Most fans of women's basketball would be startled to learn that girls' teams were making their mark more than a century ago - and that none was more prominent than a team from an isolated Indian boarding school in Montana. Playing like ""lambent flames"" across the polished floors of dance halls, armories, and gymnasiums, the girls from Fort Shaw stormed the state to emerge as Montana's first basketball champions. Taking their game to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, these young women introduced an international audience to the fledgling game and returned home with a trophy declaring them champions. World champions. And yet their triumphs were forgotten - until Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith chanced upon a team photo and embarked on a ten-year journey of discovery. Their in-depth research and extensive collaboration with the teammates' descendents and tribal kin have resulted in a narrative as entertaining as it is authentic. Full-Court Quest offers a rare glimpse into American Indian life and into the world of women's basketball before ""girls' rules"" temporarily shackled the sport. For anyone captivated by Sea Biscuit, A League of Their Own, and other accounts of unlikely champions, this book rates as nothing but net.

In Havin' a Ball one of basketball's most colorful characters and storytellers chronicles his life in the game, from high school coach in New Jersey to head coach in both the NBA and the WNBA. Richie Adubato isn't a Hall of Fame name, but he's one of basketball's most beloved coaches, with a lifetime of stories that are humorous and heartfelt, poignant and personal. Adubato's career has crossed paths with many of basketball's most memorable people and events. Starting in the 1960s, he was part of the Jersey Guys, a group of young junior high and high school coaches-including Hubie Brown, Dick Vitale, and Mike Fratello-who all later went on to coach in the NBA. He was hired as Vitale's assistant coach with the Pistons in 1979. Then, three years later, he was hired by Hubie Brown as the Knicks' assistant coach. He would stay in pro basketball for the next twenty-five years, with stints as head coach for the Dallas Mavericks and Orlando Magic and the WNBA's New York Liberty and Washington Mystics. In fact, he is the first coach to have led teams in both leagues to the playoffs. Adubato grew up as an Irish Italian Jersey kid with modest aspirations who went on to experience a fascinating ride in pro basketball. He tells readers how a young Magic team led by Shaquille O'Neal came undone, about his years coaching the Mavericks at a time when the NBA was never more popular, what it was like to coach in the WNBA when the Liberty were outdrawing the Knicks in attendance, and what it was like to coach with, and against, other Hall of Famers. Havin' a Ball takes readers into locker rooms, planes, practices, games, and off court to the inner world of pro basketball with an insider's unique perspective.

A typical NBA game can yield approximately 2,800 statistical events in thirty-two different categories. In Numbers Don't Lie Yago Colas started with a simple question: how did basketball analytics get from counting one stat, the final score, to counting thousands? He discovered that what we call "basketball"-name, rules, equipment, fundamental skills, techniques, tactics, strategies-has changed dramatically since its invention and today encompasses many different forms of play, from backyards and rec leagues to the NBA Finals. Numbers Don't Lie explores the power of data to tell stories about ourselves and the world around us. As advanced statistical methods and big data technologies transform sports, we now have the power to count more things in greater detail than ever before. These numbers tell us about the past, present, and future that shape how basketball is played on the floor, decisions are made in front offices, and the sport is marketed and consumed. But what is the relationship between counting and what counts, between quantification and value? In Numbers Don't Lie Colas offers a three-part history of counting in basketball. First, he recounts how big-data basketball emerged in the past twenty years, examines its current practices, and analyzes how it presents itself to the public. Colas then situates big data within the deeper social, cultural, and conceptual history of counting in basketball and beyond and proposes alternative frameworks of value with which we may take fuller stock of the impact of statistics on the sport. Ultimately, Colas challenges the putative objectivity of both quantification and academic writing by interweaving through this history a series of personal vignettes of life at the intersection of basketball, counting, and what counts.

