Sports Basketball

He is perhaps most well-known for being exiled from the league for praying—instead of standing and saluting the flag–during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games throughout the 1995-96 season. Abdul-Rauf’s protest sent shockwaves through the NBA that can still be felt today. With wit and candor, Abdul-Rauf tells the story of how he rose to the top of his game—only to have his career taken away in the blink of an eye when he stood up for his principles.

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.

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.

You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for ourselves? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives? The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration for kids ages 10 and up to help them succeed on and off the court.

In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of a champion, the coach of the Villanova University men's basketball team shares his competitive and cooperative philosophy along with lessons from his coaching career and the story of his personal road to success.

Growing up, Wat Misaka wasn’t the tallest kid on the basketball court, but he was fast and he loved the game! In his Japanese American basketball league, Wat dribbled with speed and shared the ball as much as he scored. Encouraged by his father to always do his best, Wat applied this mindset to every challenge in his life. As Wat spent more time on the court, his passion for the game grew. He played in college at the University of Utah during WWII, a time when many Japanese Americans were stripped of their freedoms and incarcerated by the US government.

This audiobook serves as a biography of Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players to ever lace them up. Kobe had one of the longest and most decorated careers of any basketball player in history, and this audiobook aims to educate you all about it! Throughout this audiobook, you will learn about Bryant's younger years, his journey to the NBA, his many accomplishments and records, the challenges he faced, and also what's next for the NBA champion now that he has retired from the game of basketball.

One of the most successful Black businessmen in the country, who has led Nike’s Jordan Brand from a $200M sneaker company to a $4B global apparel juggernaut, tells the remarkable story of his rise from gangland violence to the pinnacles of international business. Jump tells Larry Miller’s journey from the violent streets of West Philly in the 1960s to the highest echelons of American sports and industry. Miller wound up in jail more than once, especially as a teenager

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.

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. But his preeminence is more than just extraordinary athletic ability: The lessons of his life - such as focus, passion, hard work, perseverance, and accountability - have shaped him into one of the most revered celebrities of the 20th century. In this inspiring audiobook Pat Williams, motivational speaker and senior vice president of the NBA's Orlando Magic, reveals Jordan's method for living a life of greatness that we can all incorporate into our lives.

Today, sports arenas have been transformed into staging grounds for American patriotism and the hero worship of law enforcement. Teams wear camouflage jerseys to honor those who serve; police officers throw out first pitches; soldiers surprise their families with homecomings at halftime. Sports and politics are decidedly entwined. But as journalist Howard Bryant reveals, this has always been more complicated for black athletes, who from the start were committing a political act simply by being on the field.

The riveting inside story of college basketball's fiercest rivalry among three coaching legends - University of North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, and North Carolina State's Jim Valvano - by the king of college basketball writers, number-one New York Times best seller John Feinstein.

Coach Roy Williams, one of the most respected, successful, and dominant basketball coaches in the nation, had an unlikely rise to the Hall of Fame and a career that boasts the highest winning percentage among all active college coaches. Now, for the first time, Williams tells the story of his life that few people know, from his turbulent family life as a child to the North Carolina Tar Heels' National Championship victory in 2009. He speaks candidly of his past, his passions, his inspirations, and the coaching philosophy behind one of college basketball's most successful programs.

At basketball-crazy Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, junior guard Chris Herren carried his family’s and the city’s dreams on his skinny frame. His grandfather, father, and older brother had created their own sports legends in a declining city; he was the last, best hope for a career beyond the shuttered mills and factories. Herren was heavily recruited by major universities, chosen as a McDonald’s All-American, featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story, and at just seventeen years old became the central figure in Fall River Dreams, an acclaimed book about the 1994 Durfee team’s quest for the state championship.

With his flights of improvisation around the basket and his towering afro, Julius Erving became one of the most charismatic (and revolutionary) players basketball has ever known. But while the public has long revered this cultural icon, few have ever known of the double life of Julius Erving. Dr. J traces the inner lives of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man - and how he has come to terms with both.

James Naismith was a man of many talents. He was a physician, an innovator, a Christian chaplain, a physical educator, and a coach. But he is best known for being the inventor of today’s most widely played sports game - the basketball. Listen about the man who invented basketball. Learn how the game changed the sports landscape, first in North America and the world.

Who is the greatest dunker of all time? Which version of the Michael Jordan was the best Michael Jordan? What is allowed and absolutely not allowed in a game of pickup basketball? Basketball (and Other Things) presents listeners with a whole new set of pivotal and ridiculous fan disputes from basketball history, providing arguments and answers, explained with the wit and wisdom that is unique to Shea Serrano.

From NBA legend Bill Russell, Go Up for Glory is a basketball memoir that transcends time. First published in 1965, this narrative traces Russell's childhood in segregated America and details the challenges he faced as a Black man, even when he was a celebrated NBA star. And while some progress has been made, this book serves as an urgent reminder of how far we still have to go in the fight for human rights and equality.

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.

Tearing open the deepest wound in professional sports, Feinstein uncovers the secrets of the NBA before and after that fateful moment in December of 1977 when the face of professional hoops was changed forever.