Assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Regional History Dr. Adam Criblez’s new book “Tall Tales and Short Shorts” will be released on May 16.

This upcoming book is about the National Basketball Association in the 1970s. It was one of the two professional basketball organizations in that decade, which included the National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA). The two have since merged into one organization as the NBA.

Criblez said he had the inspiration for this book while he was teaching history classes and a UI 100 class for student athletes, which talks about sports history.

“I actually got interested in writing the book because of teaching,” he said.“So I was teaching this class, and thought that I really want to talk more about basketball in the 1970s but there wasn’t a book written about it. I decided the best way to do that was to go ahead and write a book myself.”

This book took Criblez about three years, including the time it took to research, write, edit and get published. It was finished writing last summer, and it took about eight months for his editor to make some changes on it so the book would be formatted and printed in a better way.

“It takes about eight months for my editors to make some change, for them to format it properly, design the book cover, pick out images to use. I mean, it been a lot of things to brought into it, but overall, it takes about three years, which isn’t actually too long for a book,” Criblez said.

Criblez said he wants to write stories to let readers relate themselves to history. He said if people read the book it could help them interpret modern sports or modern life from the development that took place in the 1970s.

“One thing I really thrive in both of my classrooms and through this book project is to make history more accessible,” he said. “I think a lot of students have a very negative attitude toward history because it is hard to remember the collection of date and names. To me, history is about stories.”

Criblez said the price of this book will be around $30, and readers can find it on Amazon and in bookstores.

“Right now its price is $30, you know that is one thing as an author I have zero control over, obviously I would like the price to be as low as possible so more people can read it,” he said.