Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I've ever read but one of the most moving books I've ever read, period.--Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture, Chicago Public Library, BookPage

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, The New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Lit

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren't. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father's jump shot, Abdurraqib writes. The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.

There's Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus--whether it's basketball, or music, or performance--Hanif Abdurraqib's exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION

A celebration of basketball by way of the 100 greatest players to ever grace the court in the history of the NBA--from The Athletic's foremost basketball writers and analysts the game has to offer. With a foreword by Charles Barkley.

Over the course of 100 luminous player profiles, the best sports newsroom on the planet paints vivid portraits of the game's most compelling characters. There's George Mikan, who was cut from his high school team because he wore glasses, then went on to become the fledgling NBA's first transcendent star. Gary Payton, called The Glove for his skintight defense, who talked as much trash to his teammates as he did to his opponents on the court. Dennis Rodman, who started playing basketball at age 20, and in a few short years went from working as a janitor at the airport to being one of the strangest superstars that sport has ever known. Allen Iverson, who drew inspiration from hip hop for his inimitable style and swagger, on and off the court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was so dominant in the paint that they changed the rules--and Steph Curry, who was so dominant outside it that he seemed to expand the very boundaries of the court.

The Basketball 100, edited by award-winning reporters David Aldridge and John Hollinger, also answers the game's toughest, most important questions: How should we weight championship rings, versus statistical profiles, versus the eye test? Were the great players of yesteryear, like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, propelled by the inferior athleticism of their competition or would they have been transcendent in any era? And of course, who's the GOAT--MJ or LeBron? Speaking of GOATs, for the book, Hollinger (inventor of the statistical metric PER) has created a new benchmark, GOAT Points.

Wonderfully written, authoritative, and full of joy, The Basketball 100 is a fitting tribute to the greatest sport in the world.

In Five Banners, Feinstein tells the inside history of Coach K's forty-two-year career at Duke and its five NCAA championships, from the first, against Kansas in 1991, to the most recent, in 2015 against Wisconsin. With unparalleled access to Coach K, the team, and its staff, Feinstein takes readers on a mesmerizing ride into the locker room and onto the court. Full of intimate details, personal memories, and previously untold on- and off-court stories, it is a book that only Feinstein could write.

Feinstein explores a basketball legacy that begins with his days as an undergrad Duke Chronicle reporter covering coaches Bucky Waters and Neill McGeachy (who went 10-16 in one year as head coach), includes the drought years of the 1980s and the glory of the teams of the 1990s, and moves into the present day with Jon Scheyer's succession. Drawing on new interviews, Feinstein highlights the voices of Grant Hill, Nolan Smith, Christian Laettner, Tommy Amaker, and Bobby Hurley, who each bring new insights on the championship years.

Throughout, Feinstein unveils the momentous force of college basketball as a game of intense relationships and intimate conversations. Candid, revelatory, and engrossing, Five Banners is an essential book for all Duke fans and anyone who loves the college game.

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.

Who doesn't wanna read an entire book about the slam dunk? I love basketball. - Ann Patchett

The definitive dunking dissertation. - Jack McCallum, Wall Street Journal

From the author of the bestselling Kobe Bryant biography The Rise comes the legend of the most powerful shot in basketball: the slam dunk.

The evolution of basketball, and much of the social and cultural change in America, can be traced through one powerful act on the court: the slam dunk. The dunk's history is the story of a sport and a country changed by the most dominant act in basketball, and it makes Magic in the Air a rollicking and insightful piece of narrative history and a surefire classic of sports literature.

When basketball was the province of white men, the dunk acted as a revolutionary agent, a tool for players like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell to transform the sport into a Black man's game. The dunk has since been an expression of Black culture amid the righteous upheaval of the civil-rights movement, of the threat that Black people were considered to be to the establishment. It was banned from college basketball for nearly a decade--an attempt to squash the individual expression and athleticism that characterized the sport in America's cities and on its playgrounds. The dunk nevertheless bubbled up to basketball's highest levels. From Julius Erving to Michael Jordan to the high flyers of the 21st century, the dunk has been a key mechanism for growing the NBA into a global goliath.

Drawing on deep reporting and dozens of interviews with players, coaches, and other hoops experts, Magic in the Air brings to life the tale of the dunk while balancing sharp socio-racial history and commentary with a romp through American sports and culture. There's never been a basketball book quite like it.

As one of the NBA's premier photographers, Nathaniel S. Butler has shot it all. From iconic moments like Ray Allen's corner three to intimate portraits of Bill Russell and the NBA50 and NBA75 teams to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry clinching championships, if it was a history-making basketball moment, Butler was there.

Courtside: 40 Years of NBA Photography is a spectacular photographic collection spanning the first four decades of Butler's career, including the current draft class's rookie season.

