Collision Course - The Basketball Lives of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson and The Collapse of the Cincinnati Royals
William A Cook
Non-Fiction
The Basketball Lives of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson and The Fall of the Cincinnati Royals Following the 1956-57 NBA season the Fort Wayne Pistons relocated to Detroit and the Rochester...
Out of stock
9781620062104
The Basketball Lives of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson and The Fall of the Cincinnati Royals
Following the 1956-57 NBA season the Fort Wayne Pistons relocated to Detroit and the Rochester Royals were moved to Cincinnati. The relocations of the Fort Wayne and Rochester franchises left Syracuse as the last small market team in the NBA.
As the 1960s began the NBA entered the crossroads of its existence featuring such mega stars as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Hal Greer, the Boston Celtics became the most dominating team in the league. Led by Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, and John Havlicek, the Celtics would win eleven NBA championships between 1957 and 1969. But during the 1960s the Cincinnati Royals were a team also loaded with All-Stars and former Olympic players like Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Wayne Embry, and Adrian Smith. But the Royals would never win a championship in Cincinnati and in 1973 relocated to Kansas City. Today the franchise is the Sacramento Kings.
So what went wrong in Cincy? While the Royals received only marginal support from their fans and absentee owner Louie Jacobs, the Buffalo concessionaire king and Godfather of sports, the answer to the downfall of the Royals seems to lie somewhere in the basketball stories of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson whose brilliant careers collided in an unharmonious relationship when the retired Cousy became coach of the Royals.
While Bob Cousy had been credited for saving professional basketball in Boston as a player, he is also credited with destroying professional basketball in Cincinnati as a coach. The uneasy relationship in Cincinnati between Cousy the coach and Robertson the player fueled by leftover competitive conflict from their days as players on the hardwood would become a collision of will between them and render the Royals franchise dysfunctional.
by William A Cook
Page Count: 262
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Publish Date: May 29, 2019
Imprint: Sunbury Press
Genre: History
SPORTS & RECREATION / Basketball
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports
SPORTS & RECREATION / History
You might also like ...
-
NewMike Burkeof the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led...of the New York Yankees Mike Burke arguably led one of the most interesting lives in twentieth century America. It seems that it was his destiny to have a rendezvous with history at every turn in ... -
Gabe PaulThe Long Road to the Bronx Zoo No one saw more ...The Long Road to the Bronx Zoo No one saw more baseball during the 20th century than Gabe Paul. He started out as a bat boy. Then a newspaper correspondent. A press agent. A traveling secretary. ... -
America and the AutomobileA Historical Entertainment of the Mechanics, Mo...A Historical Entertainment of the Mechanics, Moguls, and Moments that Changed a Nation America and the Automobile: A Historical Entertainment of the Mechanics, Moguls, and Moments that changed a Na... -
Touring America by Automobile in the 1920sby William A Cook The Travel Journals of Hepzy ...by William A Cook The Travel Journals of Hepzy Moore Cook A true labor of love, author William Cook has reproduced his grandmother’s (Hepzy Moore Cook) narrative of the day-to-day rigors in early t... -
Lady Mogulsby William A Cook A History of Women Who Have O...by William A Cook A History of Women Who Have Owned Major League Baseball Teams Women have been part of the tradition and lore of the game of baseball for over the past one hundred and fifty years.... -
The Lindbergh Baby Kidnappingby William A Cook “No one will ever know how mu...by William A Cook “No one will ever know how much I have suffered. If I know anything about it, I would tell for the sake of my wife and baby. I don’t know gangsters, and if I had something to do... -
Diamond Madnessby William A Cook The Strange, Rowdy, Violent a...by William A Cook The Strange, Rowdy, Violent and sometimes Racist Relationship between Major League Fans and Players: For more than one hundred and thirty-five years baseball has been considered A...
