Drain three pointers, slam dunk easily, and sink that buzzer-beater from half court with the help of simple science. Your coach, physicist John J. Fontanella, shows how you can improve your game if you take advice from Isaac Newton. As you read, relive some of the great moments in the game - this time with a scientist and diehard basketball fan as your color analyst. Find out why you ought to put spin on the ball. Get tips on how to improve your free throw and increase your percentage from the charity stripe. You'll even learn how to shatter the backboard, if that's something you've always dreamed of doing. With photographs and simple high school formulas, physics professor Fontanella - who played in college against Pittsburgh and Syracuse - reveals the key pieces of physics that underscore basketball. He covers almost every aspect of the game, weaving in stories from games he's played and games he's seen, and tales from basketball history and folklore. Physics comes alive as you see how Kobe Bryant, Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Becky Hammon, and J. J. Reddick do naturally the things that Isaac Newton says they should.

In 1965, 18-year old Lew Alcindor, who would later change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, left New York City to play basketball for Coach John Wooden at UCLA. It was the beginning of what was to become a 50-year long relationship that ended with Kareem sitting at his 99-year old coach's bedside on a June evening in 2010, holding his hand, just before he died. This is the story of their enduring friendship, both on and off the court. On the court, Jabbar led UCLA to three national champions, and was named the Outstanding Player in the NCAA for each of those years-a feat that has yet to be matched in college basketball. Wooden coached UCLA for 27 seasons and won more NCAA championships than any other coach in history. Off the court, they transcended their athletic achievements to gain even wider recognition and tremendous national respect. They came together at the height of the civil rights era, and Coach Wooden made sure that every player on his team got the same opportunity and was treated equally. Even when Kareem controversially adopted the Muslim faith, and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wooden was there to support him. Abdul-Jabbar will intimately reveal the lessons Coach Wooden taught-- from putting your socks on right, to the philosophies in his famous "Pyramid of Success,"--and how they shaped his life, and more generally take you back to the basics of what a coach should be. Part memoir, and part inspirational, this book is filled with untold stories about the famous pair; private correspondence; exclusive interviews with other teammates and coaches, friends, and even family, on Coach Wooden's impact; and much more.

The Chicago Blackhawks, one of the NHL’s “Original Six,” have been building their storied legacy for decades. Since their founding in 1926, the Hawks have won six Stanley Cup championships and produced dozens of standout stars, from Hall of Fame goaltender Mike Karakas in the ’30s to Bobby “The Golden Jet” Hull in the ’60s to current team captain Jonathan Toews. And the Chicago Tribune, the team’s hometown newspaper, has been covering it all from the very beginning. Published to coincide with the start of the 2017–18 season, The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Blackhawks is a decade-by-decade look at the city’s 21st-century sports dynasty. Curated by the Chicago Tribune sports department, this book documents every era in the team’s history, from the 1920s to the present day, through the newspaper’s original reporting, in-depth analysis, comprehensive timelines, and archival photos. Each chapter includes profiles on key coaches and players, highlighting the top players from each decade as well as every Stanley Cup championship. Bonus “overtime” material—stats and facts on championships, Hall of Famers, memorable trades, and more—provides a blow-by-blow look at all 90 years of the franchise’s history.

One of the most successful Black businessmen in the country, who has led Nike's Jordan Brand from a $200M sneaker company to a $4B global apparel juggernaut, tells the remarkable story of his rise from gangland violence to the pinnacles of international business. Jump tells Larry Miller's journey from the violent streets of West Philly in the 1960s to the highest echelons of American sports and industry. Miller wound up in jail more than once, especially as a teenager. But he immersed himself in the educational opportunities, eventually took advantage of a Pennsylvania state education-release program offered to incarcerated people, and was able to graduate with honors from Temple University. When revealing his gangland past caused him to lose his first major job opportunity, Miller vowed to keep it a secret. He climbed the corporate ladder with a number of companies such as Kraft Foods, Campbell's Soup, and Jantzen, until Nike hired him to run its domestic apparel operations. Around the time of Michael Jordan's basketball retirement, Nike Chairman Phil Knight made Larry Miller president of the newly formed Jordan Brand. In 2007 Paul Allen convinced Miller to jump to the NBA to become president of the Portland Trailblazers, one of the first African-Americans to lead a professional sports team, before returning to Jordan Brand in 2012. All along, Miller lived two lives: the secret of his violent past haunted him, invading his days with migraines and his sleep with nightmares of getting hauled back to jail. More than a rags-to-riches story, Jump is also a passionate appeal for criminal justice reform and expanded educational opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people across the United States. Drawing on his powerful personal story, as well as his vast and well-connected network, Miller plans to use Jump as a launching point to help expand such opportunities and to provide an aspirational journey for those who need hope.

