Basketball Memoir

Learn the inspiring story of the Philadelphia 76ers' star center Joel Embiid! As the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Joel Embiid has emerged as one of the top centers to play in the modern league due to his ability to do close to everything. Whether it's rebounding, blocking shots, or making three pointers, Joel Embiid is close to the total package when it comes to finding a franchise player.

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.

People think of Elgin Baylor as one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game - and one of the NBA's first Black superstars - but the full extent of his legacy stretches beyond his game-changing jump shots and dunks. Baylor recounts his story: flying back and forth between the US Army and the Lakers, how he helped break down color barriers in the sport, his 1964 All-Star game boycott, and 22 years as general manager for the notorious LA Clippers and Donald Sterling, spent fighting to draft and sign young, Black phenoms - only to be hamstrung by his boss.

He is one of basketball's towering figures: "Mr. Clutch," who mesmerized his opponents and fans. The coach who began the Lakers' resurgence in the 1970s. The general manager who helped bring "Showtime" to Los Angeles, creating a championship-winning force that continues to this day. Now, for the first time, the legendary Jerry West tells his story - from his tough childhood in West Virginia, to his unbelievable college success at West Virginia University, his 40-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and his relationships with NBA legends.

In The Hoops Whisperer, Ravin shares the fascinating story of how he transformed a passion for the game into working with iconic basketball stars such as Chris Paul, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Dwight Howard, and many more. He offers a rare unguarded glimpse inside the lives of these great athletes, drawn from his intimate connection with them that is the basis of his success.

For Merl Code, basketball was life. In college he played point guard for Clemson before turning pro. Later, when he pivoted to marketing, he found himself thrust into a startling world of profit-driven college basketball programs. He realized that the NCAA's amateurism rules could be used to exploit young athletes, and athletes of color in particular.

In Charles Barkley: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Power Forwards, you'll learn the inspirational story of basketball's legendary power forward Charles Barkley. Barkley was one of the most popular big men throughout 1980's and 1990's basketball due to his dominance on both sides of the court. He remains one of the greatest examples of how to overcome obstacles to become a great, as he went through his entire career as "undersized" compared to traditional power forwards.

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.

In DeMarcus Cousins: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Top Centers, you'll hear about the inspirational story of basketball's star, DeMarcus Cousins. Since entering the league as the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, DeMarcus Cousins has made quite the name for himself as a premier big man. After spending nearly seven years as the face of the Sacramento Kings franchise, DeMarcus was given a fresh start mid-way through the 2016-2017 season as he was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans to play alongside fellow star, Anthony Davis.

Bill Russell was not the first African American to play professional basketball, but he was its first Black superstar. From the moment he stepped onto the court of the Boston Garden in 1956, Russell began to transform the sport in a fundamental way, making him, more than any of his contemporaries, the Jackie Robinson of basketball. In King of the Court, Aram Goudsouzian provides a vivid and engrossing chronicle of the life and career of this brilliant champion and courageous racial pioneer. Russell's leaping, wide-ranging defense altered the game's texture.

In Phil Jackson: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the story of how Phil Jackson became one of the greatest coaches of all time. A two-time NBA champion as a player, and an 11-time NBA champion as a coach, Phil Jackson knows how to win and knows how to inspire players to play at the highest of levels.

This is the year of the Bubble, a vacated Disney World, and the nearly one hundred days that 350 players and personnel from twenty-two NBA teams isolated from their friends and family, testing their patience for a dorm-style solution to America’s lost pandemic sports season - but also inspiring them. In a country violently divided by more than COVID-19, the Lakers rise to the occasion. From initial quarantine to the best basketball ever played by LeBron James and Anthony Davis to transitioning again to the real world, Jared Dudley shares his winning memories....

On September 26, 2017, the biggest recruiting scandal in college basketball history sent shock waves through the world of sports. Caught up in a massive FBI and NCAA investigation - and the intense media spotlight - was Rick Pitino, the Louisville Cardinals’ Hall of Fame coach. Here, from Pitino himself, comes the real story of the ongoing case and the hard truth about how college hoops has been pushed to the brink of disaster by greed, bad actors, and shoe company money.

"Work hard, and don't look for excuses", C. Vivian Stringer's parents told her, "and you can achieve anything." But her faith and perseverance would be tested many times. A gifted athlete, she had to fight for a place on an all-White cheerleading squad in the 60s. In 1981, just as her coaching career was taking off, her 14-month-old daughter, Nina, was stricken with spinal meningitis. Yet Stringer brought a small, poor, historically Black college to the national championships.

Whether you play basketball, watch basketball, or you’re simply a history buff, there is something for you here! Crafted for both hardcore NBA fans and curious newcomers to the sports world, this book dives into the history of basketball and specifically the tales of certain players that revolutionized the game.

When the federal government catches hotshot financial adviser Louis Martin “Marty” Blazer defrauding his NFL-player clients, it’s time to come clean. He has no reasonable defense. What he has is a bigger story to spill to the feds—that of a multibillion-dollar conspiracy that exploits the most talented college athletes and implicates one of the most popular entertainment industries in the nation. The DOJ is listening, and the truth could literally set Marty free. All he has to do is prove that the NCAA is a vast ongoing scam.

Learn the inspiring story of the San Antonio Spurs' legendary coach Gregg Popovich! In Gregg Popovich: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's premier coaches, Gregg Popovich. Popovich has steered the ship for the San Antonio Spurs franchise to multiple championships and perennial playoff contention.

A deeply revealing memoir of big wins and hard lessons from a seasoned executive caught smack in the middle of the trillion-dollar soft power struggle pitting China against Hollywood, the NBA, and American business....

Like millions of kids before him, Jay Williams used to pretend he was making the game-winning shot while playing basketball in his Plainfield, New Jersey, backyard. Unlike almost all of those other kids, he kept right on making shots until he became an NCAA champion and two-time national player of the year at Duke and the number-two overall NBA draft pick in 2002.

In Players First, John Calipari relates for the first time anywhere his experiences over his first four years coaching the Kentucky Wildcats, college basketball's most fabled program, from the doldrums to a national championship, drawing lessons about leadership, character, and the path to personal and collective victory. At its core, Calipari's coaching philosophy centers on keeping his focus on the players - what they need to get the best out of themselves and one another.