With commentary from NBA legends across generations, including Patrick Ewing, Steph Curry, Jeremy Lin, and Victor Wembanyama, this is the insider look at the National Basketball Association and the man whose photographs have helped define its rise.

A deeply insightful and introspective look at arguably the best basketball player in the world.--Jemele Hill

This is a fantastic book. Mike Singer, through moments large and small, captures the unlikely journey of Nikola Jokic with detail and texture, and with a style that holds the reader's attention and energy from start to finish.--Bomani Jones

A revealing, intimate biography of basketball savant and enigmatic NBA superstar Nikola Jokic, filled with news-breaking interviews and deep reporting from Mike Singer, the Nuggets' former beat writer for the Denver Post.

Why So Serious? takes readers on Nikola Jokic's long, strange, and incredibly unlikely journey to becoming the heartbeat of the champion Denver Nuggets and the best basketball player on the planet. As he traces Jokic's transformation from his humble beginnings in Sombor, Serbia, sports journalist Mike Singer captures the witty irreverence, unparalleled competitiveness, and slight mischievousness of the MVP fondly known as The Joker.

Behind his veiled public persona, who really is Nikola Jokic? Filled with exclusive, sure-to-be-headline-making interviews, including unique insights from Jokic himself, Why So Serious? delves deep into the soul of the mysterious center and reveals how the big man developed his relentless work ethic, exceptional court vision, and magical playing style that has redefined dominance in the NBA.

Caitlin Clark has written her name all over the NCAA record books, captivated fans with her trademark long-range shots, and put women's basketball on the map in unprecedented ways. The best part? She's just getting started.

With in-depth writing from The Athletic and dozens of vivid photos, Caitlin Clark: Raising the Game traces this incredible rise, from Clark's early days as a standout in Des Moines, to her dominance with the Iowa Hawkeyes that made her a household name, and the start of her professional career with the WNBA's Indiana Fever. Chapters will also spotlight her dynamic playing style and her impact on the world of women's sports.

Experience the illustrious and passionate history of The Boston Celtics, the winningest team in NBA history, as it happened through the articles, features, and lens of their hometown and national news outlet, The Boston Globe.

From the moment the Boston Celtics first set foot on their parquet floor in the inaugural 1946 season through the 2024 championship season, The Boston Globe has covered the NBA's most storied franchise with the journalistic equivalent of a fullcourt press. For nearly 80 years, The Boston Globe's generations of stalwart writers and reporters have been there to document it all in real time, with feature stories, columns, and game reports, from founder Walter A. Brown's early faith in the fledgling team through the Bill Russell dynasty, the Larry Bird golden era, and of course, the 18 championships, the most by any NBA franchise.
The Boston Globe Story of the Celtics is a never-before-published collection of hundreds of the most incisive, informative, and entertaining articles edited by award-winning columnist Chad Finn and written by acclaimed reporters such as Bob Ryan, Jackie MacMullan, Leigh Montville, Dan Shaughnessy, Baxter Holmes, Gary Washburn, and Adam Himmelsbach.
Story of the Celtics brings to life the most important and impactful moments in the team's illustrious history, and archival photographs illustrate every era up to the current season in this special collection brought to you by two storied Boston institutions.

The Harlem Globetrotters weren't from Harlem, and they didn't start out as globetrotters. Globetrotter is the fascinating biography of Abe Saperstein, a Jewish immigrant who took an obscure group of Black basketball players from Chicago's South Side, created the Harlem Globetrotters, and turned them into a worldwide sensation.

The ultimate book for both hoops fans and sneaker obsessives, A History of Basketball in Fifteen Sneakers is an exciting and fascinating look at the sport written with authority and experience by former Complex and SLAM magazine editor Russ Bengtson. From primeval Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars to baroque Reebok Pumps and myth-making Air Jordans to super-high-tech Nike Adapt BBs, each chapter breaks down how a specific sneaker defined an era of basketball, transformed the culture, or changed the game. With full-color sneaker photographs and detailed illustrations throughout, the book is a kaleidoscopic celebration of the players, styles, and iconic moments that have shaped hoops both on and off the court.

Topics include: Walt Frazier's PUMA Clydes and the New York City street game; Michael Jordan's first signature Air Jordan and the birth of the modern global basketball superstar; Nike Air Swoopes and the evolution of the women's game; sneaker tech and the rise of retro; and much more.

When discussing greatness, we have too often distilled it down to how many rings someone has won, neglecting to celebrate the incredible influence that players have had on the evolution of basketball. Kirk's book beautifully explains this other side of greatness--how one player's skill and style of play can change the game forever.

--JJ Redick

The bestselling author of Sprawlball, Kirk Goldsberry returns with a visual feast of a book--equal parts Book of Basketball and Shea Serrano--that uses sharp writing, his signature graphics, and cutting-edge statistical analyses to unpack how a handful of NBA superstars --MJ to Lebron to Jokic--have reshaped pro basketball and charted the course to the future of the NBA.

