Elevating the game

"'These were philosophers out there, ' Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once wrote of black schoolyard players of basketball, the city game that is beloved all over the country. He and many others who have played the game over the last 50 years form the foundation of Nelson George's Elevating the Game. . . . George] has brought his own love of basketball to this folksy yet scholarly study. . . . He] examines the sport's origin . . . and charts its evolution from a kind of indoor football to an American passion. Basketball has been called life in short pants, and Mr. George recounts how, for the first black players in a game once reserved for whites, the phrase was no idle bromide. The author tells how black players from colleges around the nation advanced the game, sometimes in cities where people were opposed to the integration of basketball. Understanding the way in which black cultural expressions often knit together, Mr. George even likens basketball to jazz and to the nervous, insistent rhythms of rap. It all makes for a rich and welcome addition to sports literature."-New York Times Book Review. Nelson George is a former columnist for Billboard and the Village Voice. His most recent book, Hip Hop America, was a finalist in the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Awards.