Sports & Recreation : Basketball

America's favorite sportswriter teams up with Red Auerbach, the most successful and admired coach in basketball history, to tell the best stories of a legendary life. more...

Price: $10.99

Bring a family of four to an NBA game today, and it costs around $500 to watch a bunch of seven-footers take bad shots. Perhaps the quote often attributed to P.T. Barnum is true—there really is a sucker born every minute. The NBA is in trouble. And as NBA agent Keith Glass describes it—he's part of the problem! If team owners are willing to throw millions of dollars his way for marginal players, why should he be the only one with the self-restraint to say ''no''?. In his insightful, funny, and often mind-numbingly bizarre tales of life in the NBA over the last twenty- five years, Keith Glass lets it fly from half-court. He'll tell you how we got to the present state—where an agent who makes millions off the game can't sit through one; why our NBA stars couldn't capture Olympic gold; and why the game he loves is in dire need of help. Glass has seen it all as the representative of players like Mark Eaton, the seven-foot-five center found working as a mechanic because he hated basketball; Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who converted to Islam and brought the wrath of the league upon him when he refused to stand for the National Anthem; and first-round draft pick Quincy Douby, who was forced to enter the draft before graduating from Rutgers because of the harsh NCAA rules regarding college eligibility. With informative chapters such as ''How to Feed Your Family on Only $14 Million a Year,'' ''Eighty-one Feet of White Centers,'' and ''From 6'11'' to the 7- Eleven,'' Glass shatters the myth of NBA marketing: that everything about the game is great, and that as long as the fans in the luxury boxes are happy and weighed down with expensive merchandise, all is well. But have no fear! Keith Glass doesn't preach about the evils of highlight film slam-dunks—he'll just have you falling down laughing as he flagrantly fouls the league that was once the envy of the pro sports world. more...

Price: $10.95

Talent, drive, smarts, and an absolutely one-of-a-kind personality - that is the essence of basketball legend Larry Bird. Now Bird tells the story of his playing and coaching days that the headlines would only hint at. Starting with the day he announced his retirement as a member of the Boston Celtics ('one of the happiest days of my life'), looking back to his college career, and going behind the scenes as head coach of the Indiana Pacers, Bird talks hoops and talks life, strategy and players, victories and defeats. more...

Price: $7.99

Pick up the pace with Coach Bobby Cremins' secrets for playing up-tempo ball. When Bobby Cremins became head coach of Appalachian State University, he was one of the youngest professionals to ever lead an NCAA Division I basketball team. Going to Georgia Tech at 33, he was among the youngest ever in the history of the ACC. Two decades later as Georgia Tech's all-time winningest coach, Cremins had compiled fourteen victorious seasons, six All-Americans, and two National Coach of the Year awards. How did he do it? The answers are here as Coach Cremins reveals the secrets of his powerful, high-pressure playbook for the first time ever. In this action-packed guide for coaches and players, Cremins shares more than 150 super-charged plays and strategies guaranteed to make you rethink your offensive system, along with how he recruited many of the top point guards who played for him, and what he learned from each. You'll learn how to: Implement a fast break that's right for you and your personnel, from missed shots to made baskets.; Attack full- and half-court pressure and get high percentage shots.; Go to your bread and butter plays for your half-court attack.; Develop an aggressive zone offense.; Beat the clock with great last-second shots and all kinds of special situations, including three-point shots, out-of-bounds plays, and much more. more...

Price: $18.95

Chuck Taylor is one of the most famous names in basketball history that no one knows anything about. His name is synonymous with the Converse tennis shoes ("Chucks") that bear his name. In 2001, while researching a story on the bankruptcy of Converse, Inc., the oldest continuous sport shoe manufacturer in America, newspaper reporter Abraham Aamidor discovered that little was truly known about the company's famous personality, and it sparked an interest to know more. The result is the first-ever biography of Taylor. more...

Price: $17.55