Paul Westhead was teaching high school in his native Philadelphia when he was named La Salle University's men's basketball coach in 1970. By 1980 he was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant, soon to be hired as head coach, winning an NBA title with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie guard Magic Johnson. After compiling a 112-50 record, he was fired in November 1981. After a short stay as coach of the Chicago Bulls, Westhead reemerged in the mideighties as a coach at Loyola Marymount in California, where he designed his highly unusual signature run-and-gun offense that came to be known as "The System." The Speed Game offers a vibrant account of how Westhead helped develop a style of basketball that not only won at the highest levels but went on to influence basketball as it's played today. Known for implementing an up-tempo, quick-possession, high-octane offense, Westhead is the only coach to have won championships in both the NBA and WNBA. But his long career can be defined by one simple question he's heard from journalists, fellow coaches, his wife, and, well, himself: Why? Why did he insist on playing such a controversial style of basketball that could vary from brilliant to busted? Westhead speaks candidly here about the feathers he ruffled and about his own shortcomings as he takes readers from Philadelphia's West Catholic High, where he couldn't make varsity, to the birth of the Showtime Lakers and to the powerhouse he built nearly ten years later at Loyola, where his team set records likely never to be approached. Westhead says he always found himself telling prospective bosses, "My speed game is gonna knock your socks off!" So will his story and what it could do to bring back a popular style of play.

Today the salary cap is an NBA institution, something fans take for granted as part of the fabric of the league or an obstacle to their favorite team's chances to win a championship. In the early 1980s, however, a salary cap was not only novel but nonexistent. The Cap tells the fascinating, behind-the-scenes story of the deal between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association that created the salary cap in 1983, the first in all of sports, against the backdrop of a looming players' strike on one side and threatened economic collapse on the other. Joshua Mendelsohn illustrates how the salary cap was more than just professional basketball's economic foundation-it was a grand bargain, a compromise meant to end the chaos that had gripped the sport since the early 1960s. The NBA had spent decades in a vulnerable position financially and legally, unique in professional sports. It entered the 1980s badly battered, something no one knew better than a few legendary NBA figures: Larry Fleisher, general counsel and negotiator for the National Basketball Players Association; Larry O'Brien, the commissioner; and David Stern, who led negotiations for the NBA and would be named the commissioner a few months after the salary cap deal was reached. As a result, in 1983 the NBA and its players made a novel settlement. The players gave up infinite pay increases, but they gained a guaranteed piece of the league's revenue and free agency to play where they wished-a combination that did not exist before in professional sports but as a result became standard for the NBA, NFL, and NHL as well. The Cap explores in detail not only the high-stakes negotiations in the early 1980s but all the twists and turns through the decades that led the parties to reach a salary cap compromise. It is a compelling story that involves notable players, colorful owners, visionary league and union officials, and a sport trying to solidify a bright future despite a turbulent past and present. This is a story missing from the landscape of basketball history.

Shortlisted for the 2017 Cross Sports Book Awards Best Biography of the Year Bryant is one of basketball's greatest-ever players, a fascinating and complicated character who says he knew when he was a boy that he would be better than Michael Jordan. Aloof and uncompromising, Bryant is the grand enigma of American professional basketball, easily the most driven player in the history of the sport, the absolute master of study and preparation. But his career has also been one of almost constant conflict: with his teammate Shaquille O'Neal; with Phil Jackson, coach of the championship-winning Lakers team that Kobe led; with the law; with his wife Vanessa; and with so many of his contemporaries, opponents and teammates. Comprehensive and unflinching, Showboat unravels the conundrum that is Kobe Bryant.

As a rookie head coach leading a franchise that, though on a steady climb upwards, had largely been dismissed by the sports media, NBA fans had low expectations for Nick Nurse and his Raptors. But what those naysayers didn't realise was that Nurse had spent the past thirty years proving himself at every level of the game, from youth programs and college ball, to the NBA G League and Britain's struggling pro circuit. While few coaches have taken such a circuitous path to pro basketball's promise land, the journey-- which began at Keumper Catholic high school in Carroll, Iowa -- forged a coach who proved to be as unshakeable as he is personable. On the road, he is now known to bring his guitar and keyboard for late-night jazz and blues sessions. In the locker room, he's steadfast and even-keeled regardless of the score. On the court, he pulls out old school, underrated plays with astounding success. A rookie in name but a veteran in attitude, Nurse is seemingly above the chaos of the game and, with two seasons on his resume, -has established himself, incredibly, as one of the NBA's most admired head coaches. Now, in this revealing new book - which will be equal parts personal memoir, leadership manifesto, and philosophical meditation - Nurse tells his own story, while also whisking readers inside the Raptors' locker room and coach's office for an intimate study of the team culture he has built and promises to sustain. As much for readers of Ray Dalio as for fans of John Wooden and Pat Summit, the result promises to become necessary for anyone looking to forge their own path to success.

