Author Topic: Best basketball books  (Read 17347 times)

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #15 on: September 01, 2008, 12:42:26 PM »

Offline huzy

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This thread made my day!

Happy to see three of my favorites on here: Miracle of St. Anthony, Let me Tell You a Story, and Fall River Dreams.

Right now I'm reading "The Assist", which details the 2005 State Championship Season on the Charlestown High Team.

For anyone who played or followed high school ball in the Greater Boston area, this book is a must read. It falls along the same lines of Miracle of St. Anthony but it hits closer to home. A pure depction about everything that's great about High School basketball.

Check out "The Assist", great read!!

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #16 on: September 01, 2008, 01:33:48 PM »

Offline Finkelskyhook

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Lenny Wilkins - Unguarded-My 40 years surviving in the NBA  If you're a dad or had a loving dad, the beginning and end of this book will touch your heart.  What's in the middle tells a lot about a great NBA player but a better man.

Thanks to Iowa Plowboy for loaning me a great book.

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #17 on: September 01, 2008, 04:23:49 PM »

Offline Brickowski

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I have Let Me Tell You a Story and thought it was disappointing. A Season on the Brink and The Last Amateurs were much better efforts from Feinstein.

I'd recommend Go Up for Glory, Bill Russell's autobiography as told to Bill McSweeney.

Also, no basketball library is complete without Loose Balls by Terry Pluto.

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #18 on: September 01, 2008, 04:25:50 PM »

Offline MattG12

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The only basketball book I've ever read was "The Last Shot" I had to read it last year for my Athletes, Fans, and Society class... It was a true story based on four high school basketball players from Coney Island (One of which was Stephon Marbury) It's pretty cool to see where Stephon came from and how people from Lincoln High were projected to be better than him but bad decisions made them fall off the charts. If you read the new version the author wrote an afterword ten years after he had finished the book and I won't give anything away but it was extremely sad to find out what happened to some of the characters knowing that it's a true story.

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #19 on: September 01, 2008, 04:34:22 PM »

Offline stoyko

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The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam is out of print but is an incredible look at the 1979 Trailblazers. It looks at a changing NBA where money was beginning to play a larger role and the modern league as we know was starting to come together. Great looks at Bill Walton, Dennis Johnson, Dr. Jack Ramsay and other NBA greats.
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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #20 on: September 01, 2008, 05:59:17 PM »

Offline footey

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Pistol--The Life of Pete Maravich. Well written bio. I also loved The City Game (about NYC basketball) and Foul, about Connie Hawkins. Go Up For Glory, by Bill Russell, was a very good book which I read as a youth.  Did not like Conroy's My Losing Season. Wanted to, but did not.

Pete Maravich' life is an amazing story, and I still get chills when I see video of him playing in college and the NBA, especially when healthy.  Have many memories of sitting in the upper balcony of the Garden (among not a few drunks)  during the play-offs in the mid seventies, watching Maravich and Hudson vs. Jo Jo and Duck Chaney.  When Pete got going, no one could stop him, not even the great defender Duck Chaney. Only other guys I saw take over a game like that against the Celtics were Andrew Toney in the early eighties and Michael Jordan in the late eighties and early nineties. No one else.

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #21 on: September 01, 2008, 06:10:21 PM »

Offline NicaraguanFan

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I read "Go up for Glory" by Bill Russell a couple of weeks ago.   Very nice book.
#18 is coming...

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #22 on: September 01, 2008, 09:01:56 PM »

Offline Truck Lewis

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Off the top of my head, some good ones not posted yet

The Punch - John Feinstein, suprisingly great book about Kermit Washington and Rudy T.

The City Game - Pete Axthelm

Double Dunk - Bruce Beckham (the actual story of Earl The Goat Manigault)

and

Heaven is a Playground - Rick Telander

As you  can see, Im into the books about the city game, so any recommendations about street ball would be appreciated.
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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #23 on: September 01, 2008, 10:47:55 PM »

Offline bdm860

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Off the top of my head, some good ones not posted yet

The Punch - John Feinstein, suprisingly great book about Kermit Washington and Rudy T.

The City Game - Pete Axthelm

Double Dunk - Bruce Beckham (the actual story of Earl The Goat Manigault)

and

Heaven is a Playground - Rick Telander

As you  can see, Im into the books about the city game, so any recommendations about street ball would be appreciated.

Man I thought City Game was ok at best, and Double Dunk was terrible.  Double Dunk has some good info if you want to know the real story of Earl Maniguault (quite different from the Rebound movie version), but I think it was just terribly written, it had no flow.

