I really wanted to have a Poldoff/Dolgoff illustration in the book, but we couldn’t find any pictures of Ralph Dolgoff. Hence, Joe Caldwell/Caldwell Jones on here is the closest you’ll get. Caldwell made it in, but we left out the strangest part of his story — the reason he refers to himself on his website (old player websites are the new 70’s player bios) as “the Curt Flood of basketball”.Caldwell made trouble for management in the days before free agency, and believes he was subsequently blackballed for it. He may have also been booted from the motley Spirits of St. Louis for being a bad influence on Marvin Barnes, but in a good way.The “Curt Flood” part comes from the fact that Caldwell was, sort of, pro basketball’s free agent. Without getting into too much legal minutae, Caldwell successfully sued to prove that the contract he was offered by the Hawks in 1971 didn’t meet the criteria of the reserve clause, the means by which players were kept from leaving teams out of their own volition. If they wanted to jump to the ABA, or back again, they had to sit out a year. Caldwell won a court case, and thus was allowed to cross over to the ABA without delay. The contract he signed with the Carolina Cougars included a pension (also ahead of its time) that the owners always resented.It’s worth noting that several years earlier, Connie Hawkins had a deal with the fledgling ABA’s Pittsburgh Pipers that included no reserve clause, and in the 20’s, basketball almost fell apart because players would switch teams after every game. Free agency as we know it didn’t come about until the 1976 settlement of the Oscar Robertson anti-trust suit, which also fazed out the ABA — thus making movement between teams less abstruse.Regardless, Caldwell should be saluted for his protest, even if it may have cost him his career. Read those testimonials, browse his stats. Caldwell Jones may be the lasting memory, but Joe Caldwell could ball.

I really wanted to have a Poldoff/Dolgoff illustration in the book, but we couldn’t find any pictures of Ralph Dolgoff. Hence, Joe Caldwell/Caldwell Jones on here is the closest you’ll get. Caldwell made it in, but we left out the strangest part of his story — the reason he refers to himself on his website (old player websites are the new 70’s player bios) as “the Curt Flood of basketball”.

Caldwell made trouble for management in the days before free agency, and believes he was subsequently blackballed for it. He may have also been booted from the motley Spirits of St. Louis for being a bad influence on Marvin Barnes, but in a good way.

The “Curt Flood” part comes from the fact that Caldwell was, sort of, pro basketball’s free agent. Without getting into too much legal minutae, Caldwell successfully sued to prove that the contract he was offered by the Hawks in 1971 didn’t meet the criteria of the reserve clause, the means by which players were kept from leaving teams out of their own volition. If they wanted to jump to the ABA, or back again, they had to sit out a year. Caldwell won a court case, and thus was allowed to cross over to the ABA without delay. The contract he signed with the Carolina Cougars included a pension (also ahead of its time) that the owners always resented.

It’s worth noting that several years earlier, Connie Hawkins had a deal with the fledgling ABA’s Pittsburgh Pipers that included no reserve clause, and in the 20’s, basketball almost fell apart because players would switch teams after every game. Free agency as we know it didn’t come about until the 1976 settlement of the Oscar Robertson anti-trust suit, which also fazed out the ABA — thus making movement between teams less abstruse.

Regardless, Caldwell should be saluted for his protest, even if it may have cost him his career. Read those testimonials, browse his stats. Caldwell Jones may be the lasting memory, but Joe Caldwell could ball.