Search Results for: life as sport

“Heller goes for the knockout. His book is both a biography and a history of contemporary boxing, a fascinating tale of greed, violence, sex, and dollars.”– San Francisco Chronicle

Mike Tyson is boxing’s most beloved bad boy. With a history of street-gang violence, juvenile prison, sexual scandal, marital strife, courtroom battles, and imprisonment for rape, he has become one of the most publicized athletes in history. At age 23 he was already considered among the greatest prizefighters of all time, and, his career is far from over.

Relying on in-depth research and interviews with those who have known Tyson at every stage of his life, Bad Intentions portrays the shy child who became a vicious street thug, discovered boxing in juvenile prison, and was brought to the attention of the legendary Cus D’Amato to be shaped to be one thing only–heavyweight champion of the world. Here is Tyson’s fight-by-fight path to that goal, the millions of dollars made and fought over, the sex and violence of his personal life, and his eventual defeats both in the ring and in court. Bad Intentions is an essential read for all who would understand the ins and outs of the most controversial sport in America.

Here, at last, is Charles Pierce’s best writing on sports, collected for the first time in one volume. All of these pieces, first published in GQ, the National, and Esquire, showcase Pierce’s trademark humor. Some are spot-on profiles of famous sports personalities such as Tiger Woods, Magic Johnson, and Peyton Manning, while others are portraits of lesser-known figures such as Nebraska basketball coach Danny Nee, a former Vietnam vet who openly opposed the Gulf War, Cool Papa Bell, a ballplayer from the Negro Leagues who is ripped off by memorabilia hounds, and Mike Donald, an obscure golfer on the PGA tour who played the best golf in his life only to lose a tournament by one stroke. Pierce also takes us on unforgettable journeys into the wide world of sports, from a snake-charming pole-vaulter to life on the Hooters Golf Tour, from the fashion accessories of the modern ballplayer to how a small community — Warroad, Minnesota — bonds over ice hockey. Sports Guy will delight Pierce’s devoted readers and is certain to win him many, many more.

Condemned and yet feared by emperors, almost certain to be slaughtered and yet adored by the masses, the gladiator was the superstar of his day. His existence was invariably short and violent, improved only faintly by the prospect of honor, wealth, and public attention. Yet men gave up their freedom to become gladiators, noblewomen gave up their positions to elope with them, and Emperors risked death to fight them. This thrilling popular history of ancient Rome’s gladiators charts the evolution of the games; introduces us to the legendary fighters, trainers, and emperors who participated in the violent sport; and re-creates in gripping detail a day at the bloody games. Alan Baker reveals the techniques of the training school, then sets us ringside to witness the torturous battles between bulls, lions, jaguars, and battle-hardened human beings. With each breathtaking scene, the complex culture of world that created and adored these bloody games between man and beast comes into clear focus. A work of history that reads like fiction, The Gladiator brings to life Spartacus, Commodus, Caligula, and all of the other memorable players of the nearly thousand-year-long gladiatorial era.

Imagine a world without IMAX or Gore-tex, before North Face, a world without mobile phones or high-altitude Internet links, super-light hiking boots and polyamide fleece. Imagine a time when the Alps were as remote as the Himalayas and the Himalayas as remote as the moon. Traversing a century of climbing that began with the Victorian enthusiasts and ended with the conquest of the great Himalayan peaks, Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan take us back to that (not-so-distant) world to tell the stories of the extraordinary men who were the first to climb the world’s best-known mountains — the Matterhorn, McKinley, Everest, and K2. Their quests provide welcome historical context and very modern thrills for readers of adventure narratives. Accompanied by unique archival materials, detailed maps, and photographs, Mountain Men invites us to follow in the footsteps of these fearless explorers, and tells us the stories with all their romance and stupidity, bravado and suffering, courage and miscalculation, intact. Meet the Mountain Men: Albert Smith was an impresario who climbed Mont Blanc with the help of 16 guides, 18 porters, and 90 bottles of spirits; his Piccadilly shows turned mountaineering from a folly into a sport. Edward Whymper, perhaps the greatest of the Victorian climbers, was the first to summit the Matterhorn, but not an hour later he lost four members of his party in a horrible accident that would shadow him for the rest of his life. The Duke of Abruzzi, heir to the Italian throne, reached the intimidating slopes of K2 in 1909 but concluded that no one could climb it in his lifetime — he was right. Mount McKinley was claimed by not one but several climbers, including America’s great explorer — and, it turned out, fraudster — Dr. Frederick Cook, who had his porters take pictures of him on a look-alike crevasse many miles away from the actual mountain. The eccentric Maurice Wilson, convinced that he enjoyed God’s protection, decided to climb Everest alone — just as soon as he taught himself to fly and got himself smuggled into Nepal. He got further than anyone could have dreamed, but his body was discovered frozen a hundred feet from a food cache left by an earlier party.