The Mamba Mentality: How I Play is Kobe Bryant's personal perspective of his life and career on the basketball court and his exceptional, insightful style of playing the game--a fitting legacy from the late Los Angeles Laker superstar. In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe "The Black Mamba" Bryant decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of the legendary "Mamba mentality." Citing an obligation and an opportunity to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it "the right way," The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever. In his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They'll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career. Bryant's detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant's very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016--and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer. The combination of Bryant's narrative and Bernstein's photos make The Mamba Mentality an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the career of one of the world's most celebrated and fascinating athletes.

Test yourself and your friends! Fans of the Warriors Raptors, Lakers, Celtics, the UNC Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils, UCLA Bruins, Kentucky Wildcats, and every other great pro or college team will be puzzled, challenged, and amused by these questions and answers about the NBA, NCAA, WNBA, and everything in between. In this collection of 600 questions, Sam Amico tests your level of expertise on all things basketball. Every era of basketball history is represented, from Bob Cousy to Chris Paul, Moses Malone to Joel Embiid, Michael Jordan to LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain to Shaquille O'Neal, and everyone in between. Some of the many questions that Amico poses include: Who was the inventor of the game of basketball (called "Basket Ball") and how many original rules were written by the game's founder? What player scored the most points in an NCAA Tournament Game? Who was the first international player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame? Can you name the four ABA teams that joined the NBA in 1976? From the Celtics dynasty to the most exciting Final Four games of all time, from Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to Stephen Curry and James Harden, here is the definitive test for knowledgeable basketball fans!

Kick snow from your shoes and step into the warmth of the old Hoosier high school basketball gym, where farmers in overalls line the court and students heckle referees from planks above the bleachers. Revisit a unique era when nearly every town had a high school and its own basketball team. The gyms featured here no longer host high school games, but once they were home to the Ladoga Canners, the Mecca Arabs, the Roll Red Rollers, the Arlington Purple Breezes, the Warren Lightning Five and dozens more. Now they are elementary schools, community centers, fire stations, churches. Some are homes. Sadly, others are wasting away. But once again, the ball thuds in these gyms. The screams reverberate. The whistles blow. Join the Indianapolis Star's Kyle Neddenriep on this tour of one hundred former Hoosier high school basketball gyms.

The 2018-2019 Texas Tech men's basketball team began the season unranked and ended it playing on Monday night for the National Championship. Raider Power gives every fan a fully immersive experience with the story of a group of stone-faced dreamers and their historic journey from unranked to Big 12 Champions to the Final Four. Raider Power offers a showcase of the Red Raiders' individual players, spotlighting and providing insider information on this unexpected group of winners, all while focusing on the bond that transformed a group of underdogs into a world-class team with the best defense in the country. Follow the team from the earliest parts of the season all the way to the Championship game on Monday night. Relive every highlight, locker room celebration, and trophy ceremony. Learn the ins and outs of head coach Chris Beard's vision for the team. The ultimate effect of the Red Raiders' amazing run was to establish a culture of excellence and community: this was a group of guys who cared for each other personally, in addition to complementing each other on the court. Raider Power is the official insider companion to an incredible season-it is a must-read for all Red Raiders.

Return to basketball's salad days, when the boys were green and the money didn't matter.. .

On November 1, 1946, in the NBA's (then called the BAA) first game ever, as the visiting New York Knickerbockers defeated the Toronto Huskies, the first point in the history of the NBA was scored by the Knicks' Oscar Ossie Schectman. It was the point that launched more than six million points to come, and Ossie did it, like all of his team members, for a mere $60 and a passionate love of the game. Who could have guessed back then that this fledgling league of 11 ragtag teams would one day grow into the billion-dollar international phenomenon that it is today?. .

In "The First Tip-Off," veteran basketball writer Charley Rosen takes you back to the NBA's humble beginnings, when a colorful cast of characters laid the foundation for the empire that is today's NBA. With riveting writing, he gives you a prime seat courtside for every memorable two-handed underhand layup and hook shot of that first season, when professional basketball struggled to evolve from grudge matches--where head-butting was encouraged and players shoved each other, hockey-style, into the chicken-wire fence wrapped around the court to protect them from lit cigars tossed by angry fans--to a civilized game of elegance and skill. It wasn't an easy transformation.. .

In 1946, the players dribbled their way down slippery courts laid over ice rinks in stadiums that reeked of the previous night's rodeo. They were tough guys, ex-soldiers back from World War II, and still-green farm boys, thrilled to be away from home for the first time. They learned to play ball using wadded-up rags and fire escapes for baskets. They learnedin fields, in church basements, and on school rooftops. Rough around the edges, they brought their homegrown skills to the new league and started something big.. .

From the Boston Celtics to the Washington Capitols, through in-depth interviews with surviving players, Rosen brings the spirits and the stories of these men to life as he weaves a fascinating and poignant portrait of a league struggling to gain a foothold in the American consciousness..

There is no event in sports quite like the Final Four. John Feinstein will explore what it means to a school, a coach and a player to be in the Final Four or even at The Final. There are moving stories of players and coaches who thought they'd never make it to college basketball's final weekend, spectacular triumphs of the winning teams and heartbreaking defeat of those who missed the cut. He also brings us inspiring and dramatic stories from people behind the scenes: from officials and referees to scouts and ticket-scalpers. With the unflinching eye of a seasoned reporter and the remarkable skill of a true storyteller, Feinstein exposes the driving force behind one of the most revered events in American sports.

"The players today are much better than we were.... But there is one thing that we could do better. We could pass the ball better than they can now. Man, we used to pass that basketball around like it was a hot potato."--Sam "Buck" Covington, former member of the Washington Bruins

n a nation distinguished by a great black athletic heritage, there is perhaps no sport that has felt the impact of African American culture more than basketball. Most people assume that the rise of black basketball was a fortuitous accident of the inner-city playgrounds. In "Hot Potato, " Bob Kuska shows that it was in fact a consciously organized movement with very specific goals.

When Edwin Henderson introduced the game to Washington, D.C., in 1907, he envisioned basketball not as an end in itself but as a public-health and civil-rights tool. Henderson believed that, by organizing black athletics, including basketball, it would be possible to send more outstanding black student athletes to excel at northern white colleges and debunk negative stereotypes of the race. He reasoned that in sports, unlike politics and business, the black race would get a fair chance to succeed. Henderson chose basketball as his marquee sport, and he soon found that the game was a big hit on Washington's segregated U Street. Almost simultaneously, black basketball was catching on quickly in New York, and the book establishes that these two cities served as the birthplace of the black game.

"Hot Potato" chronicles the many successes and failures of the early years of black amateur basketball. It also recounts the emergence of black college basketball in America, documenting the origins of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, or CIAA, which would become the Big Ten of black collegiate sports.

The book also details for the first time the rise of black professional basketball in America, with a particular emphasis on the New York Renaissance, a team considered by experts to be as important in the development of black basketball as the Harlem Globetrotters. Kuska recounts the Renaissance's first victory over the white world champion Original Celtics in 1925, and he evaluates the significance of this win in advancing equality in American sports. By the late 1920s, the Renaissance became one of the sport's top draws in white and black America alike, setting the stage for the team's undisputed world championship in 1939. As Edwin Henderson had hoped--and as any fan of the modern-day game can tell you--the triumphs certainly did not end there.

The first definitive oral history of the ever popular L.A. Lakers

The L.A. Lakers have long been one of the NBA's most exciting teams. In "The Show," critically acclaimed sportswriter Roland Lazenby brings the story of this charismatic team to life in an unprecedented oral history, featuring such legendary players as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, and Magic Johnson, along with current stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Through in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and many other key figures, Lazenby follows the Lakers from their birthplace in 1946 Minneapolis to their eventual successes and failures in Los Angeles, using his flair for storytelling and eye for detail to show you exactly why the 14-time NBA champion Lakers are a celebrated favorite for sports fans all over America.

