Basketball Memoir

For some the game of basketball is just a game; for others, a lifelong calling. *Life Lessons Thru the Lens of Basketball* is a celebration of values like perseverance, adaptability, and teamwork. Each chapter explores quotes from legends such as Dr. J, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Pat Riley, Wilt Chamberlain, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant, showing how challenges on the court mirror those in life.

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.

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.

Set against a backdrop of social change during the 1970s, State is a compelling first-person account of what it was like to live through both traditional gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality - or at least the closest that one high school girls’ basketball team ever came to it.

The inspiring story of Isaiah Austin, the man who captured our hearts when he was made the honorary NBA draft pick after a shocking diagnosis ended his professional basketball career before he could even step onto the court.

Through her four-year high school journey, and together with her teammates, Jamie experiences the exhilaration of winning, the agony of defeat, and the complicated layers of love, friendship, and grief. She learns what it really takes to set and achieve goals, all while navigating adolescence and high school with its inevitable confusion, heartbreak, and the highs and lows that produce powerful life lessons.

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.

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.

Most know Carlos Boozer as the beloved power forward whose dazzling basketball career spanned two decades. But few know the dramatic, poignant and powerful story behind his meteoric rise. Now, for the first time he's ready to open up about a traumatic incident from his childhood that forever altered the trajectory of his life and shaped him into the man he is today.

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.

After 12 years of playing basketball at the highest professional level, Brian Grant could have been forgiven for thinking that the hardest part of his life was behind him, that he'd be able to kick back and enjoy the fruits of his considerable labors. But soon after his retirement from the NBA, Grant was diagnosed with Young-Onset Parkinson's Disease, ushering in a challenge greater than any he'd faced before. In Rebound, Grant shares his remarkable life before, during, and after those NBA years with no shortage of compassion and wit.

Learn the Inspiring Story of the Toronto Raptors' Rising Star, Pascal Siakam! In Pascal Siakam: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Rising Stars, you will learn the incredible story of one of basketball's emerging stars, Pascal Siakam. Since being selected in the late first round by the Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft, Siakam has quickly risen as a meaningful player in the evolving league. In 2019, his value to the Raptors was clear as he alongside Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry helped the franchise capture its first NBA Championship.

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.

"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.

Following the 1956-57 NBA season, the Fort Wayne Pistons relocated to Detroit, and the Rochester Royals were moved to Cincinnati. The relocations of the Fort Wayne and Rochester franchises left Syracuse as the last small market team in the NBA.

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.

Mit einem verschmitzten Lächeln sagt er: "Was sich seit dem WM-Titel für mich geändert hat? - die Menschen in Deutschland wissen jetzt, dass Herbert nicht mein Vor- sondern mein Nachname ist." Gordon Herbert, der Architekt hinter der erfolgreichsten Ära des deutschen Basketballs und dem ersten Triumph bei einer Weltmeisterschaft, teilt in diesem Buch sein Erfolgsrezept.

In Dirk Nowitzki: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Best European Stars, you will learn the inspirational story of one of basketball's premier power forward, Dirk Nowitzki. Since entering the league in the the late 90s, Dirk Nowitzki has established and remained one of the most dominant power forwards to ever play the game. With a dynamic ability to take ridiculously difficult fadeaway jumpers to popping out to the top of the key for a rainbow three-pointer, Nowitzki has wowed audiences all around the world.

Paul Westhead was teaching high school in his native Philadelphia when he was named La Salle University’s men’s basketball coach in 1970. By 1980 he was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant, soon to be hired as head coach, winning an NBA title with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie guard Magic Johnson.

It seems unlikely that James Naismith, who grew up playing "Duck on the Rock" in the rural community of Almonte, Canada, would invent one of America's most popular sports. But Rob Rains and Hellen Carpenter's fascinating, in-depth biography James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball shows how this young man - who wanted to be a medical doctor, or if not that, a minister (in fact, he was both) - came to create a game that has endured for over a century.