Discover the amazing achievements of fan favorite two-time MVP Stephen Curry in this brand-new, comprehensive biography Steph Curry is a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, record-breaker, and Finals champion who electrifies fans with his incredible on-court feats. He's also a dedicated husband, father, and philanthropist who inspires people on and off the court. Learn more about this remarkable athlete in this biography, complete with stats and photographs.

For forty years, Dean Smith coached the University of North Carolina basketball team with unsurpassed success. Now, in The Carolina Way, he explains his coaching philosophy and shows readers how to apply it to the leadership and team-building challenges they face in their own lives. In his wry, sensible, wise way, Coach Smith takes us through every aspect of his program, illustrating his insights with vivid stories. Accompanying each of Coach Smith's major points is a "Player Perspective" from a former North Carolina basketball star and an in-depth "Business Perspective" from Gerald D. Bell, a world-renowned leadership consultant and a professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. The keystones of Coach Smith's coaching philosophy are widely applicable and centrally relevant to building successful teams of any kind.

Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down, this book offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game's finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.

Ted Strong Jr. (1917-1978) was a two-sport athlete, a major star of the Negro Leagues and one of the original Harlem Globetrotters. His prominence in the Negro Leagues led Branch Rickey and other white baseball league owners to consider Strong as one of several possible players to integrate major league baseball, and he was a key force on the basketball court when the Globetrotters defeated the then-invincible Minneapolis Lakers in 1948. Despite his athletic dominance in the 1930s and 40s, Strong Jr. has largely been forgotten in American sports history. In Ted Strong Jr.: The Untold Story of an Original Harlem Globetrotter and Negro Leagues All-Star, Sherman L. Jenkins finally shares the fascinating story of this star athlete. Born Theodore Relighn Strong Jr. in South Bend, Indiana, Strong Jr., the eldest of fourteen children, was fortunate to have a positive influence in his father-a baseball player himself. Strong Jr. went on to play in seven Negro League Baseball East-West All-Star games, receiving the most votes in all of Black baseball history in 1939, and was a key member of the 1940 Harlem Globetrotter basketball team that won the World Professional Basketball Championship. Jenkins details all of this and more, including Strong Jr.'s frustrations with integration efforts promised by white baseball team owners and the eventual decline of the Negro Leagues after the entrance of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball. Through hours of interviews with Strong Jr.'s father and with friends and teammates of his brother Othello, along with extensive research of newspaper archives, this book provides rich insights into an unsung hero in the American sports landscape. For baseball and basketball fans of all ages, Ted Strong Jr.'s biography displays for the first time the determination and guts of a man who was idealized by many African Americans in the early twentieth century.

A groundbreaking, timely history of the largely unknown early days of Black basketball, bringing to life the trailblazing players, teams, and impresarios who made the game From the introduction of the game of basketball to Black communities on a wide scale in 1904 to the racial integration of the NBA in 1950, dozens of African American teams were founded and flourished. This period, known as the Black Fives Era (teams at the time were often called "fives"), was a time of pioneering players and managers. They battled discrimination and marginalization and created culturally rich, socially meaningful events. But despite headline-making rivalries between big-city clubs, the savvy moves of innovative businessmen, and the undeniable talent of star players, this period is almost entirely unknown to basketball fans. Claude Johnson has made it his mission to change that. An advocate fiercely committed to our history, for more than two decades Johnson has conducted interviews, mined archives, collected artifacts, and helped to preserve this historically important African American experience that otherwise would have been lost. The Black Fives is the result of his work, a landmark narrative history that braids together the stories of these forgotten pioneers and rewrites our understanding of the story of basketball.

