Basketball Memoir

Paul Westhead was teaching high school in his native Philadelphia when he was named La Salle University’s men’s basketball coach in 1970. By 1980 he was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant, soon to be hired as head coach, winning an NBA title with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie guard Magic Johnson.

From the smallest kid on every team to the game-changing, record-breaking NBA All-Star he is today, Steph Curry’s journey to stardom is a master class in excellence. Bolstered by what he calls his irrational confidence, the “baby-faced assassin” shattered expectations and accrued millions of fans as he led the Golden State Warriors to championship after championship, garnered multiple MVP awards, and emerged as the greatest three-point shooter of all time. Steph Curry: Life Lessons from a Legend gives you courtside seats to the incredible highs and lows of his phenomenal career.

Craig Sager shares incredible stories from his remarkable career and chronicles his heroic battle. Whether he's sprinting across Wrigley Field midgame as a college student with cops in pursuit, chasing down Hank Aaron on the field for an interview after Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record, running with the bulls in Pamplona, or hunkering down to face the daunting physical challenges of fighting leukemia, Craig Sager is always ready to defy expectations, embrace life, and live it to the fullest.

Proudly presenting The Great Book of Basketball, full of trivia questions that deal with six decades of stories that will make for fun listening and maybe create a couple of bar bets or two. And hopefully, maybe settle one or two in your favor. This is sure to be one of the best NBA basketball books out there, whether you’re in the mood to learn about how Julius Erving shifted the landscape of the ABA or digging in on the Celtics dynasties of the 1950 and 1960s. This audiobook has a little bit of everything and goes beyond the surface of simply what was popular.

Conocer a Michael Jordan fue como conocer a Jesús. Era como si estuviera caminando en el aire mientras venía hacia mí. Para un niño de Akron, sin dinero, sin un padre cercano, que necesitaba inspiración, Jordan era el hombre adecuado. Quería tirar como él, usar los mismos zapatos que él. Y quería que los chicos me miraran un día con los mismos ojos con los que yo lo miraba a él.

LeBron is unquestionably the greatest basketball player of the 21st century. Off the court, LeBron's political activism, outspoken stance on racism and social injustice have helped build a social media presence that includes 117 million followers on Instagram and 51 million followers on Twitter. He is an international brand worth billions of dollars. To tell this epic story, Benedict has done exhaustive research, digging through thousands of pages of primary source documents, articles, books and hundreds of hours of video footage.

In Bill Russell: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Legendary Centers, you will learn the incredible story of one of basketball's greatest players of all time, Bill Russell. In his 13-year career, Bill Russell accomplished what many NBA players today would dream of. He was an 11-time champion, 12-time All-Star, and five-time Most Valuable Player. He won the MVP award so many times that the league renamed the trophy after him in 2009! Listen to find out more.

In Red Auerbach: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the inspirational story of one of the greatest basketball coaches and executives of the 20th century, Red Auerbach. Few have left as indelible of a mark on a single franchise as what Red achieved in his time with the Boston Celtics. As a coach, he led the team to nine championships and as an executive, another seven. Needless to say, Red Auerbach will always be remembered for the substantial impact he left on the game.

If you’re a sneaker head, you know him as the Savior of Nike. If you’ve watched Air you saw Matt Damon’s portrayal of the man who discovered Michael Jordan and how he revolutionized the payment structure of endorsements for athletes. Legends and Soles tells Sonny’s story – his blind-sided firing by Nike Chairman Phil Knight, the landmark 2021 Supreme Court decision that upended big-time college sports, the countless days and nights of watching athletes compete, and so much more that only Sonny can retell.

Steve James has made a lifetime study of Michael Jordan’s rise from repeated failure to NBA legend. And now he’s here to share the secrets behind Michael Jordan’s winning record so you can follow in his footsteps. Michael Jordan: A Unique Insight into the Career and Mindset of Michael Jordan is an incredible account of the many trials and tribulations the legendary baller overcame so he could dominate the courts.

When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, the match looked like one made in heaven. Here was a living legend, the preeminent athlete of his generation, joining forces with one of the most iconic teams in all of sports. The Lakers, in the midst of their worst stretch in franchise history and reeling from the death of their legendary owner Dr. Jerry Buss, needed a savior. LeBron, fresh off ending Cleveland’s 50-year title drought, needed a new challenge to help further burnish his legacy. The script wrote itself.

La muerte de Kobe Bryant en enero de 2020 estremeció el mundo de los deportes y las celebridades. La tragedia de ese accidente de helicóptero puso de manifiesto lo lejos que llega su influencia en nuestra cultura. "El ascenso" es un riguroso trabajo de investigación periodística en el que se cuenta la historia a menudo olvidada y menos conocida de los primeros años de la vida de Kobe Bryant.

Award-winning journalist John Taylor projects the stories of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and other stars from the NBA's golden age onto a backdrop of racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor's electrifying account of two complex men is an epic narrative of sports in America during the 1960s. Filled with dramatic conflicts and some of the great moments in sports history, and building to a thrilling climax, The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied by the ultimate team player trump sheer talent?

The experiment was dreamed up by two fathers, one white, one black. What would happen, they wondered, if they mixed white players from an elite Seattle private school and black kids from the inner city on a basketball team? The team's season unfolded like a perfectly scripted sports movie: The ragtag group of boys gelled together to win the league championship. The experiment was deemed a success. But was it?

Julius Erving, aka Dr. J, was a wizard with the basketball, performing feats the world had never seen before: midair spins and whirls punctuated by powerful slam dunks, which he was the first to glamorize. In a career that lasted from the 1970s well into the 1980s, he was one of the first players to make extemporaneous individual expression an integral part of the game, setting the style of play that has prevailed ever since. He's also long been respected as a gracious, dignified, and disciplined man. As there are great men of history, there are great men of sports, and Dr. J is just such a man.

Story of Green tells how entrepreneur Alan Foster disrupted the basketball world by creating a unique brand and multi-million-dollar company for the Ball family, centered around the three sons Lonzo, LaMelo, and LiAngelo being signed for the NBA. It's a story of betrayal and a cautionary tale about financial management and the forces arrayed against anyone who tries to make sure that athletes control their brand.

June 19, 2016: the greatest moment in Cleveland sports history, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals and broke the Cleveland Curse. It was the triumph fans had been waiting 52 years for, and it wasn't easy to get there - but thanks to LeBron James, an audacious plan to build a winning team, a couple of maverick GMs, and an incredible community of fans, it happened, and 2016 saw the birth of a new Cavaliers dynasty.

In Giannis Antetokounmpo: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Rising Superstars, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's most promising young stars, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Often nicknamed "The Greek Freak", Giannis Antetokounmpo has quickly emerged as one of the most unique players in the league today. His incredible wingspan and athleticism have made him a dominant presence on both the offensive and defensive ends of the basketball court.

In Jayson Tatum: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball’s Rising Stars, you will learn the incredible story of one of basketball's emerging stars, Jayson Tatum. Since being drafted by the Boston Celtics in 2017, Tatum has quickly established himself as a versatile and formidable guard to play against. At the time of this writing, Tatum is just 21 years old, with his prime years ahead of him.

It seems unlikely that James Naismith, who grew up playing "Duck on the Rock" in the rural community of Almonte, Canada, would invent one of America's most popular sports. But Rob Rains and Hellen Carpenter's fascinating, in-depth biography James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball shows how this young man - who wanted to be a medical doctor, or if not that, a minister (in fact, he was both) - came to create a game that has endured for over a century.