Ray Scott - The NBA in Black and White: The Memoir of a Trailblazing NBA Player and Coach

I rarely make public comments about anything people I know have written or said, but Im happy to make an exception here.

Ray and I were both born and raised in the same South Philly neighborhood, six years apart. I never got the chance to meet or see Ray play because I didnt get interested in basketball until I was fourteen, when the junior high school coach saw this skinny 6'3" kid walking down the hall and asked if I played basketball. For me it was a life-changing moment.

I was a junior at John Bartram High School when I first saw Ray play. He had just finished his rookie year with the Detroit Pistons, and had come back to Philly to play in the Baker League. He often came over to the neighborhood basketball courts to work out and play with some of his friends. Even though Ray had the exalted stature, in my eyes, of being an NBA player, he treated me and all the other young players with total respect, shaking hands and acknowledging us. He probably didnt even notice I was there, as we young guys used to sit around the edge of the court hoping to get picked to play the winners in the next game. We never got picked. Later, when I was playing at Winston-Salem, I started to play in the legendary Philadelphia-New York Games in the summer. He played in the pro game, and I played in the college game. Thats when I joined Ray in the traditional brotherhood of Philadelphia basketball players.

Eventually Ray and I were teammates with the Baltimore Bullets from 1967 to 1970, and our friendship deepened. Working and traveling with the team, we wound up spending a lot of time together, both on and off the court, going to dinner, movies, and shows or just hanging out at the clubs on Baltimore Street, like the Casino, where some of the greats in R&B and jazz played every night. Artists like Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Les McCann, and many more made their way through Baltimore. It was the gateway between the North and the South, depending on which way you were traveling.

Ray and I talked about everything at that timefrom basketball strategy to our observations of local, national, and NBA politics. We even had the chance to travel to Japan together, along with Bob Ferry for the State Department, where we visited the tragic burn wards of our soldiers who had been injured and maimed during the Vietnam War.

I always appreciated Rays talent and his will to win. Boy, with the way he handled the ball and his shooting range, he really would have loved to play in this edition of the NBA. But even more than that, I simply enjoyed him as a good-hearted, perceptive person with a terrific head on his shoulders when it came to both the game of basketball and the dynamics of our American culture. Over the entire span of the sixty years Ive known him, hes always remained true to himself, whether as a professional athlete, an NBA or college coach, or when he was selling insurance.

Given our common background, the racial situation was always central to our discussions, both the prejudice that we each faced and the pervasive bias that still confronts our people. Our views were, and still are, identical in this regard. Were both aware that, despite some significant missteps, race relations have evolved and improved over the years of the NBAs existence, and were looking forward to seeing that evolution influence our country as a whole. After all, as a people, weve been here for four hundred years, well before America even became a country. Weve fought for this country and have made significant contributions to this country, and its shameful that we still need to have laws passed to enable us to vote. Studying American history is often like studying partial truths. All the stories are centered around white existence and heroic deeds and theres very little about the Black experience and how weve endured the brutality and oppressionsand yet were still here!

Ray Scott has given us all a good read with his book, a thoughtful and heartful narrative of some of what hes seen and experienced. Myself, Ive learned a lot that I didnt know about Ray, his family, and how he has navigated his way through life. The book is inspiring and, to me, enlightening.

He takes the reader inside the locker room to reveal how players feel about each other, about their coaches, about the media, and about management. Along the way, Ray also gives us personal, in-depth scouting reports of Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Willis Reed, and many more. Readers will find eye-opening discussions about how much individual and team rivalries greatly enhanced the popularity of the league and made it an avenue for the riches present-day athletes enjoy.

Ray Scott may be a modest person, but hes had a big life. Hes known other great athletes, such as Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and gives us a ringside seat. Ray was part of the action, as a team rep, when the owners certified the NBA players union in 1964. He was also right there in 1970, when the historic Oscar Robertson suit was filed. It wasnt entirely settled until 1976, but as a result and ever since then, players have had the right to declare free agency.

Throughout the book, Ray dishes out some inside information, but never deviates from his honorable purposewhich is not to shock but to make his readers think about NBA basketball and the progress the league has made in the sensitive issue of race in America.

Ray is neither an NBA apologist nor an NBA critic. He just tells it like he saw it, which is exactly the way it was and is.

Earl Monroe
New York City