Every few years a talent comes along that disrupts everything we think we know about how the NBA should work. Whether it's scoring, playmaking, or shooting, these are players and tactics that fundamentally challenge how the game is played and what greatness looks like on a basketball court. For a period of time, these players each become an Atlas for the league, carrying the weight of the NBA on their shoulders, but also providing the roadmap that points the way to the future of the sport. In tandem, they map out the modern NBA's creation.

Goldsberry returns with a highly visual, electrifying tour through the last three decades of NBA history, showing the Atlas players that have led us out of the brutishness of 90s hoops and into the wide open spaces of the most skilled era in NBA history. Charting the course from Jordan to Jokic--with plenty of stops along the way for Iverson, Kobe, Curry, and of course Lebron--Goldsberry, who was instrumental in helping spur the NBA's statistical revolution, has designed a vibrant new way to compare and debate the contributions of the best NBA players of all-time. Masterfully connecting NBA past and present through incisive writing and stunning visual statistical analyses, he shows how we've come to this unprecedented moment, a time when offensive efficiency and shooting percentages are higher than ever.

Using beautifully designed, four-color shot maps and illustrations, Goldsberry offers a graphic journey through the last thirty years of the NBA that covers up to the 2023 season and is as much fun to look at as it is to read. The end result offers stories and analyses of a select group of NBA superstars that open up lively debates, reveal just how singular their talents truly are, and characterize the dramatic 21st-century metamorphosis of the best basketball league in the world.

This book is a thoughtful collection of empowering quotations used by Pat Summitt to help mold and energize her players. Although an iconic, history-making basketball coach, Pat Summitt viewed herself as a teacher and educator first. It is precisely her penchant for offering profound advice, words of wisdom and instruction that serves as the foundation for Quotes from the Summitt. It is a must read for people of all ages and in all walks of life. Readers will not only learn from Pat's profound insights but also become challenged to act on many of the quotes inasmuch as each is focused on growth, improvement, fulfillment and success. This book demonstrated how much Pat cared at all levels to help people, especially women, to achieve their life goals. As Pat would often say, Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

In 2018, the Dallas Mavericks landed the most hyped European teen prospect in basketball history--Luka Doncic, who has proven to be a generational NBA talent with a flair for sensational playmaking. But that's only half the story. With The Wonder Boy, MacMahon takes us beyond the highlights to the madness that ensues as the Mavericks try to avoid blowing their golden opportunity.

From the internal power struggles in owner Mark Cuban's front office during the early years of Doncic's career, to the new regime's effort to earn Doncic's loyalty and put the ruthless competitor in position to win, readers will learn never-before-reported details about the saga's biggest moments, including:

• the blockbuster deal for Kristaps Porzingis that blew up in the Mavs' faces
• the divorces with coach Rick Carlisle and GM Donnie Nelson
• Jalen Brunson's exit after a run to the Western Conference finals
• the new pairing with the mercurial Kyrie Irving
• the improbable journey to the 2024 Finals

Green and White, Unite!

No team has had the impact on NBA history that the Boston Celtics have. With 17 NBA titles, dozens of legendary players, and iconic moments that most teams could only dream about, the Celtics have long been considered the elite franchise of the entire league. It's only fitting then, that there is now a book commemorating all of the amazing details - The Ultimate Boston Celtics Trivia Book.

In the pages of this revealing book, you will learn:

How one Celtics bruiser modified his body to intimidate opponents

Which Boston legend wasn't afraid to share his self-confidence with a room full of All-Star teammates, and then back it up on the court

The player who refused to have his number retired by the team and got a special banner in the rafters instead

How the Celtics acquired two-thirds of the best frontcourt of all time in a single trade

Which Boston player earned the awesome nickname Muscles Jesus from teammates

And so much more! As one of the NBA's charter franchises, the Celtics have decades of entertaining stories to share, and they're all included here. From Cousy to Havlicek, Russell to Parish, and Bird to Pierce, all of the franchise greats are featured with details from on and off the court.

Test your knowledge, remember the old days, and learn some fascinating new facts with a dozen carefully selected chapters featuring true-or-false puzzles, multiple-choice questions, and plenty of trivia for fans of every age. Grab a copy today and show your support for the Celtics.

Through 100 evocative, often stunning photographs, as well as the stories that accompany them, Sports Illustrated visits the great arc of basketball history.

Featuring historical coverage and vivid photography covering the men's, women's, and college games, basketball's rich and remarkable history is here.

Unforgettable events live in a continuum with stirring photos of the game's most beloved and largest personalities such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Larry Bird, Stephen Curry, Diana Taurasi, Lisa Leslie. Sue Bird, and many more.

Sports Illustrated's unmatched storytelling is in high form in a book that renders exquisite anecdotes, and explores basketball's heritage and increasingly global character, all in unforgettable style.