Dynasty's End: Bill Russell and the 1968-69 World Champion Boston Celtics

From Booklist
During Bill Russell's 13-year NBA career, his Boston Celtics won 11 championships, the last in the 1968-69 season. Whalen explores how Russell rallied his aging teammates for that one last run at glory. He sets the context by examining how the Celtics--the first NBA team to start five black players and to hire a black coach (Russell)--were almost an afterthought in Beantown among the city's largely white fan base. Through first-person interviews, Russell's two memoirs, and newspaper accounts, Whalen explores the team dynamic that made this aging, often-injured group much more formidable than it should have been. The Celts limped into the playoffs as a fourth-place team but pulled off upsets against highly favored New York and Philadelphia to reach the finals against Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Whalen misses the mark slightly in his analysis of Boston's ambivalent relationship with its championship team but scores big in his examination of the pride, determination, and mutual respect that propelled these nearly middle-age men to one more title. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The Boston Celtics of the Bill Russell era were one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. During the thirteen years that Hall of Fame center Russell dominated the court, the Celtics won eleven world championships, including an unprecedented eight straight between 1959 and 1966. In the 1968-69 season, the aging and injury-riddled team finished in fourth place during the regular season, and sportswriters predicted an early defeat in the playoffs. Against all odds, player-coach Russell and his squad rallied to beat the heavily-favored Philadelphia '76ers and New York Knicks, and captured the championship crown in a dramatic upset of Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers in the closing seconds of the final game of the series. The following summer, Russell stunned the sports world by announcing his retirement, ending his and the Celtics' celebrated reign. In this vivid and lively account, Thomas J. Whalen chronicles Russell's memorable last season and the Celtics' dazzling triumph. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s and Boston's own turbulent and bitter struggles with race, he tells the fascinating story of how an improbable championship team overcame poor health, indifferent fans, disruptive personnel changes, and internal morale problems. Whalen recounts how Russell transformed the game of basketball during his remarkable career and revisits the outspoken superstar's conflicted relationship with Boston. He also tells why the Celtics, the first team to break several NBA color lines, failed to attract a loyal following among the city's largely white sports fanatics and press corps. Brimming with such Celtics and NBA legends as Red Auerbach, Walter Brown, Johnny Most, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Tom "Satch" Sanders, Tom Heinsohn, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, and Bill Bradley, this thoroughly engaging and insightful work will appeal to historians and sports buffs alike.

About the Author
Thomas J. Whalen is Assistant Professor of Social Science at Boston University. He is the author of Kennedy versus Lodge: The 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race, also published by Northeastern University Press, and has written for numerous publications, including the Boston Globe. Richard A. Johnson, editor of the Sportstown Series, is Curator of the Sports Museum of New England and the author of A Century of Boston Sports, published by Northeastern University Press.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Well-written sports books are a rarity, and Whalen's is one of them. Neither a gushing fan's account nor a professorial social history, it tells the story of the great Boston Celtics team of the late 1950s and early 1960s coached by Red Auerbach and starring the team's nearly peerless center, Bill Russell. Not only did his Celtics win 11 championships in 13 seasons, but they did so in a rocky time in American history. While other cities were burning up in race riots, the predominantly black Celtics were winning championships for predominantly white Boston fans. Whalen cleverly uses Russell as a lens through which to view the rise and fall of the great dynasty while concentrating on Russell's final year, when as the team's player-coach he led a fourth-place finishing team into the playoffs and improbably captured one last championship in the final seconds against the Lakers. Whalen does a good job of bringing in other material, such as Russell's friendly rivalry with Wilt Chamberlain and the interplay of the other teams in the league with Boston. He is in-depth about the technical aspects of the sport without being dry. Well written and researched, this is a book with something for fans and scholars alike. Recommended for all sports collections.-James Miller, Springfield Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices