I’m looking to locate a few excellent books on Basketball as a gift for a friend. In part this was inspired by ESPN.com Sports Guy - Bill Simmons. In his columns he recently made a habit of recommending various sports books as being classics and highly recommended, a high percentage of those books involved basketball. I recall finding his summaries interesting and compelling and being a fan of his I assumed his opinions to be relevant. The catch is that I don’t remember what books he recommended and older columns rquire a subscription which I don’t have. Long story short, that leads me to you guys in hopes of getting a series of capsule reviews of any basketball books you have enjoyed. so far my Google-fu hasn’t been all that helpful.
It’s been a while so my memory might be a little sketchy. I’m pretty sure he wrote a column, likely either a “More Cowbell” or “Mailbag” item, in which he listed a half dozen or more sports books which he said helped to inspire him as a writer. After that he made a semi-weekly habit of recommending a book at the end of a column. If you could post some titles I’d be quite grateful.
Of course suggestions totally outside of those are invited.
There are quite a few excellent books about basketball, almost none of them deal with the professional game.
For my money, the far and away best is Heaven is a Playground, by Rick Telander. Telander was a Sports Illustrated writer doing a story on street ball in New York, and he was so fascinated by the stories he was hearing that he stayed for the summer and wrote this book about the men whose lives were defined by thier game. Great book. Another in the same vein is The City Game, by Pete Axthelm. A third is Hoop Dreams, by Ben Joravsky. Most people remember the excellent documentary he made, but the book is very good as well.
For the college game, A Season on the Brink, by John Feinstein. It is the story of Bobby Knight’s 1985-1986 Indiana basketball season.
The Breaks of the Game, by David Halberstam, is the pro version and predecessor to Feinstein’s book. It is about the 1979 Portland Trailblazers, a couple years removed from their amazing NBA championship season.
My favorite basketball book is Loose Balls by Terry Pluto. It’s a look into the history of the American Basketball Association (ABA), a pro basketball league that was set up as a competitor to the NBA. Absolutely fascinating read. It makes a good argument that much of what made for the “modern” NBA came from the ABA. The three-point shot, for instance, was a feature of the ABA long before the NBA picked it up.
Interesting bit of history that not all NBA fans might not know: The Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and New York Nets (now known as the New Jersey Nets) all originally started in the NBA. When the ABA folded, those teams merged into the NBA.
If Bill Simmons didn’t mention this book in his column, he should have.
Thanks a ton! Exactly what I was looking for, and I think I’ve answered my question. I’m torn between “Wait til Next Year” and “Loose Balls” and considering the former is out of print, it looks like it’s decided. I appreciate all the comments here and it sounds like “Loose Balls” is universally praised.