Sports Biographies Basketball

In June 2007, the FBI informed the NBA that one of its referees, Tim Donaghy, was the subject of a probe into illegal gambling. Within months, the public knew the broad outlines of a scheme involving Donaghy betting on games he officiated with a coconspirator, longtime Donaghy acquaintance and professional gambler Jimmy "Baba" Battista. They were joined in the scandal by a mutual childhood friend, Tommy Martino. By November 2008, each man had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the conspiracy and was in federal prison.

In Pat Riley: 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 ever, Pat Riley. Whether it was as a player, coach, or executive, Pat Riley has created a huge legacy for himself with all the franchises of which he has been a part. Since 1995, he has led the Miami Heat organization.

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.

Award-winning journalist John Taylor projects the stories of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and other stars from the NBA's golden age onto a backdrop of racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor's electrifying account of two complex men is an epic narrative of sports in America during the 1960s. Filled with dramatic conflicts and some of the great moments in sports history, and building to a thrilling climax, The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied by the ultimate team player trump sheer talent?

Steve Nash has had a storied career playing in the National Basketball Association. In this short audiobook, we will learn about how Steve became the storied point guard that he is today. Starting first with his childhood and early life, we'll learn about Steve prior to entering the NBA, his time in the NBA, along with his impact on the communities of the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers.

In Stephen Curry: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Sharpest Shooters, you'll hear about the inspirational story of one of basketball's premier point guards, Stephen Curry. Curry has had an electrifying five-year career playing in the National Basketball Association. In this short audiobook, we will learn about how Steph became the star point guard that he is today.

Tim Duncan has kept the San Antonio Spurs relevant in the NBA for every year of his long NBA career. In this short book, we will learn about how Duncan became the incredible power forward that he is today. Starting first with a look into his childhood and early life, we'll learn about Tim Duncan prior to entering the NBA, along with his time in the NBA playing alongside David Robinson to his time playing with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili leading the San Antonio Spurs.

Kobe lives and breathes basketball. While other basketball legends faded into obscurity after retirement, Kobe is out there pursuing new endeavors and building a business empire. It’s a testament to his relentless thirst for knowledge and never-ending quest to be better. This book is a front row ticket to Kobe’s journey through life as he reveals how he used the "mamba mentality" as a blueprint to his success, whether on-court or off-court. It offers an insight into how his mind works and provides an opportunity to replicate his success and achievements.

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.

Proudly presenting The Great Book of Basketball, full of trivia questions that deal with six decades of stories that will make for fun listening and maybe create a couple of bar bets or two. And hopefully, maybe settle one or two in your favor. This is sure to be one of the best NBA basketball books out there, whether you’re in the mood to learn about how Julius Erving shifted the landscape of the ABA or digging in on the Celtics dynasties of the 1950 and 1960s. This audiobook has a little bit of everything and goes beyond the surface of simply what was popular.

Michael Jordan defied gravity, transcended the world’s expectations, and exceeded the limits of age, soaring to fame as the world’s greatest basketball player of all time. While his talent was breathtaking to behold—those flying dunks and record-breaking sixty-point games have inspired generations—the unseen forces behind his success are the kind we can all harness for our own. M. J. and his accomplishments were founded on discipline, hard work, and knowing how to channel the deep competitive drive within.

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.

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.

The first of "The Big Three" was Paul Pierce. As Boston Celtics fans watched the team retire Pierce's jersey in a ceremony on February 11, 2018, they remembered again the incredible performances Pierce put on in the city for fifteen years, helping the Celtics escape the bottom of their conference to become champions and perennial championship contenders. But Pierce's time in the city wasn't always so smooth. In 2000, he was stabbed in a downtown nightclub eleven times in a seemingly random attack.

A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs - and long after he stopped playing. Karl's beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a 35-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times.

March 28, 1992. The final of the NCAA East Regional, Duke vs. Kentucky. Millions could say they witnessed the greatest game and the greatest shot in the history of college basketball. But it wasn't just the final play - an 80-foot inbounds pass with 2.1 seconds left in overtime - that made Duke's 104-103 victory so memorable. Each player and coach arrived at that point with a unique story to tell. In The Last Great Game, ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski turns the game we think we remember into a drama filled with suspense, humor, revelations, and reverberations.

Kyrie Irving is an NBA star on the rise. Most fans are aware that he was the 2011-12 NBA Rookie of the Year and that he is a point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but in order to truly understand Kyrie Irving, you must first understand where he came from. This audiobook explores Irving's upbringing, his high school and college careers, and details his breakthrough into the NBA, all the way through the end of the 2012-13 season.

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.

i>Red and Me is an extraordinary book: an homage to a peerless coach, showing how he produced results unlike any other; an inspiring story of mutual success, in which each man gave his all, and gained back even more; above all, it may be the best depiction of male friendship ever put on the page. Who would have guessed that such different men could have become such a tightly bonded pair? Few did guess it. Now Russell tells it.

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....