William Nack is widely acknowledged as one of the finest sports writers of the past half-century. He has won the prestigious Eclipse Award, given annually for the best magazine piece on horseracing, an unprecedented six times. Laura Hillenbrand, best-selling author of Seabiscuit, recently called his acclaimed biography Secretariat the “gold standard” of horse books. But Nack’s “turf” goes far beyond the racetrack. In this, his first collection, Nack’s finest horse racing journalism is coupled with his legendary, one-of-a-kind profiles of athletes from Sonny Liston to Formula One driver Alex Zanardi, Rocky Marciano to Rick Pitino, and Keith Hernandez to Willie Shoemaker. And that is not all. From his compelling history of Yankee Stadium, to his inspiring account of Bob Kalsu, the only professional American athlete to die in Vietnam, to his poignant portrait of Cincinnati Reds catcher Willard Hershberger, who, at fifteen, discovered his father dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later committed suicide himself, Nack serves up riveting stories of people and places. He also uncovers some of the dirtiest secrets in sports from the shady world of hit men and greedy owners who hire them to kill their horses for insurance payoffs to weightlifting muscle men, who, while stoked up on steroids, have gone on murderous rampages. Whether writing about famous athletes-human and equine-or weighing in on some of the most controversial events and personalities in sports, William Nack has few equals.

I’m Jeremy Wade, biologist and fishing detective. For twenty-five years, I’ve explored our planet’s remotest rivers and lakes, hunting for monster-sized fish. It’s become something of an obsession for me. . . .

Called “the greatest angling explorer of his generation” (Independent on Sunday), Jeremy Wade, host of Animal Planet’s wildly popular TV series River Monsters, takes viewers where no wildlife program has gone before, revealing the creatures that lurk in the murky depths of our planet’s inland waterways. Now, Wade goes truly beneath the surface, disclosing full details of how he tracks down and catches each species while also recounting the off-camera highlights of his extraordinary life. From his arrest as a suspected spy in Southeast Asia to a plane crash in the Amazon, every page of River Monsters is packed with adventure. Each chapter unfolds an enthralling detective story, where fishermen’s tales of underwater man-eaters and aquatic killers are subjected to scientific scrutiny. Follow Wade step-by-step as, armed with just a fishing line, he closes in on his prey and separates fact from fiction. From the heart of the Congo, where he wrestles with supernatural goliath tigerfish, to the depths of the Amazon, where the most feared creature is one that could fit in your palm, the results are fish of staggering proportions and terrifying demeanor. Wade also reveals monsters from upcoming episodes, including deadly electric eels, a giant described as a cross between a shark and a chainsaw, and a snake-like beast that truly is the stuff of legend.

In the tradition of the most gripping adventure writing, River Monsters shows that there’s more to this world than what’s visible on the surface. As Wade says, with a fishing line anything is possible–sometimes it can even reveal the future, or at least one possible version of it. In similar fashion, Wade’s writings are much more than exhilarating stories: they reveal a vision of the world more awe-inspiring than any individual myth made flesh. Ultimately, River Monsters explores the real mysteries that still exist, capturing the story of one man’s obsession — and his relentless pursuit of the truth.

Every summer, in ten small towns across Cape Cod, young college baseball players showcase their talents in hopes of making it to the “show.” A vicious filter, the league has produced one out of every six major league players, from Nomar Garciaparra and Todd Helton to Jeff Bagwell and Barry Zito.In this brilliantly crafted narrative, Jim Collins chronicles a season in the life of the Chatham A’s, perhaps the most celebrated team in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Set against a seemingly bucolic backdrop–a well-heeled resort town on the bend of the outer Cape — the story charts the changing fortunes of a handful of players, all of whom battle slumps and self-doubt in an effort to impress major league scouts and make the playoffs. Several players go home with career-threatening injuries; one blue-chip prospect fulfills great expectations while another is dubbed “the biggest disappointment on the Cape.” A pitcher hides an arm injury while negotiating a minor league contract; another leaves early to tend to his dying father. And nearly all look to the following year’s major league draft as a barometer of their worth. Far more than a baseball book, The Last Best League is an engrossing story about dreams fulfilled and dreams destroyed, about Cape Cod and the rites of summer, about coming of age in America.

Named Sports Illustrated’s best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them.

Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa — the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn’t known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.