Jerry West is one of the most revered and enigmatic sports icons of all time, but beneath the surface lies a complicated man who shares his true story with unflinching candor.
WEST BY WEST recounts West's difficult journey from an abusive childhood in West Virginia (and the loss of a beloved brother to war) to his All-American success at West Virginia University, and his brilliant 40-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He speaks openly for the first time about his lifelong battle with depression, low self-esteem, and his complex relationships with NBA legends Elgin Baylor, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pat Riley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant, with owners Jack Kent Cooke and Jerry Buss, coach Phil Jackson, and many more. Unsparing in its self-assessment, WEST BY WEST is a profound confession and a magnificent inspiration, a book that generated much discussion when it was published last year and is sure to be talked about for years to come.

In his first memoir written especially for young readers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will focus on his relationships with several important coaches in his life - including his father, his high-school coach and Coach Wooden - as he tells the story of his life and career. Like many kids in elementary school, Kareem (then Lew Alcindor) struggled with fitting in, pleasing a strict father, and severe shyness that made him socially awkward. Unlike most kids, he also had to grapple with a sudden growth spurt that shot him up taller than pretty much everyone around him, including students, teachers, and even his own father. His increasing fame as a basketball player throughout high school brought new challenges as this shy boy was shoved into the national spotlight. At the same time, social unrest in the country, particularly involving the growing civil rights movement, tugged at his conscience as he tried to find his place in it. After all, he was just a kid. What could he do? Recruited to UCLA, his fame as an unstoppable center made him a college superstar. But as his fame rose, so did the social turmoil in the country: Vietnam War protests, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., large-scale riots, the Women's Movement. He could have hidden from all the turmoil as a sports celebrity, but he chose to join in the social evolution. The result was converting to Islam and changing his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The public backlash was blistering, but he didn't waver.

"They don't know me. They don't know what I'm capable of." Diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, a form of autism, as a toddler, Anthony Ianni wasn't expected to succeed in school or participate in sports, but he had other ideas. As a child, Ianni told anybody who would listen, including head coach Tom Izzo, that he would one day play for the Michigan State Spartans. Centered: Autism, Basketball, and One Athlete's Dreams is the firsthand account of a young man's social, academic, and athletic struggles and his determination to reach his goals. In this remarkable memoir, Ianni reflects on his experiences with both basketball and the autism spectrum. Centered, an inspirational sports story in the vein of Rudy, reveals Ianni to be unflinching in his honesty, generous in his gratitude, and gracious in his compassion. Sports fans will root for the underdog. Parents, teachers, and coaches will gain insight into the experience of an autistic child. And everyone will triumph in the achievements of Centered.

For nearly one hundred years, basketball has been an important part of Japanese American life. Women's basketball holds a special place in the contemporary scene of highly organized and expansive Japanese American leagues in California, in part because these leagues have produced numerous talented female players. Using data from interviews and observations, Nicole Willms explores the interplay of social forces and community dynamics that have shaped this unique context of female athletic empowerment. As Japanese American women have excelled in mainstream basketball, they have emerged as local stars who have passed on the torch by becoming role models and building networks for others.

For nearly one hundred years, basketball has been an important part of Japanese American life. Women's basketball holds a special place in the contemporary scene of highly organized and expansive Japanese American leagues in California, in part because these leagues have produced numerous talented female players. Using data from interviews and observations, Nicole Willms explores the interplay of social forces and community dynamics that have shaped this unique context of female athletic empowerment. As Japanese American women have excelled in mainstream basketball, they have emerged as local stars who have passed on the torch by becoming role models and building networks for others.

The youngest person to be voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, "Pistol" Pete Maravich is recognized by the NBA as one of the all-time top 50 basketball players. More than 30 years after he left Louisiana State University, his NCAA scoring record still stands. He enjoyed fame, wealth, and short of winning an NBA championship, achieved every possible success. But there was a price. Pete brought a childlike exuberance to the court that often masked a tortured and confused adult. Things changed dramatically and permanently, however, when Pete found Christ. At last he experienced peace and a purpose that extended beyond the basketball court. He became an avid student of the Bible and a tireless evangelist. Tragically, at age 40, Pete Maravich died. This is the first "authorized" biography.

