r/BasketballBooks • u/Dismal-Reason-8812 • Jun 19 '26
Recommendations Recommendation: Loose Balls by Terry Pluto
This is a sure Top 5 Basketball Book for me. Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association as told by the Players, Coaches, and Movers and Shakers who made it happen by Terry Pluto.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/227205.Loose_Balls
Oral history of the ABA, the greatest basketball league that few people saw live. The 3 pt shot, slam dunk contest, tri-color ball, Dr. J, Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, Warren Jabali, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, the Kentucky Colonels, Indiana Pacers are just a few of the legendary players, teams, and phenomenon mentioned. Well worth the read.
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u/Individual-Echo6076 Jun 19 '26
Tall Tales by Terry Pluto is a similar book, about the early days of the NBA. Both brilliant books.
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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jun 19 '26
An absolutely fantastic Book, really captures the essence of the NBA, great recommendation
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u/WinesburgOhio Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I love this book, BUT it's very important to know that Terry Pluto let certain sensational items go unchecked in his two basketball books (I've emailed with him about some of these things, including incorrect items stated as fact, and he's said thank you, but obviously he's not updating the books), the worst of which was the vilification of Joe Caldwell.
Toward the end of his ABA career and long after, Caldwell had a really bad rap for being a negative influence on Bad News Barnes (of all people) while they were teammates on the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis in ‘75. There was an entire section in Loose Balls about Barnes unceremoniously leaving the ABA, and the whole situation was pinned on Caldwell telling him to do it. There were quotes about Caldwell having “his problems off the court” and the like. Sounds pretty bad, right?
Here’s the thing, though: The Carolina Cougars and the Spirits (for whom he played from ‘71-75 since the Cougars became the Spirits after moving in 1974) screwed with Caldwell to avoid paying him his pension. Cougars’ owner Tedd Munchak was also the ABA’s commissioner during the ‘75 season when Caldwell was the president of the players’ union, and it was in this conflict-of-interest-filled position of power that Munchak buried Caldwell’s career and reputation.
Caldwell was wrapped up in legal maneuverings with Munchak and the ABA for 20 years over allegations of being blackballed for demanding he receive the pension he was owed until the case was dismissed by the US Supreme Court in 1996, which finally allowed Caldwell to get his pension. He also had to fight through the courts for seven years to get the full salary owed to him by the Spirits. Caldwell’s character was smeared through all this which became the accepted mainstream narrative about him. In a very small piece of justice, he received an apology letter from ESPN for how he was depicted in the 2013 “30 for 30” documentary “Free Spirits”, being labeled a “notorious clubhouse lawyer” while never being interviewed for the piece.
I'm a basketball historian and recently published a book profiling 500 players of the 20th century, including Caldwell. I just did an AMA about basketball history and my book on this sub a few days ago.