With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires — and sometimes shatters — the teenagers who wear the Panthers’ uniforms.

The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

For the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN’s The Sports Reporters and ABC’s college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.

During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation’s most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Saunders discusses his troubled childhood, the traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2011, and the severe depression that nearly cost him his life. As Saunders writes,

Playing Hurt is not an autobiography of a sports celebrity but a memoir of a man facing his own mental illness, and emerging better off for the effort. I will take you into the heart of my struggle with depression, including insights into some of its causes, its consequences, and its treatments.

I invite you behind the facade of my apparently “perfect” life as a sportscaster, with a wonderful wife and two healthy, happy adult daughters. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am truly grateful. But none of these things can protect me or anyone else from the disease of depression and its potentially lethal effects.

Mine is a rare story: that of a black man in the sports industry openly grappling with depression. I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly, including the lengths I’ve gone to to conceal my private life from the public.

So why write a book? Because I want to end the pain and heartache that comes from leading a double life. I also want to reach out to the millions of people, especially men, who think they’re alone and can’t ask for help.

John Saunders died suddenly on August 10, 2016, from an enlarged heart, diabetes, and other complications. This book is his ultimate act of generosity to help those who suffer from mental illness, and those who love them.

A new edition of a sports icon’s memoir, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Kathrine Switzer’s historic running of the Boston Marathon as the first woman to run.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to officially run what was then the all-male Boston Marathon, infuriating one of the event’s directors who attempted to violently eject her. In one of the most iconic sports moments, Switzer escaped and finished the race. She made history-and is poised to do it again on the fiftieth anniversary of that initial race, when she will run the 2017 Boston Marathon at age 70. Now a spokesperson for Reebok, Switzer is also the founder of 261 Fearless, a foundation dedicated to creating opportunities for women on all fronts, as this groundbreaking sports hero has done throughout her life.

“Kathrine Switzer is the Susan B. Anthony of women’s marathoning.”-Joan Benoit Samuelson, first Olympic gold medalist in the women’s marathon

A memoir by the NBA Hall of Fame player, active from 1977-1993 and widely regarded as one of the all-time great New York Knicks.

NBA Hall of Famer Bernard King is one of the most dynamic scorers in basketball history. King was notoriously private as a player, and rarely spoke to the press-not about his career and never about his personal life. And even beyond his prolific scoring, King will forever be remembered for the gruesome knee injury he suffered in 1985. Doctors who told him he’d never play again were shocked when he not only became the first player to return to the NBA from a torn ACL, but returned at an All Star level. In Game Face, King finally opens up about his life on and off the court. In his book, King’s basketball I.Q. is on full display as he breaks down defenses using his own unique system for taking shots from predetermined spots on the floor. King talks about matching up against some of the all-time NBA greats, from Michael Jordan, Julius Erving and Charles Barkley to Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing and many others. He also tackles issues of race and family off the court, as well as breaking a personal cycle of negativity and self-destructiveness with the help of his family. Engaging, shocking, revelatory, yet always positive and upbeat, Bernard King’s memoir appeals to multiple generations of basketball fans.

Lisa Guerrero chronicles her iconic career—from dealing with harassment as a sports broadcaster to chasing “bad guys” for Inside Edition—and proves that through small, daily acts, bravery is a muscle we can strengthen over time.

I’ve been a cheerleader. A corporate executive. A Barbie Doll. A sportscaster. A soap opera vixen. A sideline reporter. A Playboy cover model. A Diamond Diva. A red-carpet correspondent. An investigative journalist. A disrupter. 

I made Dennis Rodman cry. I’ve interviewed three presidents and hundreds of athletes. I costarred in a viral video that has one billion views. I sued the New England Patriots–and won. I tracked down a murderer. I was hit by a car. I butted heads with Barbara Walters. I even played myself in a movie starring Brad Pitt.

During her career in sports broadcasting, Guerrero covered Super Bowls, Worlds Series, NBA Finals, and interviewed sports superstars. From the outside it seemed glamourous, but often she was miserable, told to smile more, argue less, and show a lot of leg and cleavage. Colleagues would joke—sometimes on national TV—that she clinched big interviews because of sexual acts rather than talent. She made a mistake on air during the opening game on Monday Night Football that cost her her sportscasting career… and almost her life.

Fast forward a few years, and Guerrero has achieved phenomenal success as Inside Edition’s Chief Investigative Correspondent. Her stories have led to arrests, changed federal legislation and policies at Fortune 500 companies, and helped shine a light on crime, scams, child abuse, and even cold case murders. And in the last decade alone, she has won over thirty-five national journalism honors and awards.

