Boys Among Men
How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution
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Narrated by:
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Mirron Willis
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By:
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Jonathan Abrams
About this listen
When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college - as young basketball prodigies were expected to do - but instead would enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros. That trend would continue until the NBA instituted an age limit in 2005, requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for at least one year. Over that decade-plus period, the list of players who made that difficult leap included some of the most celebrated players of the modern era: Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady, and numerous others. It also included notable "busts" who either physically or mentally proved unable to handle the transition. But for better or for worse, the face of the NBA was forever changed by the prep-to-pro generation.
In compelling, masterfully crafted prose, Boys Among Men goes behind the scenes and draws on hundreds of firsthand interviews to paint insightful and engaging portraits of the most pivotal figures and events during this time.
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Story
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete, a basketball icon for baby boomers, all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
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Extremely Good!
- By steve on 12-12-12
By: Mark Kriegel
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War Room
- The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team
- By: Michael Holley
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today's game of football. Now, sports commentator and best-selling author Michael Holley follows three NFL teams - the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons - from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick's influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players.
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Narrator choice - HUH?
- By Ryan Mullaney on 03-25-18
By: Michael Holley
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Basketball
- A Love Story
- By: Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, Dan Klores
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Jim Frangione, Sullivan Jones, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping and revelatory history of basketball, drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews with the greatest players, coaches, executives, and journalists in the history of the game. In an effort to tell the complete story of basketball in all its fascinating dimensions, acclaimed authors Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores have compiled nearly a thousand hours' worth of interviews with a staggering number of basketball greats. The audiobook that grew out of those interviews is an extraordinary project and quite possibly the most ambitious basketball work ever made.
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Underwhelming
- By Adam Kosberg on 12-02-18
By: Jackie MacMullan, and others
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Attitude
- Develop a Winning Mindset on and off the Court
- By: Jay Wright, Michael Sheridan, Mark Dagostino, and others
- Narrated by: Michael Sheridan
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of a champion, the coach of the Villanova University men's basketball team shares his competitive and cooperative philosophy along with lessons from his coaching career and the story of his personal road to success.
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Nova Nation !
- By Anonymous on 11-16-17
By: Jay Wright, and others
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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Got to Give the People What They Want
- True Stories and Flagrant Opinions from Center Court
- By: Jalen Rose
- Narrated by: Jalen Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the '70s and '80s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary "Fab Five" at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland.
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Amazing book - a MUST download / read
- By Terry on 10-08-15
By: Jalen Rose
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Play Their Hearts Out
- A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
- By: George Dohrmann
- Narrated by: Emily Rose Speer
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. The media promotes them, the shoe companies pay them, and America applauds. But how exactly do such players reach the pros? What do they give up to get there? And what happens to those who fall short?
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Amazing book, fantastic narration.
- By Randy on 11-03-10
By: George Dohrmann
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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When the Game Stands Tall
- The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak
- By: Neil Hayes
- Narrated by: J. P. Linton
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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By 2002, The Streak - a historic 13-year run of consecutive wins by the Spartans, a high-school football team from Concord, California, that couldn't be beat - was still going strong. In this revised edition of When the Game Stands Tall, author Neil Hayes, who had unrestricted access to the De La Salle team, writes from the inside about the games, the players, and their visionary coach, Bob Ladouceur, who managed to amass the highest winning percentage in football history (.995) through standing for something greater than winning.
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Great story and message but PAINFULLY detailed
- By AudioAddict on 03-21-15
By: Neil Hayes
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Wins, Losses, and Lessons
- An Autobiography
- By: Lou Holtz
- Narrated by: Lou Holtz
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
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Few people in the history of college sports have been more influential or had a bigger impact than Lou Holtz. Winner of the three national Coach of the Year honors, the only coach ever to lead six different schools to season-ending bowl games, and the ninth-winningest coach in college football history, Holtz is still teaching and coaching, although he is no longer on the gridiron.
