Basketball Memoir

In Kobe Bryant: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Shooting Guards, you'll read about the inspirational story of basketball's star, Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant has been the face of the Lakers dynasty for the past two decades and for good reason. Few players have commanded a basketball court as much as Kobe in historical performances such as his notable 81-point performance in just under 42 minutes of playing time in 2006 against the Toronto Raptors.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Linspired reveals the remarkable journey of the ultimate underdog, Jeremy Lin, superstar of the New York Knicks and the first American-born player of Chinese/Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA.

Learn the incredible story of Devin Booker, one of basketball's most exciting young shooting guards. As the 13th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Devin Booker become a prominent piece of the Suns franchise, as they continue rebuilding post-the-Steve-Nash-and-Mike-D'antoni era.

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.

Lloyd Daniels learned to hoop on the playgrounds of Brooklyn and Queens during the 1980s. "Swee'pea" they called him. His rep on the court traveled all the way to the Bronx and across the country, earning him enthusiastic comparisons to the likes of Magic Johnson. Swee'pea was sure to make it to the big time and out of a New York City where drugs and violence had gripped many of its neighborhoods. Eventually he did, leaving the city's asphalt courts for the shiny hardwoods of NCAA programs.

The basketball rivalry between Duke and North Carolina is the fiercest and longest-running blood feud in college athletics, and perhaps in all of sports. To legions of otherwise reasonable adults, it is a conflict that surpasses athletics; it is rich against poor, locals against outsiders, even good against evil. In North Carolina, where both schools reside, it is a way of aligning oneself with larger philosophic ideals—of choosing teams in life—a tradition of partisanship that reveals the pleasures and even the necessities of hatred.

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?

LeBron James is the hero in two very American tales: one, a success story the nation loves; the other, the latest installment in an ongoing chronicle of American antiblackness. James has lived in the public eye ever since high school when his extraordinary athletic skills subjected his every action, every statement, every fashion choice to intense public scrutiny that tells us less about James himself and more about a nation still wrestling with many social inequities.

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.

On the night of March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, right up the street from the chocolate factory, Wilt Chamberlain, a young and striking athlete celebrated as the Big Dipper, scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knickerbockers. As historic and revolutionary as the achievement was, it remains shrouded in myth. The game was not televised; no New York sportswriters showed up; and a 14-year-old local boy ran onto the court when Chamberlain scored his hundredth point, shook his hand, and then ran off with the basketball.

Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin recently became a New York Knicks phenomenon and he's the NBA's first American-born player of Taiwanese descent. The book will chronicle Lin's high school, college and early career in the NBA with particular emphasis on the media explosion surrounding his success as starting point guard with the Knicks. It will explore how Jeremy's Christian faith, family, education and cultural inheritance have contributed to his success.

Long before he hit the big time as the play-by-play voice of the Texas Longhorns and San Antonio Spurs, sportscaster Bill Schoening paid lots of dues. Stories, Sports, and Songs is a collection of 101 tales that chronicle Schoening's unlikely and often humorous radio journey.

An inspirational journey from a shattered dream to the Cincinnati Bearcats.

In John Stockton: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Point Guards, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's greatest point guards of all time, John Stockton. Stockton ran the point for the Utah Jazz through the majority of the '80s and '90s. He holds the NBA record for the most assists and steals of all time. Playing for the majority of his career alongside Karl Malone, Stockton had a highly illustrious career. By the time he retired, he was a 10-time All-Star and had led the league in assists nine times.

Diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, a form of autism, as a toddler, Anthony Ianni wasn't expected to succeed in school or participate in sports, but he had other ideas. As a child, Ianni told anybody who would listen, including head coach Tom Izzo, that he would one day play for the Michigan State Spartans.

Steve Nash has had a storied career playing in the National Basketball Association. In this short audiobook, we will learn about how Steve became the storied point guard that he is today. Starting first with his childhood and early life, we'll learn about Steve prior to entering the NBA, his time in the NBA, along with his impact on the communities of the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers.