11 of the Best Nonfiction Books About Basketball

Abdul-Jabbar just isn’t just one of the best gamers to ever grace a basketball court docket, however he’s one of the most sensible, fascinating folks you’ll ever examine. This is his story written for youthful readers, about the prejudice he confronted and the way he fought to attain his desires. It’s positive to encourage followers of the sport and anybody with a dream. (Abdul-Jabbar can be a HUGE Sherlock Holmes fan and has written a trilogy for younger readers about Sherlock’s brother Mycroft Holmes.)

This is an bold take a look at Oklahoma City, from its founding, to its climate, to the 1995 bombing. And additionally extra particularly, one season of its staff, the Thunders, and the controversial buying and selling of its star participant, a younger James Harden, earlier than the starting of the 2013 season started.

This is a wonderful biography of one of right this moment’s (actually) largest NBA stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo, additionally referred to as the “Greek Freak” led the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship in 2021. This is the story of his rise from a younger child in Athens to a celebrity and why he’s necessary to the recreation right this moment. You may also be taught extra about Giannis’s youthful years and the story of his household, which incorporates two different basketball-playing siblings, in the new Disney+ sequence Rise.

The NBA was outlined in the Eighties by the largest rivalry in basketball: the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. The star gamers for every staff, Bird and Johnson, competed fiercely towards each other for years, however fostered a lifelong friendship off the court docket, one of mutual respect and admiration. It’s nice to listen to from two legendary giants of the recreation.

This latest ebook is a lot enjoyable. It’s an examination of the New York Knicks in the Nineteen Nineties, beginning after they lured coach Pat Riley away from the Lakers and began constructing a profitable franchise…for some time. If you want wild tales and sizzling gossip, albeit about basketball, this can be a nice ebook to learn. Some of the court docket habits mentioned isn’t acceptable in the NBA anymore, and for good purpose, however it positive is enjoyable to examine.

The American Basketball Association existed alongside the National Basketball Association from 1967 to 1976. It promoted a flashier, extra raucous model of the recreation, with issues like three-point photographs and 6 extra seconds on the shot clock. Many of the nice legends of basketball, equivalent to Julius Irving and Moses Malone, obtained their begin in the ABA. It was integrated into the NBA in 1976, altering the face of NBA basketball without end, and its story is fascinating from begin to end.

And right here’s a take a look at the beginnings of girls’s skilled basketball. Before we knew the WNBA with Sue Bird, Candace Parker, A’ja Wilson, and Brittney Griner, girls fought lengthy and arduous for his or her place in the basketball highlight in the WBL. This covers the early years of that league, together with its groups, its star gamers, and the homicide of one of the gamers.

And this one is a little bit insider baseball, er, basketball. But it’s actually attention-grabbing! There was a time when there was no three-point shot in basketball. All these lengthy photographs was two factors. And then the NBA adopted the three-point shot in 1979, and it modified the recreation. And now we now have big stars recognized for his or her three-point taking pictures, like Steph Curry and Damian Lillard. It’s wild to consider how Wilt Chamberlain set all types of scoring data with out the three-point shot (or how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar solely made one in his profession.)

This was really the wonderful ebook I learn lately that gave me the thought for the checklist. It’s a wanted examination of the contributions of Black gamers to the NBA, with a give attention to the stars of the recreation in the Nineteen Seventies and the way they ushered in change to the NBA in the face of racism and prejudice.

And like you possibly can’t have an inventory of sports activities books with out David Halberstam, you possibly can’t have an inventory of basketball books with out Bill Russell. Very few gamers made such a big impact and contribution to the recreation. Russell was one of the first Black gamers on an NBA staff, spending his profession as a middle for the Celtics. He additionally turned a participant coach, making him the first Black coach in the NBA, and later the first Black coach to win a championship. All whereas coping with racism and violence directed in direction of him, even in Boston the place he performed. Russell was a legend, who sadly handed away in 2022. The NBA retired his jersey quantity, #6, throughout all groups, and in the event you watch a recreation this season, you’ll see the quantity on all the jerseys and the courts in his honor.

Summitt was the winningest coach in girls’s faculty basketball, and one of the most beloved coaches of the recreation. This ebook is her story of serving to her staff, the Tennessee Lady Vols, win a “threepeat” or third consecutive championship. This contains not simply the story of the video games, however so much of the motion and anxiousness that went on behind the scenes. Summitt, who died in 2016, additionally wrote a ebook about attaining your objectives referred to as Reach for the Summitt, and a memoir about her early-onset Alzheimer’s analysis, Sum It Up.