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great story about an incredibly successful coach
- By James on 04-30-12
By: Lou Holtz
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The Missing Ring
- How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football's Most Elusive Prize
- By: Keith Dunnavant
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured 25 conference titles, finished 34 times among the country's top ten, and played in 53 bowl games.
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Fantastic
- By John Rogers on 03-29-18
By: Keith Dunnavant
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The Legends Club
- Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: John Feinstein
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The riveting inside story of college basketball's fiercest rivalry among three coaching legends - University of North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and North Carolina State's Jim Valvano - by the king of college basketball writers, number-one New York Times best seller John Feinstein.
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Must read for any college basketball fan,
- By Rick on 07-02-24
By: John Feinstein
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The QB
- The Making of Modern Quarterbacks
- By: Bruce Feldman
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel's portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics. In The QB, the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback's game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.
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Interesting and entertaining
- By R. Koehler on 02-25-15
By: Bruce Feldman
What listeners say about Boys Among Men
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Russell
- 06-25-19
good backstory of high school players going to NBA
always wondered what things these high school players experienced when deciding to jump to NBA.
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- ck
- 12-08-16
Good book weird narrator.
What didn’t you like about Mirron Willis’s performance?
It's like the narrator doesn't know anything about basketball. He constantly mispronounces some very well known people's names.
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- Dierre C.
- 08-14-16
A Basketball Nerd's Dream
This book is an amazing look at how the NBA has been shaped by teenagers. I loved the details on the players families and upbringings. If
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- Evan Mason
- 08-01-17
Great book
Great story and very well written book. However the narrator wasn't very good in my opinion. He mispronounced a lot of names.
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- Jonathan Lee
- 03-03-18
Names mispronounced
Great writing but the audio performance is distracting with the mispronunciations of many of the well-known names of the basketball words and the word "phenom."
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-19-18
name mispronunciations are rough
Would you consider the audio edition of Boys Among Men to be better than the print version?
i didn't read the print version.
Who was your favorite character and why?
I'm a knicks fan, so any mention of the knicks
How did the narrator detract from the book?
mispronouncing so many names!
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- Ken
- 07-05-17
Great book. Narrator needs work
Would you be willing to try another one of Mirron Willis’s performances?
No.
Any additional comments?
If you're reading a book that is 100% directed at basketball super fans, you should probably have a narrator who is at least somewhat familiar with basketball. It might seem knit-picky, but some of the mispronunciations of very famous basketball personalities was really distracting. Jonathan Abrams wrote a really good book, I feel like the narrator did him a big disservice by not doing his homework.
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- Daniel
- 05-15-17
Poor reading
The reader was monotonous and mispronounced several words and names. It should have been more colorful and he should have learned how to pronounce players' names.
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- K. Spearman
- 07-03-16
Bad pronunciation
It was well read, but the pronunciation of names was egregious. There should have some phonetics or have someone who actually watches basketball read the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- D. Orr Jr.
- 08-01-16
The content was great but...
If you could sum up Boys Among Men in three words, what would they be?
I love the NBA! I love reading about the NBA and getting behind the scenes and insight into that world and this book does that really well. Hearing a more indepth story into why Kwame Brown was a 'bust' gives the reader a new perspective on these 'bust' and why it happened to some and not others.
The bad... well the narration was meh. While he read fine and his voice was fine it was the mispronouncing of names that just grated at me. Every time he mispronounced a name I was yelling out the correction. It really was irksome. At one point I was like who the heck was he talking about when he was talking about Jerry Krause and pronounced it "Krauza". Did no one in the recording booth not know how to say the names in the book? Did the author not get a listen before it was sent out into the world? When he talked about Damon Stoudamire it was mispronounce but he said Amare' Stoudamire's last name just fine? Dick Vitale was made to sound even more italian and the list goes on. How did this get through? How did no one say you say "No, you say it like this or that?"
Bottom line the content of the book is great but the execution of the audio left a lot to be desired.
What other book might you compare Boys Among Men to and why?
Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball
What three words best describe Mirron Willis’s voice?
Mellow, smooth and clear
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I could have if i had the time to do so.
Any additional comments?
The book was great. The reading overall was good just the name thing really became bothersome.
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