Sports Biographies Basketball

Maya Moore is a standout forward in the WNBA. Learn about her childhood and her rise to becoming a basketball superstar.

Young minds are constantly seeking direction and inspiration. But in today’s environment full of distractions, it’s not easy to find the right resource for what kids really need. That’s why this book is so timely. This book understands the hurdles kids face – the need for role models, the struggle with challenges, and the desire for meaningful connections. It’s the solution you’ve been looking for: a collection of 15 awe-inspiring stories from basketball legends, each a testament to overcoming adversity and achieving greatness.

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.

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.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski reveals his personal principles for leadership, from dealing with adversity in life or on the basketball court, to taking responsibility for your actions and learning how to trust your heartfelt instincts in times of trouble. Leading with the Heart is about bringing out the best and demanding the best, from ourselves, from those around us, and from any organization that is playing to win.

LeBron James is a standout forward in the NBA. Learn about his childhood and his rise to becoming a basketball superstar.

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.

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.

During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life- and a crucible for becoming his own man.

To become the most revered basketball player in America, it wasn’t enough for Michael Jordan to merely excel on the court. He also had to become something he never intended: a hero. Reconstructing the defining moment of Jordan’s career—winning his first NBA championship during the 1990-1991 season—sports historian Johnny Smith examines Jordan’s ubiquitous rise in American culture and the burden he carried as a national symbol of racial progress. Jumpman reveals how Jordan maintained a “mystique” that allowed him to seem more likable to Americans who wanted to believe race no longer mattered.

Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and best-selling author of Reach for the Summitt and Raise the Roof, tells for the first time her remarkable story of victory and resilience as well as facing down her greatest challenge: early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Pat Summitt was only 21 when she became head coach of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. For 38 years, she has broken records, winning more games than any NCAA team in basketball history.

In Five Banners, Feinstein tells the inside history of Coach K’s forty-two-year career at Duke and its five NCAA championships, from the first, against Kansas in 1991, to the most recent, in 2015 against Wisconsin. With unparalleled access to Coach K, the team, and its staff, Feinstein takes listeners on a mesmerizing ride into the locker room and onto the court. Full of intimate details, personal memories, and previously untold on- and off-court stories, it is a book that only Feinstein could write.

When it comes to Stephen Curry - point guard for the Golden State Warriors and reigning MVP of the NBA - journalists, fans, and sports analysts are running out of ways to say "wow". Deemed too small and too short at 6'3" and 180 pounds by NBA coaches around the league, Curry has taken the game back from the bigger men who usually dominate the court.

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.

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.

Los Angeles native and longtime sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, Scott Howard-Cooper draws on more than a hundred interviews and extensive access to many of the principal figures, including Wooden’s family, to deliver a rich narrative that reveals the turmoil at the heart of this storied college basketball program.

In this New York Times best-seller, get the inside scoop into LeBron James's return - and ultimate triumph - in Cleveland. What really happened when LeBron James stunned the NBA by leaving a potential dynasty in Miami to come home to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers? How did the Cavs use secret meetings to put together the deal to add star Kevin Love? Who really made the controversial decision to fire coach David Blatt when the team was in first place? Where did the greatest comeback in NBA history truly begin-and end?

From the New York Times best-selling author of Return of the King comes the story of LeBron James' incredible transformation from basketball star to sports and business mogul.

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.

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.