Hoops: Four Decades of the Pro Game

A four-decade-long NBA highlight reel as never before published-that's what hoops fans have in store when they open this spectacular full-color volume. Sports Illustrated veteran Walter Iooss has raided his unsurpassed personal archive and come up with 175 sensational color photographs of every decade from 1960 to the present, documenting the sport's electrifying athleticism, historic rivalries, and larger-than-life stars. Sportswriter Mark Jacobson, a self-described hoops junkie, contributes a witty, insightful commentary that is as much a mirror of social change in America as it is a venue for some of the greatest athletes of all time. Relive the 1960s, when Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia Warriors battled Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics in $19 Converse sneakers; the 1970s, when Dr. J redefined gravity, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar patented the skyhook; and the 1980s, when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird catapulted the NBA onto the main screen and Michael Jordan changed the face of the sport. Take a look at the 1990s and the reign and breakup of the seemingly unstoppable Shaq-Kobe Lakers, and at basketball's future, under young stars Lebron James, Carmello Anthony, and Yao Ming.