Basketball in its early years was rough and rowdy, on the courts and off. Players had names like Feets Broudy, Sweetwater Clifton, and Easy Ed Macauley. There was no twenty-four-second clock, no jump shot, and only one referee, and fouls were called only for real injury. But from the very start the game won fans. From Set Shot to Slam Dunk brings back the glory days of basketball as lived by fifteen old-time players and officials.

Charles Salzberg is an assistant professor in the Magazine Department at S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and, with George Robinson, author of On a Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball’s Worst Teams.

"A book for basketball aficionados . . . Recalls the more modest times and the transformation of professional basketball from a take-all-comers, barnstorming sport to the big-time enterprise it has become."—New York Times Book Review

"These interviews are frank and honest, no-holds-barred."—New York Newsday

"Fascinating oral history . . . Must reading for every real fan."—Kirkus Reviews

"Wry accounts of dank gyms, postgame rumbles, nightmare travel . . . basketball as practiced by that knock-kneed, black-shoed first generation."—Boston Globe

"A fine set of still frames from the hearts of those who helped clear the way for the Jordans and Wilkinses."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Most entertaining . . . All of those interviewed retain a passionate love for the game and voice surprisingly few regrets at not having played in an era of big money."—Library Journal