With 40 years of coaching experience at the high school level and 8 state championships, Hall of Famer Bill Kuchar lends his battle-tested philosophies and principles that made his teams unbeatable, and offers his advice on how you can start to build a dynasty of your own. Using easy to read drill diagrams and concepts, Coach Kuchar breaks down the game of basketball into a science. Offensively, it focuses on dynamic zone play such as the 1-2-2, the 1-3-1 and the box and one--concepts that will help your team score at will against the stingiest of defenses. Kuchar also introduces his double motion offense, where you utilize your three best scorers by screening away from the ball and making back cuts. He shows you how to locate zones and how to infiltrate them using proper jump shooting angles, zone cutters, screeners and producing man to man situations. He demonstrates how this will open up gaps for your players that will overwhelm the opponent with deadeye shots. He also gives his 15 best out-of-bounds plays as well as three sure fire last second desperation plays when the game is on the line. Defensively, Coach Kuchar provides a complete breakdown of the man for man pressure defense from half-court and full-court sets, as well as the zone defense with bases from a 1-3-1 set to a 2-1-2. He not only teaches you how to defend a particular offense, but what to defend it with and why. He shows you the individual and team techniques to build a tenacious defense that uses both these man-to-man and zone styles of play. In Coaching High School Basketball, you'll also find new, cutting edge ideas on how to defend against the ever-popular fast break, stunting defenses and powerful post players. You'll learn the right way to create mismatches, slow down your opponents, and utilize your best shooters all while shutting down their best scorer. And through dozens of easy to follow drills you'll also learn the fundamentals of shooting the proper jump shot, boxing out for a rebound, setting picks, screening away from the ball, and making the right decisions on the floor.

No one had really heard of Chaminade University-a tiny NAIA Catholic school in Honolulu with fewer than eight hundred undergraduates-until its basketball game against the University of Virginia on December 23, 1982. The Chaminade Silverswords defeated the Cavaliers, then the Division I, No. 1-ranked team in the nation, in what the Washington Post later called "the biggest upset in the history of college basketball." Virginia was the most heralded team in the country, led by seven-foot-four-inch, three-time College Basketball Player of the Year Ralph Sampson. They had just been paid $50,000-more than double Chaminade's annual basketball budget-to play an early season tournament in Tokyo and were making a "stopover" game in Hawaii on their way back to the mainland. The Silverswords, led by forward Tony Randolph, came back in the second half and won the game 77-72. Chaminade's incredible victory became known as the "Miracle on Ward Avenue" or simply "The Upset" in Hawaii and was featured in the national news. Never before in the history of college basketball had a school moved so dramatically and irretrievably into the nation's consciousness. The Silverswords' victory was more than just an upset; it was something considered impossible. And the team's wins over major college programs continued in the ensuing years. Today Chaminade is still referred to as "The Giant Killers"-the school that beat Ralph Sampson and Virginia. The Greatest Upset Never Seen relives the 1982-83 season, when Chaminade put small-college basketball and Hawaii on the national sports map.

The newest addition to the highly successful Baffled Parents Guide Series.

Written by a teacher and basketball coach with more than three decades of experience, Great Basketball Drills offers 125 games that will keep practices fresh and kids moving and excited. Here is a fun, engaging alternative to traditional rote drills, with games designed to teach basic skills, sharpen reflexes, and build confidence and decision-making ability. Great Basketball Drills is a sure bet to end practice boredom.

• A fun, original games approach to drilling young players
  
• 125 simple, skill-building games that keep kids moving
  
• Quick-access troubleshooting chart lets coaches easily match drills to problem areas
  
• Endorsed by nationally renowned high school coach Morgan Wooten
  

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) has long been respected as the premier coaching organization of the sport, and its membership includes some of the most illustrious figures and foremost teachers in basketball history. "NABC Drill Book, Volume I" contains over 100 of the best drills for improving a team's offense and defense -- including improving transitions between the two. Included here are drills from the following great teachers of the game:

• Bob Knight
• Pete Newell
• John Wooden
• Mike Krzyzewski
• Roy Williams
• Tex Winter
• Dave Odom
• Rick Samuels
• Dick Davey
• Lute Olson
• Jerry Tarkanian
• Wimp Sanderson
• Jerry Krause
• Tubby Smith
• James Seward
• Denny Crum
• And Many More

A hardcover edition featuring new content for fans of the #1 New York Times bestseller Any fan of Shea Serrano's unconventional, hilarious, and insightful writing will want to add this hardcover edition of his wildly popular Basketball (and Other Things) to their collection. The book will feature a new cover and two new chapters as well as removable art that showcases Serrano's trademark creativity and Arturo Torres's inimitable illustration style. First released as a paperback in 2017, the book went on to become a #1 New York Times bestseller. This edition will be a keepsake for Serrano fans and basketball fans alike.