Live Q&A: Basketball Historian and Author of 'The Birth of the Modern NBA'
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2024 8:13 pm
Hello people of RealGM! My name is Josh Elias and I am a sports historian specializing in integration-era and pre-integration-era professional basketball. My book, The Birth of the Modern NBA: Pro Basketball in the Year of the Merger, 1949–50, is slated for publication late this spring and can be pre-ordered right now through the previous link or on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Target.
My work involves formal research into many complex issues both directly and indirectly pertinent to the NBA, its three historic rival leagues, and its many predecessor leagues, and I have been involved in projects centering around archiving, analysis, writing, data, the study of historical trends within the sport, player and team performances, and more.
The Birth of the Modern NBA focuses on both the 1949-50 NBA season and how we arrived at a point in which it was possible for it to play out as it did and lead to the sport's evolution in the way that it did. Significant focuses beyond a play-by-play of the season itself include the BAA-NBL merger, the season's status as the last one before professional basketball's permanent integration, and how the sport navigated WWII, with this being the last season before the U.S. joined the Korean War. As well as, of course, the individual stories of the teams and many key players, coaches, and executives.
Other major projects currently on my docket include research for officially unofficial (Helms-style, for those who know NCAA history) retrospective MVP-equivalent and Champion-equivalent awards for each season prior to the NBA's existence, a series of biographies on pre-NBA players, and a book on the 1950-51 NBA and NPBL seasons which I expect to release in 2026.
I'm here to share my insights and answer any questions you might have about basketball's history, or about basketball in general from the perspective of a basketball historian. My professional experience, as regards what I can speak to as an expert, spans from 1896 until 1961, but I have a well-rounded understanding of later history as well and am happy to answer those questions too, just not to a level of which my perspective is uniquely important as an expert or authority.
My work involves formal research into many complex issues both directly and indirectly pertinent to the NBA, its three historic rival leagues, and its many predecessor leagues, and I have been involved in projects centering around archiving, analysis, writing, data, the study of historical trends within the sport, player and team performances, and more.
The Birth of the Modern NBA focuses on both the 1949-50 NBA season and how we arrived at a point in which it was possible for it to play out as it did and lead to the sport's evolution in the way that it did. Significant focuses beyond a play-by-play of the season itself include the BAA-NBL merger, the season's status as the last one before professional basketball's permanent integration, and how the sport navigated WWII, with this being the last season before the U.S. joined the Korean War. As well as, of course, the individual stories of the teams and many key players, coaches, and executives.
Other major projects currently on my docket include research for officially unofficial (Helms-style, for those who know NCAA history) retrospective MVP-equivalent and Champion-equivalent awards for each season prior to the NBA's existence, a series of biographies on pre-NBA players, and a book on the 1950-51 NBA and NPBL seasons which I expect to release in 2026.
I'm here to share my insights and answer any questions you might have about basketball's history, or about basketball in general from the perspective of a basketball historian. My professional experience, as regards what I can speak to as an expert, spans from 1896 until 1961, but I have a well-rounded understanding of later history as well and am happy to answer those questions too, just not to a level of which my perspective is uniquely important as an expert or authority.