Sports Basketball

During March of each year, 70 million people fill out the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament bracket, either in national contests or office pools. The goal is to predict all the winners for a tournament of 68 teams. The odds against perfection are astronomical. A small group of social media marketers, led by mathematician Sinclair Dane, see this annual quest as an under-appreciated opportunity to make money on sports betting. For a $2 entry fee, they offer one billion dollars for anyone who can predict the winners of all the games.

This book examines the history of poor decision making by NBA general managers. It analyzes the NBA Draft over the last 20 years with some interesting findings and takeaways for improving the player evaluation process. The Rock Star GM label was meant for a guy like Daryl Morey, and the book examines his transacting style as a general manager for the Houston Rockets. It delves deeply into his draft record, trades and free agent signings to evaluate him as a general manager from a methodology and strategy standpoint.

Small town. Undersized. Not enough talent. John Willkom heard it all as a young basketball player growing up in rural Wisconsin. Despite the odds, John dedicated his life to the game, an arduous journey that challenged the very core of even the most disciplined. As John's hard work lands him amongst basketball's elite, it is the workouts, the people, and the behind-the-scenes interactions that not only change his skill set but how he lives his life. Both heartfelt and funny, Walk-On Warrior takes you into the mind of an athlete from John's perspective.

Colleges provide over $12 billion in financial aid and scholarships annually. Of this, $2.7 billion is awarded each year for athletic scholarships. Only six percent of high school athletes compete for that $2.7 billion. Score College Scholarships is produced from the perspective of a college applicant, who received multiple offers and earned six scholarships. With the help of this book, student-athletes, and their parents will learn the most effective strategies to get noticed by college coaches, balance academic and athletic considerations, and choose the "best fit" school.

In the wake of a humiliating loss in the NCAA tournament a year earlier, no one imagined the University of Findlay men’s basketball team would rise up from the ashes of the defeat and produce one of the greatest seasons in college hoops history. Ranked number one in the preseason and well aware the expectations for a championship were as lofty as ever, the Oilers learn to embrace the pressure of it all rather than allow it to become a heavy burden to carry in their pursuit of greatness.

When all she wanted was to fit in, Tamika Catchings stood out and felt left out, never knowing one day she'd stand out - as a basketball superstar and an inspiration. She faced being set apart by her hearing loss, separated from family, living up to high expectations, and the pain and discouragement of debilitating physical injury. Yet she reached for the stars with hard work, perseverance, and her faith in God. Through the silence, she found the way to shine.

Kobe is one of the most well-loved and also most hated players in the game. Everything you need to know about basketball's greatest is in this book! Honor the memory of Kobe Bryant by learning about his amazing life! The tragic death of Kobe Bryant shocked the entire world. He was a household name, known and admired even by people who don't care much about basketball. Now is the perfect time to look back at his life and career. This book aims to provide a complete overview of Kobe Bryant's impressive career and the challenges that he had to overcome.

Porter Moser, one of the most inspiring and driven Division I basketball coaches today, offers a practical, motivating guide to help build character, transform failure into success, find purpose, and live an authentic life through energy and positivity. Porter Moser knows what it’s like to live and work with determination, passion, and grit. He also knows what it’s like to keep front and center the core values of faith, family, honesty, and integrity.

From 1971 to his retirement in 2011, Woody Durham was the "Voice of the Tar Heels," the radio play-by-play man for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In this autobiography, Woody takes the reader on a nostalgic stroll down memory lane - from his descriptions of a sleepy Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and the days of football legend Choo Choo Justice to the enormous changes in college sports and how they are covered to his dozens of behind-the-scenes stories about the coaches and players he worked with during his tenure.

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.

March Madness is in full swing, and there are only four teams let in the NCAA basketball championship. The heavily favored Michigan Spartans and the underdog Troy Trojans meet in the first game in the seminfinals, and it's there that the fates of Malcolm, Roko, Crispin, and M.J. intertwine. As the last moments tick down on the game clock, you'll learn how each player went from being a kid who loves to shoot hoops to a powerful force in one of the most important games of the year. Which team will leave the Superdome victorious?

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.

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?

Texas girl Babe Didrikson never tried a sport too tough and never met a hurdle too high. Despite attempts to keep women from competing, Babe achieved All-American status in basketball and won gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics. Then, Babe attempted to conquer golf. One of the founders of the LPGA, Babe won more consecutive tournaments than any golfer in history. But at the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with cancer. Babe would then take her most daring step of all....

If your one of the many people who struggle to reach the rim and dunk over their opponents, don’t get disheartened – because what many don’t realize is that dunking a basketball requires more than on court skill alone. And it is certainly not determined by either your height or your age. In fact, our ability to dunk is dictated by our muscle strength, muscle power, and our vertical jump performance. Which in itself is an extremely positive thing, because these factors are not necessarily inherited, nor are they determined at birth. Rather, each of these factors can be trained independently in the gym and on the court, allowing us to improve our vertical jump height, ensuring we can dunk with ease – irrespective of either our age or our height!

In the club, with flashing lights and loud music, seeing him across the room is a scene out of a movie. We lock eyes and sway to the beat—instantly connecting. He nudges his head, calling me to the other side. Me? Of all the women in the club, this sexy man wants me to join him in VIP. So I do. And then I realize how tall he is, and the other guys surrounding him are also. Wait. This guy was on the basketball court at the game I watched the night before. The guys standing around him are his teammates on the Houston Outlaws.

“This collection of Grant’s work is a great testament to not only what he did when he was here, but what he’s still doing to impact others.”—LeBron James The definitive collection of beloved late journalist Grant Wahl’s work—a masterclass in the art of sportswriting After Grant...

The true story behind Crispus Attucks High School and the all-Black basketball team loosely depicted as the championship opponent in the beloved classic sports movie Hoosiers. For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers. Framed as the ultimate underdog...

The author, a native of Philadelphia and an alumnus, as was Wilt Chamberlain, of Overbrook High School, spent four years researching and interviewing the most important people in Wilt's life. The result is a capturing of Wilt's personality and thoughts that relatively few people other than family and closest friends ever knew.

Basketball forward Kevin Durant plays for the Golden State Warriors. This title's listener-friendly text and critical-thinking questions will attract young fans of Durant and the Warriors.