In the ranks of NCAA college basketball, Duke University is like something scraped off the bottom of a shoe. It's like a nasty virus you catch from a door handle at a public toilet.""

No team in sports is as uniquely hated as those smug, entitled, floor-slapping, fist-pumping, insufferable Blue Devils. The loathing has almost reached the level of a religion. Christian Laettner is a punk. Amen. The Cameron Crazies are obnoxious. The Plumlees are worthless times three. Coach K is a jerk. Kumbaya.

The team is dogged by an intense hatred that no other team can match--and for good reason. Millions of hoops fans and March Madness aficionados around the world are not imagining things. Duke really is evil, and within the pages of "Duke Sucks," Reed Tucker and Andy Bagwell show readers exactly why Duke deserves to be so detested. They bruise and batter the Blue Devils with fact after fact, story after story, statistic after statistic. They build an airtight case that could stand up in a court of law.

So sit back in your "I Hate Duke" t-shirt, and in true Duke fashion, force someone poorer than you to do your work as you crack open the ultimate guide to Duke suckitude.

For 31 years, The Dallas Mavericks had seasons end in disappointment. Every year, they tried again to find the right combination, only to find another dead end. But in the 2010-11 season, the Mavericks finally found the right mix around their superstar, Dirk Nowitzki, and shocked the basketball world by winning their first NBA Championship. Through extensive interviews and covering the Mavericks as a passionate journalist, Sturm illuminates what exactly brought the Mavericks together as a team. THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT covers all the important details of the Dallas Mavericks' 2011 championship season, including: The transformation of the Dallas Mavericks franchise from perennial loser to NBA powerhouse. Dirk Nowitzki's career-long battle to cement his dynasty with an NBA championship, including a bitter loss in the 2006 Finals to Dwyane Wade's Miami Heat. Tracing the ups and downs of the 2011 campaign, as the Mavs soared to the top of the standings, only to suffer critical injuries mid-season and a string of losses which threatened their playoff hopes. A game-by-game recap of the Mavericks' 2011 playoff run, as they battled through the quarter-, semi-, and Western Conference Finals for a chance to compete for the NBA championship. The epic story of the 2011 NBA Finals, as Nowitzki and the Mavs took on Miami's "Big Three," in a rematch of Dallas' heartbreaking loss in the 2006 Finals, and how the Mavericks overcame all odds to win their first NBA Championship.

James Naismith invented the game of basketball as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. That December of 1891, his task was to create a game to occupy a rowdy class during the winter months. Almost instantly popular, the game spread across the country and was played in fifteen countries by the end of the century. And yet basketball never had an overriding presence in Naismith's life, as he was also a minister, doctor, educator, and coach. So what did Naismith think about the game of basketball? In The James Naismith Reader, Douglas Stark answers that question using articles, speeches, letters, notes, radio interview transcripts, and other correspondence, including discussions on the game's origins, Naismith's childhood game duck on a rock in Canada, the changing rules, basketball as a representation of Muscular Christianity, and the physical education movement. From Naismith's original rules written in 1891 to an excerpt from the posthumous publication of his book Basketball: Its Origin and Development, Naismith's writings range over a fifty-year period, showing his thoughts on the game's invention and as the game evolved during his lifetime. The first volume to compile the existing primary sources of Naismith's views on basketball, The James Naismith Reader reveals what its inventor thought of the game, as well as his interactions with educators and instructors who assisted the game's growth.

In his first memoir written especially for young readers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will focus on his relationships with several important coaches in his life - including his father, his high-school coach and Coach Wooden - as he tells the story of his life and career. At one time, Lew Alcindor was just another kid from New York City with all the usual problems: He struggled with fitting in, with pleasing a strict father, and with overcoming shyness that made him feel socially awkward. But with a talent for basketball, and an unmatched team of supporters, Lew Alcindor was able to transform and to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. From a childhood made difficult by racism and prejudice to a record-smashing career on the basketball court as an adult, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's life was packed with "coaches" who taught him right from wrong and led him on the path to greatness. His parents, coaches Jack Donahue and John Wooden, Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, and many others played important roles in Abdul-Jabbar's life and sparked him to become an activist for social change and advancement. The inspiration from those around him, and his drive to find his own path in life, are highlighted in this personal and awe-inspiriting journey.