved you have one great book.