Best Basketball Biographies

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history. He is also one of a handful of influential and respected black men in America who has a national platform as a regular contributing columnist for the Washington Post and TIME , where he shares his thoughts on some of the most socially relevant and politically controversial topics facing our nation today. Currently he serves as the chairman of his Skyhook Foundation whose mission is to "Give Kids a Shot That Can't be Blocked" by bringing educational opportunities to under-served communities through innovative outdoor environmental learning.

• Learned the secrets of mindfulness and team chemistry while playing for the champion New York Knicks in the 1970s. • Managed Michael Jordan, the greatest player in the world, and got him to embrace selflessness, even if it meant losing a scoring title. • Forged successful teams out of players of varying abilities by getting them to trust one another and perform in sync. • Inspired Dennis Rodman and other “uncoachable” personalities to devote themselves to something larger than themselves. • Transformed Kobe Bryant from a rebellious teenager into a mature leader of a championship team. This book is full of revelations: about fascinating personalities and their drive to win; about the wellsprings of motivation and competition at the highest levels; and about what it takes to bring out the best in ourselves and others. Hoop fans: read this alongside Bob Knight’s recent The Power of Negative Thinking (2013) and then determine which coaching style would motivate you more and improve your life outside of basketball.

BASKETBALL (AND OTHER THINGS) presents readers with a set of pivotal and ridiculous questions from basketball history, providing arguments and answers, explained with the wit and wisdom that is unique to Shea Serrano. With incredible art from Arturo Torres, this book is a must-have for anyone who has ever stayed up late into the night debating basketball's greatest moments, what-ifs, stories, and legends, or for those who are discovering the mythology of basketball for the first time. “Shea Serrano’s new book… is a hilarious, informative group of passages that answer questions you never realized needed to be asked." ( The Indianapolis Star ). “The questions Serrano asks and answers (and that Arturo Torres illustrates in engaging graphic-novel style) includes many barstool argument-starters ("Who's the Greatest Dunker in NBA History?," "What Year Was Michael Jordan the Best Version of Michael Jordan?").

Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. As in Moneyball (**** July/Aug 2003), which chronicled the strategies behind the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, Berkeley-based author Michael Lewis takes a personal look at a complicated game in his newest nonfiction extravaganza.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER Packed with "compelling inside stories" ( Chicago Tribune ), Teammate is the inspiring memoir from "Grandpa Rossy," the veteran catcher who became the heart and soul of the 2016 Chicago Cubs championship team. "After sitting and having lunch with Rossy for over an hour at the ESPN studios in fall 2014, I knew he was exactly what the Cubs needed to help bring a championship to Chicago. "Ross ... has plenty of terrific stories to tell from a long career in the big leagues.... Ross shares his perspective on what it takes to be a good teammate and how that role accounted for both his longevity in the sport and his impact on the Cubs in 2016. Fascinating inside stories about the 2016 Cubs, told from the perspective of someone who was right in the middle of them... A good read and worth your time.

In Above the Line , he offers readers his unparalleled insights into leadership, team building, and the keys to empowering people to achieve things they might never have thought possible. Urban Meyer is the head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Weaving together lives and moments from an extraordinary career, he reflects on the players who inflamed his imagination when he was a kid, the way he himself figured in the dreams of so many who came after; takes us onto the ice and into the dressing rooms to meet the friends who stood by him and the rivals who spurred him to greater heights; shows us some of the famous moments in hockey history through the eyes of someone who regularly made that history. Wayne Gretzky , nicknamed “The Great One,” is considered by many to be the greatest hockey player ever. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, and is the only NHL player to total more than two hundred points in one season—a feat he accomplished four times.

Lowery claims that two of his employees, amateur golfers Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, cannot be beaten in a best-ball match, and challenges Coleman to bring any two golfers of his choice to the course at 10 a.m. the next day to settle the issue. "The untold story of golf's greatest money match, featuring Hogan and Nelson at Cypress Point, come to life in Mark Frost's gripping new book, The Match . "It's difficult to beat a good golf book, be it a good yarn or a picture book . " The Match was a dream I never thought would come true. If I hadn't been there I wouldn't believe it myself, and if you know anything about sports or the game of golf, once you pick up this book you won't put it down.

Jonathan Eig, hailed by Ken Burns as one of America’s master storytellers, radically reshapes our understanding of the complicated man who was Ali. Jonathan Eig’s Ali reveals Ali in the complexity he deserves, shedding important new light on his politics, religion, personal life, and neurological condition. Ali is a story about America, about race, about a brutal sport, and about a courageous man who shook up the world. "Finally Muhammad Ali has a biography as big, complex, and memorable as the man himself—or as close as any book can come. Eig in a knockout.” —Jane Leavy, author of Sandy Koufax and The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood “ Ali is a marvelous biography - deeply reported, illuminating, dripping with detail chapter after chapter—in every way worthy of one of the great figures of 20th century America.” —. David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi "Finally, after so many works focusing on this fight or that, the whole man, the whole life, is presented here. Eig's richly impressive roster of interviews informs an authoritatively critical biography that is both punchy and sure-footed." It is an independent, insightful and masterful assessment of ‘The Greatest!’ Eig’s biography puts flesh and bone on Ali’s fuller humanity. An utterly absorbing and richly detailed account of the most charismatic and controversial athlete of the 20th century.” —Mike Silver, author of The Arc of Boxing. The author of acclaimed books on Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson, Eig weaves together Ali’s athletic feats, cultural significance and personal journey. Fortified by hundreds of revealing interviews, 'Ali' vigorously narrates the story of the man who transformed the landscape of race and sports . 'Ali' stirs together the sweet and the spicy, the gifts and the failings, the charm and the rage, the grace and the greed, the pride and the ego. "Eig's revelatory bio traces the late boxer's path from pariah to national treasure." “Drawing on interviews with Muhammad Ali’s friends, family, and colleagues—as well as recently discovered recordings from the 1960s and extensive FBI files—Eig tells the life story of the legendary boxer, political radical, and hero in all its complexity.” — Entertainment Weekly , Fall's 20 Must-Read Books. “Jonathan Eig’s masterful new biography of the champ is both captivating and highly relevant to the current discussions on race in America . Muhammad Ali was one of the most compelling figures in the 20th century, and Eig does ample justice to capturing his extraordinary and enduring legacy.” — Seattle Times. What makes Eig's book stand out is its broad scope, its detailed reportage and its lively, cinematic writing." "Eig’s book is a fine read on the great boxer’s life, taking him on as he was and always seeking the truth that hits closest to bone. It covers the tumultuous middle, and then the oddly sanitized and bland second half of the American Century, an era in which Muhammad Ali was among the biggest and brightest players on the stage — living a life that, far from signifying nothing, will in its outrageous grandeur and stunning humanity, stand the test of time." Locked on that purpose, Eig delivers a biography that reflects his subject well—complex but straightforward, human but legendary.” — Chapter 16 “An appropriately outsized—and first-rate—biography . "Eig skillfully utilizes resources unavailable to previous authors, allowing him to present other aspects of Ali . VERDICT: A must-read for Ali fans, followers of the sweet science in general, and those curious about the maelstrom of events that shaped a generation."