Sports & Recreation : Basketball

Here's the guide for current and prospective coaches that covers every aspect of effectively coaching youth basketball: teaching good sportsmanship, running an effective practice, coaching to a player's age and skill level, teaching offensive and defensive skills and drills, rules of the game, executing winning plays and strategies, dealing with parents. more...

Price: $16.95

The game of basketball has gone global and is now the world's fastest-growing sport. Talented players from Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa are literally crashing the borders as the level of their game now often equals that of the American pros, who no longer are sure winners in international competition and who must compete with foreign players for coveted spots on NBA rosters. Yet that refreshing world outlook stands in stark contrast to the game's troubled image here at home. The concept of team play in the NBA has declined as, in the aftermath of the Michael Jordan phenomenon, the league's marketers and television promoters have placed a premium on hyping individual stars instead of teams, and the players have come to see that big-buck contracts and endorsements come to those who selfishly demand the spotlight for themselves. more...

Price: $16.95

The charismatic basketball coach at the University of Connecticut reveals the victorious secrets behind his team's breathtaking journey to the 1999 NCAA Division I National Championship--and along the way shares his philosophy for winning. It was one of those games that basketball fans will talk about for years. more...

Price: $15.00

The definitive biography of basketball genius Julius Erving--the icon who transcended his sport and defined an era. Julius Erving, aka Dr. J, was a wizard with the basketball, performing feats the world had never seen before: midair spins and whirls punctuated by powerful slam dunks, which he was the first to glamorize. In a career that lasted from the 1970s well into the 1980s, he was one of the first players to make extemporaneous individual expression an integral part of the game, setting the style of play that has prevailed ever since. He's also long been respected as a gracious, dignified, and disciplined man. As there are great men of history, there are great men of sports, and Dr. J is just such a man. This book tells Dr. J's amazing story, following his basketball journey from his Long Island childhood to the street games of New York City to a college career as his skills, reputation, and character grew. It follows his entrance into the ABA, where he revolutionized the game by glamorizing the dunk, and his conquering of the NBA, where he was Michael Jordan before there was a Jordan. It relates the family struggles he's had since leaving the game and charts the transformation of the man into myth.: The first complete biography of one of the greatest and most popular basketball players of all time; Draws on interviews with Dr. J's childhood friends and his family to teammates and coaches at all levels; Written by a New York Times sports journalist and author of Asphalt Gods: An Oral History of the Rucker Tournament; Includes Erving's years as a player with the Virginia Squires, New York Nets, and Philadelphia 76ers. Read Doc and follow the incredible journey of the basketball genius who elevated the game off the hardwood and helped make it America's passion. more...

Price: $25.95

The only book to tell the unbelievable true story of the NBA's tumultuous first season. In The First Tip-Off , veteran basketball writer Charley Rosen brings readers back to the NBA's humble beginnings, when a colorful cast of characters laid the foundation for the empire that is today's NBA. Basketball pioneers, like Red Auerbach, Chuck Connors, Ed Sadowski, Joe Fulks, and Peter “Press” Maravich-father of “Pistol Pete”-all play a role in a league of hard fouls, shady refs, meager facilities, and old school basketball. Featuring a Foreword by Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson and exclusive interviews with the surviving players of that first season, Rosen weaves a fascinating and poignant portrait of a league struggling to gain a foothold in the American consciousness. more...

Price: $24.95