Sports Basketball

A fast, gritty, durable player who could read a basketball floor as well as anyone who ever played the game, John Stockton left the NBA after 19 seasons with the Utah Jazz, holding a massive assist record, including the career mark (15,806). He also twice led the league in steals - with a career total of 3,265 - and retired as the NBA's all-time leader. And during Stockton's career, the Jazz never missed the playoffs.

The legends of the game and the magic of the times - an oral history of pro basketball's wonder years, by the author of the highly acclaimed Loose Balls. Using a lively oral history format, Terry Pluto provides the best look yet at the glory days of the NBA. Tall Tales is essential reading for any fan who understands that the history of the league does not begin and end with Michael Jordan.

The Golden State Warriors dominated the NBA for the better part of a decade. Since the arrival of owner Joe Lacob, they won more championships and sold more merchandise than any other franchise in the sport. And in 2019, they opened the doors on a lavish new stadium. Yet all this success contained some of the seeds of decline. Ethan Sherwood Strauss' clear-eyed exposé reveals the team's culture, its financial ambitions and struggles, and the price that its players and managers have paid for all their winning.

John Feinstein has already taken listeners into the inner circles of top college basketball programs in The Legends Club. This time, Feinstein pulls back the curtain on college basketball's lesser-known Cinderella stories - the smaller programs who no one expects to win, who have no chance of attracting the most coveted high school recruits, who rarely send their players on to the NBA. Feinstein follows a handful of players, coaches, and schools who dream, not of winning the NCAA tournament but of making it past their first or second round games.

They slam big-time dunks. They pull down rebounds. Who are the brightest stars in the game of basketball?

Chris Bosh, NBA Hall of Famer, eleven-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, and the league’s Global Ambassador, had his playing days cut short at their prime by a freak medical condition. His extraordinary career ended “in a doctor’s office in the middle of the afternoon.” Forced to reckon with moving forward, he found himself looking back over the course he'd taken, to the pinnacle of the NBA and beyond.

Part life story, part philosophy text, and part spiritual guide, Sister Jean's wit, wisdom, and common sense has broad appeal and application that transcends religious creed, belief, and even feelings on Loyola's basketball team.

Ronald Reagan declares the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. The Apple Macintosh personal computer makes its debut. Michael Jackson's Thriller dominates the charts. And Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics capture the NBA championship over the Los Angeles Lakers. It was 1984, and for the NBA and the nation, the year was full of milestone moments. In Dynasty Restored, Thomas J. Whalen explores this dramatic season.

Phil Jackson has done it again, led the L.A. Lakers to an NBA championship victory. For him, it's More Than a Game. Also, listen to a recent Fresh Air interview with Jackson.

Since the beginning of her career as Lady Vol head coach at twenty-two years old, Pat Head Summitt effectively established the University of Tennessee Lady Vols as the top women's athletics program in the nation. The winningest coach in the history of NCAA basketball, Summitt overcame one obstacle after another on the road to every victory, but it is the lives she has impacted along the way that tell the story of her true legacy.

Think pro basketball begins with the opening tipoff? Think again! In this Sports Illustrated Kids book, go behind the scenes of a typical game day in professional basketball—from cleaning the hardcourt and mascot madness to locker room pep talks and postgame interviews.

Out of the greatest dynasty in American professional sports history, an intimate story of race, mortality, and regret. About to turn 90, Bob Cousy, the Hall of Fame Boston Celtics captain who led the team to its first six championships on an unparalleled run, has much to look back on in contentment. But he has one last piece of unfinished business. The last pass he hopes to throw is to close the circle with his great partner on those Celtic teams, fellow Hall of Famer Bill Russell, now 84.

At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices faced by their families, the women followed Babb and his dream.

In Tales from the Duke Blue Devils Locker Room, readers will laugh, dream, and sweat alongside the players of one of the most successful and storied college basketball teams to ever take to the hardwood. In this treasure trove of Duke history, Jim Sumner brings to life the legendary games and unique players that have come to define this championship team.

Combining modern reportage with historical revelations, a multifaceted portrait of Caitlin Clark’s game-changing superstardom and the cultural foundation it was built upon.

Throughout the NCAA Tournament’s history, underdogs, Cinderella stories, and upsets have captured the attention and imagination of fans. Making March Madness is the story of this premiere tournament, from its early days in Kansas City, to its move to Madison Square Garden, to its surviving a point-shaving scandal in New York and taking its games to different sites across the country.

In Wilt Chamberlain: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Players, you'll learn the incredible story of one of basketball's greatest centers, Wilt Chamberlain. Throughout the 1960s, Chamberlain dominated the league. He averaged more than 30 points in multiple seasons, and even had breakout seasons where he would average 44.8 and 50.4 points respectively. He truly was one of the most prolific scorers of his generation.

A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs - and long after he stopped playing. Karl's beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a 35-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times.

Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed.

Who are the game changers in sports? Who are the warriors who laid the pathways for social, cultural and political advancement? Liberate these caged, unheralded and underappreciated icons in sports history. Unshackle their glory! Discover their uncomfortable truths! “Caged Champions” is a snap-shot reference guide for serious fans. The first 11 chapters cover major sports along with cross references by individual pioneers. Chapter 12 is a catch-all for minor sports and lesser known caged champions other than No. 42, who, along with Larry Doby, et al, dismantled apartheid in America’s ...