How Sweet It Was

The National Basketball Association used to be a unifi ed league featuringhigh powered teams with great players who put on explosive showsnight after night to the delight of their admiring fans. The league featured great stars like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, ElginBaylor, and Jerry West who consistently displayed offensive versatilityas well as defensive prowess. The NBA of some 50 years ago had nomore than six or eight teams, but all of them were highly skilledand explosive. But today the NBA has fallen on hard timesat least in the artistic sense. In his new book How Sweet It Was: And How the NBA Can Return toGreatness, writer Joe Delmore outlines what made the league great andhow it has fallen from those graces. He pays particular attention to theoverpaid athletes, coaches with no authority, and selfi sh players withpoorly developed basketball skills. The media, particularly cable television,shines a constant spotlight on these overcompensated athletes. In his new book, the author outlines several concrete steps that shouldreturn professional basketball to a semblance of its former glory. Playerswill receive better training and more classroom exposure, and contractswill be limited by their very nature. The author also outlines steps on howto improve the coaching profession. If these measures are undertaken, a revitalized NBA will take shape, andfans will gain a new appreciation of the game.