If you like books about streetball, I think Asphalt Gods: An Oral History of the Rucker Tournament is a good book, one I would definitely recomend.  It's written by Vincent Mallozzi who has contributed a few streetball pieces to SLAM Magazine, so if you've ever read an article in SLAM about Earl "The Goat" Manigault, Herman "Helicopter" Knowings, Joe "The Destroyer" Hammond, or Pee Wee Kirkland than Mallozzi probably wrote it, and his book is basically a larger, expanded collection of those stories.  A great history on Rucker Park.

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #24 on: September 02, 2008, 12:00:54 AM »

Offline Steve Weinman

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Off the top of my head, some good ones not posted yet

The Punch - John Feinstein, suprisingly great book about Kermit Washington and Rudy T.

The City Game - Pete Axthelm

Double Dunk - Bruce Beckham (the actual story of Earl The Goat Manigault)

and

Heaven is a Playground - Rick Telander

As you  can see, Im into the books about the city game, so any recommendations about street ball would be appreciated.

Wow, TP for mentioning the Punch, Truck - I'd generally consider myself a huge Feinstein fan, and I can't believe I mentioned Season on the Brink and Last Amateurs (two greats) and omitted that one - which might be the greatest of them all.  Really an incredible read that went well in-depth on both men and the consequences of that night in the late '70s.

I've had several people tell me Heaven is a Playground is supposed to be a great one...I need to get myself a copy of that one sooner or later.

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #25 on: September 02, 2008, 04:16:24 AM »

Offline professorperkins

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Not to upset the Bassy Haters but the "Through the Fire" book was really good too.

That's the name of the movie, the book is called "The Jump". It's a pretty cool look into the business of high school basketball, with some insight into Sonny Vaccaro as well.

I'd also recommend 7 Seconds or Less, about the 2005 Phoenix Suns. It's a cool look inside the every day workings of an NBA team. And of course for this scouting report on our man Eddie House, found on the floor after a game against the Utah Jazz -

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #26 on: September 02, 2008, 09:01:25 AM »

Offline Mother

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The Best Basketball Book is called "Big Game, Small World."  By Thomas Wolff, an SI reporter who traveled around the world to look at basketball culture in some funny corners of the globe.  An excellent look at the cultural and social side of basketball.

Dave Zirin's book, Welcome to the Terrodome is about different sports, but the pieces on basketball should be included in this conversation too.

Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #27 on: September 02, 2008, 09:06:08 AM »

Offline zerophase

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i honestly don't see a reason for reading a basketball book, at least one by an actual player. the whole reason these books were written is because of the money making schemes of big publishers. its the same reason why that gave phelphs such a lofty amount for his book. to start, they don't even write half the stuff that's in the book. next, while i might consider reading a book written by say duncan with his high basketball iq, the reality is that a lot of these sports players are like gerald green when it comes to good witting. that's just my take on it.

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #28 on: September 02, 2008, 10:29:24 AM »

Offline Steve Weinman

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i honestly don't see a reason for reading a basketball book, at least one by an actual player. the whole reason these books were written is because of the money making schemes of big publishers. its the same reason why that gave phelphs such a lofty amount for his book. to start, they don't even write half the stuff that's in the book. next, while i might consider reading a book written by say duncan with his high basketball iq, the reality is that a lot of these sports players are like gerald green when it comes to good witting. that's just my take on it.

While I won't comment one way or the other about the writing of players, it seems worth noting that a significant portion of the books mentioned on this particular thread were not iin fact written by players, if that's your main issue with basketball books.  Feinstein, McCallum, Telander - just to name a few who appear on this list - all well-established writing 'professionals', so to speak.  But that isn't to suggest that there isn't valuable insight to be gleaned from others simply because they've played the game as well (in fact, quite the opposite...), and I'd personally be wary of writing 'actual players' off on that account.

Out of curiosity have you read anything written by NBA players that left you particularly unimpressed?

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Re: Best basketball books
« Reply #29 on: September 02, 2008, 11:04:11 AM »

Offline huzy

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I picked up two new books this weekend and was curious if anyone here has read either and has any thoughts:

-Cousy by Bill Reynolds: I've always been fascinated by the Cooz and figured this would be the best resource and a good read. I love FRD, which was mentioned earlier, written by Reynolds.

-Last Shot by John Feinstein: This was mentioned earlier but I didn't see any specifics. I've always been a big Feinstein fan though.

Looking forward to any feedback...
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