The Big Men.

The battles between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell of the 1960s had popularized and revolutionized professional basketball. Every time the two big men—Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers and Russell of the Boston Celtics—met on court, a momentous clash of opposing styles of play and personalities occurred. Wilt ("the Stilt") Chamberlain was the scoring wonder, Russell the defensive specialist. Chamberlain scowled as if he had homicidal intentions; Russell played an unselfish game seemingly without emotion. As Chamberlain wound down his career in the early 1970s, however, and Russell left the game, a void was created, and no team or player seemed able to fill it.

Profits.

Nevertheless, as public interest in professional basketball waned, the sport seemed to be in good shape financially—at least as far as the sport's athletes were concerned. Professional basketball's...