Sports Basketball

Great leadership begins with great understanding. No one knows that better than basketball legend Byron Scott and lifelong business executive Charlie Norris, who, respectively, won NBA championships and resurrected multimillion-dollar corporations by being team players no matter their positions. Whether it's on the basketball court, in the boardroom, or in everyday life, getting to the heads and hearts of people is paramount to getting the most out of them.

For an elite athlete, the professional sports championship, also known as the brass ring of immortality, often dangles beyond their grasp. The longer you go without one, the more attention you will receive in the public, focusing on what you haven't accomplished rather than what you already had. LeBron James completely understands this very cruel irony. For eight frustrating seasons, he was considered a king without a crown in the NBA.

In 2011, Butler University made history as the first team to make it to two consecutive finals of the NCAA basketball tournament without being seeded first or second. As the smallest school to play in the championship game in the 40-year history of the tournament, Butler became the quintessential "Cinderella" team. How did this little-known Midwest university achieve what few schools have ever done by making it to the final championship game two years in a row?

Links the history of race relations to the history of basketball by reviewing the era of the first Black teams, the first integration of teams, and the innovations that Black players have brought to the game.

There are 2.2 billion basketball fans in the world. That’s over a quarter of the entire population of the world! There are so many fans because basketball is more than just a game. For many, it is a way to root for their favorite players–to live vicariously through these players who can fly through the air. And for others, basketball is the way to a better life.

Porter Moser, one of the most inspiring and driven Division I basketball coaches today, offers a practical, motivating guide to help build character, transform failure into success, find purpose, and live an authentic life through energy and positivity. Porter Moser knows what it’s like to live and work with determination, passion, and grit. He also knows what it’s like to keep front and center the core values of faith, family, honesty, and integrity.

"A walk in the woods never lies," Dirk Dunbar says upfront in Confessions of a Basketball Junkie, and this autobiography by the pro athlete, humanities professor, musician, and sometime mystic demonstrates the point. In easygoing, familiar language that belies the depth of his knowledge, Dunbar here retraces the many paths of his life as a promising NBA star, a finely tuned philosopher, and a devoted friend and family man.

Whether you're already a trivia pro or just starting to enjoy the game, "Basketball History: Court Chronicles – The Evolution, Teams, and Players That Shaped the Game" is your go-to guide. Expand your expertise, impress friends, and dive into the rich history of basketball like never before. Say goodbye to boring basketball history books and hello to a captivating journey through the sport’s most iconic moments.

Moritz und Franz Wagner sind internationale Basketballprofis und Weltmeister. Ihre Mutter Beate Wagner beschreibt, wie sie auf ihren großen Traum hingearbeitet haben und was sie brauchten, um erfolgreiche Basketballer zu werden. Sie spricht mit Wegbegleitern und Coaches und natürlich kommen auch Moritz und Franz immer wieder selbst zu Wort. Ein ganz persönlicher Einblick in das Privat- und Sportlerleben zweier NBA-Stars.

From Mike Pesca, host of the popular Slate podcast The Gist, comes the greatest sports minds imagining how the world would change if a play, trade, injury, or referee's call had just gone the other way. Upon Further Review takes classic arguments conducted over pints in a pub and places them in the hands of writers, athletes, and historians. From turning points that every sports fan rues or celebrates to the forgotten would-be inflection points that defined sports, it answers age-old questions, and settles the score, even if the score bounced off the crossbar.

Building Good Teammates is the story of how a “Mary Poppins-ish” nun inspires Lance Loya to discover an alternative approach to coaching and to explore how his coaching methods were influenced by his unusual childhood and his personal Mount Rushmore - the four men who had the biggest impact on his life. Loya grew up in the iconic Ship Hotel and his adventures in the historic building and the aftermath of the business’s failure caused him to become very calloused and scoped his early coaching style.

Have you ever gotten bored when the weather is too bad to go outside for recess? Bored students and bad weather inspired James Naismith to invent the game of basketball in the late 19th century. Using a soccer ball and peach baskets, Professor Naismith worked out the rules of the new sport at the local YMCA.

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.

During the 1980s, Black athletes and other athletes of color broadened the popularity and profitability of major college televised sports by infusing games with a "Black style" of play. At a moment ripe for a revolution in men's college basketball and football, clashes between "good guy" white protagonists and bombastic "bad boy" Black antagonists attracted new fans and spectators. And no two teams in the 1980s welcomed the enemy's role more than Georgetown Hoya basketball and Miami Hurricane football. The Hoyas and the 'Canes made the bad-boy image look good. Pop culture took notice.

When the Toronto Raptors first took the court back in 1995, the world was a very different place. Michael Jordan was tearing up the NBA. No one had email. And a lot of people wondered whether basketball could survive in Toronto, the holy city of hockey.

Welcome to Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School, in a working-class corner of the Bronx, where a driven coach inspires his teams to win games and championships - and learn Russian history and graduate and go on to college.

This bratty boy can’t ignore the charm Charles exudes. Tony and Charles have been playing eye tag for over a year at their volunteer club. Charles is a hunky center on the basketball team, and Tony is an effeminate vlogger with attitude. Charles finally musters up the courage to approach Tony at their volunteer club after a summer apart. It’s their senior year of university, and Charles doesn’t want to miss his chance to have Tony. Their true colors emerge as they get to know each other. Tony is a brat, but Charles just might be the perfect man to become Tony’s daddy and teach the ...

When Dave Fromm graduated from college with good grades and high LSAT scores, he planned to apply to law school. But he actually wasn't that sure he wanted to go, at least not right away. A few years earlier, he'd been to Prague for a vacation and played a game of pickup basketball there. He was a decent basketball player, though not good enough to make the team at Boston College either time he'd tried out. So he did the kind of thing we'd all do if we had the guts (and a foolhardy sense of determination) - he moved to Prague to play basketball, even though he didn't speak Czech, or know anyone in Prague, or if the Czechs had basketball leagues.

In Patrick Ewing: The Remarkable Story of One of 90s Basketball's Greatest Centers, you'll listen about the inspirational story of basketball's premier center, Patrick Ewing. Patrick Ewing defined New York Knick basketball from the 1980s through the 1990s. In an age filled with greats like Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller and John Stockton, Ewing played in one of the most exciting eras of modern basketball.

In this vivid and lively account, Thomas J. Whalen chronicles Russell's memorable last season and the Celtics' dazzling triumph. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1960s and Boston's own turbulent and bitter struggles with race, he tells the fascinating story of how an improbable championship team overcame poor health, indifferent fans, disruptive personnel changes, and internal morale problems. Whalen recounts how Russell transformed the game of basketball during his remarkable career and revisits the outspoken superstar's conflicted relationship with Boston.