Chasing Perfection

Chasing Perfection

Author: Andy Glockner

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0306824035

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Chasing Perfection goes behind the scenes of the multi-million dollar, high-stakes world of basketball player development, research and analysis, and the often secretive, cutting-edge methods that NBA franchises use to turn less-expensive, supporting players into vital parts of championship teams. NBA superstars push as close to perfection as we're likely to see, but they are few and far between. The farther you get from the league's top echelon of talent, the more it's up to the players—and their teams—to develop and utilize their strengths while diminishing and masking their weaknesses as much as possible. There are no perfect basketball players, but there are plenty of perfected ones, who start with a basis of skill and physical ability and then are refined further and further in order to move closer and closer to their absolute potential. In Chasing Perfection, national sportswriter Andy Glockner reveals that, though the concept of player improvement is as old as basketball itself, the current era of Big Data analytics in the NBA is transforming that process more quickly and aggressively than anything we have seen before. Players are learning more and more about themselves through video and data visualization, seeing how things like diet and sleep can impact their performance, and learning how having healthy joints and role-specific workout plans are lengthening and improving their careers. Teams are internalizing the same lessons, as well as figuring out how to better implement optimal on-court strategies, how to refine their approaches to player acquisition and how to gauge the varying values and success rates of different, crucial team-building strategies. It's an absolutely fascinating time to be a fan, as the marriage of basketball and technology is bringing two of our most popular and competitive worlds together in compelling fashion. Using the 2014–15 NBA season as a prism to explore this mesh of sport and science, Glockner offers detailed perspective from NBA players, coaches, team management, and media, offering a comprehensive insider's view of how analytics are shaping the basketball we watch, and how those who are lagging behind in the technology race already are feeling the competitive hit.


Warriors Forever

Warriors Forever

Author: John Gile

Publisher: Jgc Publishing

Published: 2010-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780910941372

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In Just Shades of Brown, two children from different backgrounds end up together when a factory closing forces families to move. Their teacher helps them overcome their fears and discover they are more alike than different. Just Shades of Brown, written and Illustrated by art teacher L. Duncan Hartgraves and edited by best-selling author John Gile, helps readers see beyond differences and fosters understanding in an increasingly complex and diverse world.


Return of the King

Return of the King

Author: Brian Windhorst

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2017-04-11

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1538759683

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In this New York Times bestseller, get the inside scoop into LeBron James's return -- and ultimate triumph -- in Cleveland. What really happened when LeBron James stunned the NBA by leaving a potential dynasty in Miami to come home to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers? How did the Cavs use secret meetings to put together the deal to add star Kevin Love? Who really made the controversial decision to fire coach David Blatt when the team was in first place? Where did the greatest comeback in NBA history truly begin-and end? Return of the King takes you onto the private planes, inside the locker-room conversations, and into the middle of the intense huddles where one of the greatest stories in basketball history took place, resulting in the Cavs winning the 2016 NBA title after trailing the Golden State Warriors three games to one. You'll hear from all the characters involved: the players, the executives, the agents, and the owners as they reveal stories never before told. Get the background on all the controversies, the rivalries, and the bad blood from two reporters who were there for every day, plot twist, and social media snafu as they take you through the fascinating ride that culminated in a heart-stopping Game Seven.


Golden Boys

Golden Boys

Author: Bay Area News Group

Publisher: Triumph Books

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1629370665

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Strength in Numbers. The Warriors' 2014-2015 slogan fit this championship team to a T. While they were spearheaded by NBA MVP Stephen Curry, it took a true team effort and display of depth to claim their first NBA title in four decades. Buoyed by a dominant regular season in which they won a league-leading 67 games, the Warriors throttled the NBA with an explosive yet precise offense and a versatile and stingy defense. They cruised through the first three rounds of the playoffs, only losing three games as they dispatched the Pelicans, Grizzlies and Rockets, setting up a dream NBA Finals matchup with LeBron James and the Cavaliers, where coach Steve Kerr's team overcame a 2-1 series deficit to defeat Cleveland in six games. Packed with unmatched analysis and dynamic color photography from the Bay Area's largest newspaper publisher, Golden Boys takes fans through the Warriors' historic journey, from Steve Kerr taking over as head coach to Klay Thompson's red-hot 37-point quarter to Stephen Curry's MVP brilliance to the final horn sounding in Cleveland. This commemorative edition also includes in-depth profiles of Curry, Kerr, Thompson, breakout star Draymond Green, gritty defender Andrew Bogut, rising talent Harrison Barnes and other fan favorites.


The Last Utopia

The Last Utopia

Author: Samuel Moyn

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2012-03-05

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0674256522

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Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today’s idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. In this pioneering book, Samuel Moyn elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage and asks what it reveals about the ideal’s troubled present and uncertain future. For some, human rights stretch back to the dawn of Western civilization, the age of the American and French Revolutions, or the post–World War II moment when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed. Revisiting these episodes in a dramatic tour of humanity’s moral history, The Last Utopia shows that it was in the decade after 1968 that human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. Across eastern and western Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Latin America, human rights crystallized in a few short years as social activism and political rhetoric moved it from the hallways of the United Nations to the global forefront. It was on the ruins of earlier political utopias, Moyn argues, that human rights achieved contemporary prominence. The morality of individual rights substituted for the soiled political dreams of revolutionary communism and nationalism as international law became an alternative to popular struggle and bloody violence. But as the ideal of human rights enters into rival political agendas, it requires more vigilance and scrutiny than when it became the watchword of our hopes.


