The greatest NBA team ever 2016 is the Golden State Warriors, led by Stephen Curry. He led the team to their best regular season record ever in the history of NBA. Read more about how he did it along with the team who helped him along the way.
Are top scorers really the most valuable players? Are games decided in the final few minutes? Does the team with the best player usually win?Thinking Basketball challenges a number of common beliefs about the game by taking a deep dive into the patterns and history of the NBA. Explore how certain myths arose while using our own cognition as a window into the game's popular narratives. New basketball concepts are introduced, such as power plays, portability and why the best player shouldn't always shoot. Discover how the box score can be misleading, why "closers" are overrated and how the outcome of a game fundamentally alters our memory. Behavioral economics, traffic paradoxes and other metaphors highlight this thought-provoking insight into the NBA and our own thinking. A must-read for any basketball fan -- you'll never view the sport, and maybe the world, the same again.
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.
The history of basketball is chock-full of famous buzzer-beating shots, amazing game-saving plays, and thrilling maneuvers that defy gravity. All fans have their favorite memory, just as they have their favorite team and their favorite player. Now here's a book that offers a look back at more than fifteen of the sport's best moments. The Block, The Steal, The Shot. Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar, Bird, Jordan, and James. Each entry captures the nail-biting tension of the minutes leading up to the play, as well as information about the superstar players that made them and the teams that they played for. Packed with facts and action, this is a book young basketball fans will reach for again and again -- and because it comes from Matt Christopher, young readers know they're getting the best sports writing on the shelf.
After 20 unforgettable years in the NBA, Kobe Bryant is calling it a career. All he’s done in those two decades is establish himself as one of the best to ever play the game, arguably the greatest Laker ever and the most popular athlete in the history of Los Angeles sports. The Black Mamba’s path to iconic status started quietly as the 13th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets but with a draft day trade to the legendary Lakers, the rest is resounding history. Kobe’s credentials are impeccable with five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs, one NBA regular season MVP, 18 All-Star game appearances and countless other accolades to his name. Kobe Bryant: Laker for Life is the ultimate tribute to the Lakers superstar as he concludes his legendary career, covering 20 years of hardwood genius. Including nearly 100 full-color photographs, fans are provided a glimpse into the early days of Kobe’s career, bursting onto the NBA scene winning the Slam Dunk Contest to his individual brilliance and NBA titles with the Lakers to his celebratory swan song through the league during his final season. A must-have keepsake for Lakers fans and Kobe aficionados alike, Kobe Bryant is the perfect commemoration of a Los Angeles icon and Laker for Life.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team’s Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where superstars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird debated the finer points of basketball. And he narrates a riveting account of the legendary intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world, its mystique has only grown. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together and changed the future of sports—one perfectly executed fast break at a time. With a new Afterword by the author. “The absolute definitive work on the subject, a perfectly wonderful once-you-pick-it-up-you-won’t-be-able-to-put-it-down book.”—The Boston Globe “An Olympic hoops dream.”—Newsday “What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum, both then and now.”—Booklist (starred review)
Thoroughly revised and updated, this definitive guide to professional basketball provides complete stats for every player, a history of the sport, anecdotes about key events, essays, and information on coaches, rules, officials, and more. 50,000 first printing.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The NBA according to The Sports Guy—now updated with fresh takes on LeBron, the Celtics, and more! Foreword by Malcom Gladwell • “The work of a true fan . . . it might just represent the next phase of sports commentary.”—The Atlantic Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.
An account of the NBA from 1956 to 1966, after the introduction of the 24-second shot clock, highlights those who dominated the sport during its "glory days," including Red Auerbach, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Boston Celtics.