Sports Biographies Basketball

In 2012, Derrick Rose was on top of the world. After growing up in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, Rose achieved an improbable childhood dream: being selected first overall in the NBA draft by his hometown Chicago Bulls. The point guard was a phenom, winning the Rookie of the Year award and electrifying fans around the world. In 2011, he became the youngest MVP in league history. Rarely had a bond between a player and fans been so strong, as the city wrapped its arms around the homegrown hero.

America's favorite sportswriter teams up with Red Auerbach, the most successful and admired coach in basketball history, to tell the best stories of a legendary life.

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 unlikeliest of champions, the 1949-50 City College Beavers were extraordinary by every measure. During that remarkable season, this unheralded group of city kids would stun the basketball world by becoming the only team in history to win the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year. This team, though, proved to be extraordinary in another way: During the following season, all of the team’s starting five were arrested by New York City detectives. The story centers on Eddie Roman and Floyd Layne, each caught up in the scandal, each searching for a path to personal redemption.

Kobe Bryant’s incredible, record-shattering basketball career reads like a road map for the pursuit of greatness. Though he came onto the NBA scene brimming with talent, it was his relentless work ethic, his tireless pursuit of knowledge, his unflappable confidence, and his turbo-charged ambition that drove him to become an icon with a lasting legacy. Kobe: Life Lessons from a Legend offers courtside seats to the breathtaking highs and game-changing lows of Kobe Bryant’s life and reveals valuable insights for anyone who wants to make their own lofty dreams come true.

Every Lakers fan, every basketball fan, and every sports fan should have this book in their library. Here's what you'll find inside.... Keep listening.... We wanted to retrace step-by-step the life of Kobe, from his childhood in Italy to his last moments in life, from the NBA draft to the five rings passing from Kobe as a father to the victory of the Oscar.

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

For a long time, Carmelo Anthony’s world wasn’t any larger than the view of the hoopers and hustlers he watched from the side window of his family’s first-floor project apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He couldn’t dream any bigger than emulating his older brothers and cousin, much less going on to become a basketball champion on the world stage.

LeBron James: The Power of Hard Work, Leadership, and the Seven Habits of Success Before LeBron James became a four-time NBA champion, a league MVP, and one of the most influential athletes of all time, he was just a kid from Akron, Ohio, facing challenges that could have stopped him from ever stepping onto the court. Raised by a single mother who struggled to make ends meet, LeBron moved from home to home, often feeling like the odds were stacked against him. But instead of giving up, he made a choice—to work harder than anyone else, to believe in his dreams, and to never let his ...

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.

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.

The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion.

In Isaiah Thomas: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Most Prolific Point Guards, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's premier point guards, Isaiah Thomas. The Boston Celtics secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2016-2017 season behind the leadership of Isaiah Thomas. Thomas, just 5' 9'' in stature, has overcome many obstacles to become one of the best scorers in the league. His ability to both penetrate and create shot opportunities for himself are truly impressive, making him the Celtics' go-to scorer in the fourth quarter.

The day after future NBA superstar Chris Paul signed his letter of intent to play college basketball for Wake Forest, he received a world-shattering phone call. His grandfather, Nathaniel "Papa" Jones, a pillar of the Winston-Salem community where he owned and operated the first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, was mugged and ultimately died from a heart attack resulting from the assault. His funeral filled the largest church in the county, which held over 1,000 people. He was 61 years old.

In On the Shoulders of Giants, indomitable basketball star and best-selling author and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invites listeners on an extraordinarily personal journey back to his birthplace. He leads us through one of the greatest political, cultural, literary, and artistic movements in our history, revealing the tremendous impact the Harlem Renaissance had on both American culture and his own life.

In Kyrie Irving: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Most Versatile Point Guards, you'll hear about the inspirational story of basketball's star, Kyrie Irving. This short, unauthorized biography of Kyrie Irving highlights his quick ascent into the league as a brilliant passer and scorer.

How big was the pressure? How deep was the division? Those were the questions that would beg answering long after the Chicago Bulls had completed their strife-ridden 1997-98 season in the National Basketball Association. Blood on the Horns details the infighting and conflict between Jordan, coach Phil Jackson, teammate Scottie Pippen and the team's general manager, Jerry Krause, and managing partner, Jerry Reinsdorf.

Before primetime ESPN coverage, lucrative branding deals like Air Jordans, and $40 million annual player salaries, there was the NBA of the 1970s and 1980s. Enter Dan Shaughnessy, then the beat reporter for The Boston Globe who covered the Boston Celtics every day from 1982 to1986. It was a time when reporters travelled with professional teams—flying the same commercial airlines, riding the same buses, and staying in the same hotels. Drawing on unprecedented access and personal experiences, Shaughnessy takes us inside the legendary Larry Bird-led Celtics teams.

Newly revised through the end of the 2022-2023 season, Ja Morant: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball’s All-Star Point Guards explores the inspirational story of one of basketball's latest star point guards, Ja Morant. Since being selected with the second overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, Ja Morant has consistently impressed fans across the league. So much so, that he won the 2020 Rookie of the Year Award. In his rookie season, Ja finished averaging 17.8 points per game, along with 7.3 assists per game.

No college basketball coach has ever dominated the sport like John Wooden. His UCLA teams reached unprecedented heights in the 1960s and '70s, capped by a run of ten NCAA championships in twelve seasons and an eighty-eight-game winning streak, records that stand to this day. Wooden also became a renowned motivational speaker and writer, revered for his "Pyramid of Success." The portrait that emerges from Davis's remarkable biography is of a man in full, whose life story still resonates today.