From Hang Time to Prime Time, Pete Croatto
From Hang Time to Prime Time, Pete Croatto
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From Hang Time to Prime Time
Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA

Author: Pete Croatto

Narrator: Feodor Chin

Unabridged: 11 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/01/2020

Synopsis

Perfect for fans of Moneyball and The Book of Basketball, this vivid, thoroughly entertaining, and well-researched book explores the NBA’s surge in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s and its transformation into a global cultural institution.

Far beyond simply being a sports league, the NBA has become an entertainment and pop culture juggernaut. From all kinds of team logo merchandise to officially branded video games and players crossing over into reality television, film, fashion lines, and more, there is an inseparable line between sports and entertainment. But only four decades ago, this would have been unthinkable.

Featuring writing that leaps off the page with energy and wit, journalist and basketball fan Pete Croatto takes us behind the scenes to the meetings that lead to the monumental American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, revolutionizing the NBA’s image. He pays homage to legendary talents including Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan and reveals how two polar-opposite rookies, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, led game attendance to skyrocket and racial lines to dissolve. Croatto also dives into CBS’s personality-driven coverage of key players, as well as other cable television efforts, which launched NBA players into unprecedented celebrity status.

Essential reading whether you’re a casual or longtime fan, From Hang Time to Prime Time is an enthralling and entertaining celebration of basketball history.

About Pete Croatto

Pete Croatto’s writing has appeared in many outlets, including The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Rolling Stone, and more. He lives just outside Ithaca, New York, with his wife, daughter, and a basketball hoop in the driveway. From Hang Time to Prime Time is his first book. Follow him on Twitter: @PeteCroatto.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jimmy

I am a huge fan of the NBA during the '80s and '90s. And while I enjoyed the content of this book, I unfortunately found it to be poorly constructed and written. Pete Croatto certainly did his research for this book. He interviewed over 300 people and cites countless other books, magazines, and video......more

Goodreads review by Russell

I am not an NBA fan, but came across this book because Croatto is a local author (full disclosure: his wife is a colleague of mine) and loved it. Ostensibly a history of the NBA’s adolescence (roughly bookended by its 1976 merger with the ABA and its move from CBS to NBC in 1990), such a description......more

Goodreads review by Elliot

This book is kind of all over the place, and didn’t tell me too much that I hadn’t heard elsewhere about the rise of the NBA. For example, I didn’t really need to be told that Michael Jordan and Nike changed the way basketball was consumed forever. That said, it was a fun history of the evolution of......more

Goodreads review by Nick

Pete Croatto put in a lot of work chronicling the growth of the modern day NBA. I went into thinking this was going to be about the on-court product at the time, but most of the book focuses on what happened off of it. However, I think it may have been a little too much to bite off. I think there ar......more

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