100 Things Warriors Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

100 Things Warriors Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

Author: Danny Leroux

Publisher: Triumph Books

Published: 2017-11-01

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1633198693

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Most Golden State Warriors fans have attended a game at Oracle Arena, marveled at Stephen Curry's effortless shots, and remember where they were when the team won the 2015 NBA championship. But only real fans watched all 73 wins in the 2015-16 season, know where the Warriors played when they first moved to California, or can name whom the Warriors swept in the 1975 Finals. 100 Things Warriors Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource guide for true fans of Warriors basketball. Whether you're a die-hard fan from the Run TMC days or a new supporter of Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant, this book contains everything Warriors fans should know, see, and do in their lifetime.


We The Champs

We The Champs

Author: Alex Wong

Publisher: Triumph Books

Published: 2019-06-14

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1641253762

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We The North. The slogan for the most successful era of Raptors' basketball was elevated to a new level with the stunning off-season acquisition of superstar Kawhi Leonard. Finally breaking through after years of knocking on the door of the Eastern Conference, the Raptors made history and brought the first championship home to Toronto since the Blue Jays in 1993. From an intriguing new coaching hire in Nick Nurse, to the Leonard trade, to a midseason addition of Marc Gasol, the 2018-2019 season was one of changing the identity of the team, building chemistry, and leading to the franchise's long-awaited first title. From making quick work of the Magic in the first round of the playoffs, to a Game 7 classic against the 76ers, to ripping off four straight wins versus the Bucks, the Raptors were destined to take down the defending champion Golden State Warriors on their way to becoming kings of the NBA. Packed with expert analysis and dynamic color photography, We The Champs: The Toronto Raptors' Historic Run to the 2019 NBA Title takes fans through the Raptors' historic and unforgettable journey, from Nurse and Leonard replacing Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan, to Pascal Siakam blossoming into a star, to Leonard's unbelievable four-bounce Game 7 game-winner against the 76ers. This commemorative edition also includes in-depth profiles of Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Masai Ujiri, and other fan favorites who played key roles in Toronto's extraordinary championship run.


Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Author: Mary Roach

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2004-05-17

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0393069192

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Beloved, best-selling science writer Mary Roach’s “acutely entertaining, morbidly fascinating” (Susan Adams, Forbes) classic, now with a new epilogue. For two thousand years, cadavers – some willingly, some unwittingly – have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. “Delightful—though never disrespectful” (Les Simpson, Time Out New York), Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die? “This quirky, funny read offers perspective and insight about life, death and the medical profession. . . . You can close this book with an appreciation of the miracle that the human body really is.” —Tara Parker-Pope, Wall Street Journal “Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting.” —Entertainment Weekly


The Science of Basketball

The Science of Basketball

Author: Alexandru Radu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1351789716

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The Science of Basketball is the only book to examine the scientific principles underpinning preparation and performance in basketball, applied to both individual and team contexts. Drawing on the very latest scientific evidence, and including contributions from leading international coaches and scientists involved in the sport, the book explores every aspect of physical and mental preparation and performance, including: strength and conditioning, and training strategies physiological aspects of performance nutrition and supplementation psychological preparation skill acquisition biomechanical aspects of performance performance analysis injury epidemiology, prevention and rehabilitation coach education Incorporating case studies at the end of each chapter to demonstrate how scientific principles can be applied to practice, the book bridges the gap between theory and applied practice in basketball better than any other. It is essential reading for any student, researcher, sport scientist, coach, physiotherapist or clinician with an interest in the game, and illuminative supplementary reading for students of sport science and sports coaching.


Warriors of the 106th

Warriors of the 106th

Author: Martin King

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2017-06-19

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1612004598

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This chronicle of the 106th Infantry Division follows the unit into the Battle of the Bulge and recounts the stories of GIs who fought—even after capture. On December 16, 1944, as the European conflict of World War II was reaching its climax at the Battle of the Bulge, the 106th Infantry Division was fresh, green, and right in the pathway of the Fifth German Army. Warriors of the 106th chronicles the movements and combat operations of this significant unit while sharing individual stories of the heroism and sacrifice of these young Americans in the face of overwhelming odds. From this division alone, 6,800 men were taken prisoner. But their stories didn’t end there. For the ones who miraculously escaped, there was a battle to fight. With remarkable courage, they survived debilitating weather conditions and fought a determined enemy with superior numbers. And despite all adversity, they eventually prevailed. One 106th GI waged his own personal war using guerilla tactics that caused serious consternation amongst the German troops. Another GI’s main concern was recovering his clean underwear. These stories are heartwarming, heartbreaking, nerve-wracking, and compelling. Warriors of the 106th puts readers on the front lines and in the stalags during the final months of WWII.