The National Basketball Association (NBA) began the decade with eight teams. By the end of the decade the league had expanded to seventeen teams, had a fat television contract, and had seen attendance jump from under two million in 1965 to over five million. Throughout much of the 1950s professional basketball was being played in the shadow of the college game and was searching for an identity; toward the end of that decade the sport saw its future in Bill Russell the big man with grace and speed. But professional basketball did not catch up with Russell until the 1960s, when men emerged who along with Russell defined the modern game. Most notable among the new breed of athletes was Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt the Stilt, as he was called, combined imposing size, intelligence, and legendary strength in challenging Russell for basketball supremacy. The rivalry between the two.....
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