No two players in NBA history better epitomize the dichotomy between individual excellence and a willingness to blend their
talent for the collective success of the team than William Felton Russell and Norman Wilton Chamberlain.
To author John Taylor’s credit, The Rivalry isn’t your typical slam-jam basketball biography. To the contrary, Taylor’s latest work is a finely crafted historical chronicle showcasing the fledgling days of the National Basketball Association, circa today’s tattoo-flaunting, hip-hop happy hoopsters and multi-million dollar play palaces.
“My goal was to capture these men and their teammates, opponents, and coaches, to explore the facts that motivated them all, and to convey the spirit of the times, the atmosphere of the arenas and dressing rooms, and the heat and smoke of the combat,” Taylor writes.
The author’s unflagging
narrative provides vivid eyewitness accounts of an NBA that played fourth fiddle to other sports, and where games were often played in front of vegetable throwing crowds that would make the Throwdown in Motown seem like a summer camp pillow fight.
While the psychology of conflict is at the core of all of his books, Taylor believes The Rivalry was
different. “I soon became convinced that it also had the form of a classical epic, beginning in 1959, building through various reversals and shifting alliances over a ten-year-period, and reaching a climax in the last minutes of the 1969 finals.”
Off the court, the two men the book is largely about were as different as the masterful way they played the game. Russell was reserved, introverted – some said surly. Chamberlain was flashy, outgoing and tried more coaches’ patience than a roster full of Portland Trailblazers.
Taylor’s riveting narrative style and thorough historical research make The Rivalry a classic sports work deserving of space alongside Plimpton, Feinstein and Halberstam.