John Grasso - Historical Dictionary of Basketball

Basketball is certainly one of the most popular sports in the world. It is played in virtually all countries, at all levels, from primary, to high school, to college. It is played by young and old, men and women, and there are countless professional teams that vie for national and international trophies, to say nothing of being included in the Olympics. That is already not bad for a sport. But what makes basketball really stand out is that the professionals have not taken over while the rest of us become spectators, watching it in stadiums or on television, although we do that as well. Wherever there is a basketball, and they seem to be everywhere, and wherever there is a patch of pavement big enough and some place to hang the basket, people almost naturally join in. So it is obvious that basketball should be one of the sports highlighted in this series, although this volume will deal more with the professional and semiprofessional level and the international tournaments. In just more than a century since it was invented by James Naismith, it has indeed conquered the world very peacefully but convincingly in ways he could never have imagined.

Historical Dictionary of Basketball traces the history of basketball, reaching back to the earliest times and emphasizing its situation at present. This is done twice, actually, first in the chronology, and then in the introduction, which tells us more about its intriguing career. The dictionary section focuses more sharply on some of the prominent people involved, pioneers in the sport, outstanding players, and also coaches. Naturally, there is considerable attention to the major teams at various levels and some of the schools that have regularly fielded particularly good teams. Other entries present the main leagues and associations as well as some of the technical aspects. The appendixes provide
records and rankings of various sorts, including national league championships and Olympic Games. The bibliography is more than just an
afterthought. It includes numerous books readers may wish to consult to round out and supplement the information found here.

John Grasso bears out some of the comments above. He is not a former basketball player on a major team, but one of countless fans, only he was a fan who took an unusually serious interest in this sport. He has written extensively on basketball and is a member of the Association for Professional Basketball Research. Over the years, he has watched countless matches in the United States and other countries while attending seven Olympic Games. He is also an Olympic historian and treasurer of the International Society of Olympic Historians. As a writer, he produced two monographs of his own on basketball, The Absurd Official Statistics of the 19541955 NBA Season and Olympic Games Basketball Records , while also contributing to Total Basketball , The Compendium of Professional Basketball , and Harvey Pollacks NBA Statistical Yearbook . Of course, you can follow the sport without this book, but it is infinitely more interesting when you know more about its genesis and history and can look up players and teams and consult the main records. So this is a nice companion to have.

Jon Woronoff

Series Editor

It is impossible in a book of this size to cover all aspects of an activity that has been practiced worldwide for more than 100 years. The first draft originally contained more than 1,500 pages and still omitted many people and teams. For the dictionary entries I have selected players, coaches, contributors, teams, leagues, and phrases covering domestic and international, mens and womens, scholastic and professional basketball from the sports beginnings to modern times. In doing so, Ive limited entries to colleges that won National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships, countries that competed in more than one Olympic Games tournament, professional teams in the major United States leagues, and selected individuals from all eras. Space limitations have restricted entries to brief sketches, but readers interested in more details are advised to make use of the extensive bibliography section. It is hoped that the information contained within this book will provide the neophyte reader with a general introduction to basketball and that some of the anecdotal details will be of interest to the reader with a broader background.

Id like to thank Dorothy A. Grasso, interior decorator, for putting up with my reclusive hobbies for more than forty years. Thanks also to Steve Grasso, manufacturing engineer, my Beijing companion and the future Dr. L. A. McMonkey, aka Laurel Zeisler, speech therapist, for their encouragement and support. Many thanks to Dr. Tomasz Maolepszy, mathematics professor and European sports expert, and Stuart Demsker, New York Jets fan extraordinaire and college sports expert, for their help with the text. And thanks to Dr. Bill Mallon, orthopedic surgeon and Olympic Games expert for getting me involved with this project; and the staff at Scarecrow Press, including Jon Woronoff, series editor, Andrew Yoder, production editor, April Snider, acquisitions editor, and Nicole McCullough, copyeditor, for helping to bring it to fruition.