Today, Guerrero is bombarded with emails and direct messages from people of every generation who all want to know the same thing: “How are you so brave? How can I be brave too?” Women dealing with husbands, friends, in-laws, co-workers, and bosses ask for the courage to request raises, be taken seriously at meetings, and stand up to abusive spouses. Teens and pre-teens ask for advice on dealing with bullies, teachers, and parents. Warrior—filled with the incisive stories of failure, struggles, challenges, perseverance, and finally, success—is her answer.

The definitive biography of enigmatic golfer, commentator, and performer David Feherty—one of the most universally beloved figures in the game. 

John Feinstein and David Feherty have known each other for years, beginning with Feinstein’s work on A Good Walk Spoiled, researched and written at a time when Feherty was an excellent player, who won five times in Europe and was on the '91 Ryder Cup team, but also a functioning alcoholic. In retirement from the game, Feherty has sobered up and his golf world persona has grown in stature. He is now a grand ambassador for golf; a man feted by US Presidents and respected by every big name in the game. 
  
Feinstein tells hilarious true tales about Feherty’s time in the limelight and interactions with stars such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Payne Stewart, and Seve Ballesteros. He also details Feherty’s struggles with alcoholism, the death of his son who was lost to addiction, and the highs and lows of Feherty’s marriages. Feinstein captures the human being behind the athlete, and his triumphant rebound as a golf commentator after his athletic career came to an end. Feherty is a fall-down-funny, self-deprecating lifelong underdog who has used the difficult experiences of his life as a source for humor and understanding, which Feinstein mines with an expert’s touch. 

The life and legacy of pioneering international basketball superstar Hakeem Olajuwon, a two‑time NBA champion whose Hall of Fame career forever changed the game, both in the United States and around the globe—from the New York Times bestselling author of Giannis, Mirin Fader.

It’s now the norm for NBA and collegiate teams to have international players dotting their rosters. The Olympics are no longer a gimme for Team USA. Both via fans streaming from all over the globe and leagues starting in countries throughout the world, the international presence of the game of basketball is a force to be reckoned with.

That all started with Hakeem “the Dream” Olajuwon. “Dream,” for short. He was the first international player to win the MVP, which is hard to believe now considering the last time an American‑born player won it was four years ago. Award-winning hoops journalist Mirin Fader explores this phenomenal shift through the lens of what Olajuwon accomplished throughout the 1980s and 90s. Dream ignites nostalgia for Phi Slama Jama and “the Dream Shake,” while also exploring the profound influence of Olajuwon’s Muslim faith on his approach to life and basketball, and how his devotion to his faith inspired generations of Muslim people around the world.

Olajuwon’s ongoing work with NBA Africa, his status as an international ambassador for the game, and his consultations with today’s brightest stars, from LeBron James to Giannis Antetokounmpo, brings the story right up to the present moment, and beyond. Synthesizing hundreds of interviews and in-depth research, Fader provides the definitive biography of Olajuwon as well as a crucial understanding of his pivotal impact on the ever-shifting game.

From the bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture—professional wrestling—starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF in the 1980s. 

"Perhaps one of the most truthful and enjoyable reads about my profession ever. I absolutely loved this book." —Former WWF Champion Bret "The Hitman" Hart
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In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri), to write his biography. Things quickly went south, culminating in the Sheik threatening Balukjian’s life. Now seventeen years later, Balukjian returns to the road in search of not only a reunion with the Sheik, but something much bigger: truth in a world built on illusion.

Balukjian seeks out six of the Sheik’s contemporaries, fellow witnesses to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) explosion in the mid-‘80s, to unearth their true identities. As Balukjian drives 12,525 miles around the country, we revisit the heady days when these avatars of strength, villainy, and heroism first found fame and see where their journeys took them. From working out with Tony Atlas (Tony White) to visiting Hulk Hogan’s (Terry Bollea) karaoke bar, we see where these men are now and how they have navigated the cliffs of fame.

The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater—often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.

Go‑to expert on gender identity, Schuyler Bailar, offers an essential, urgent guide that changes the conversation.

Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced in state governments around the United States in record-breaking numbers. Trans people are under attack in sports, healthcare, school curriculum, bathrooms, bars, and nearly every walk of life. He/She/They clearly and compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to more complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving and why allowing trans youth to play sports is good for all kids. With a relatable narrative rooted in facts, science, and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively coopted and deceptively politicized.

Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his transition and share his experience has touched people around the world. His plain-spoken education has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation. In He/She/They, Schuyler uses storytelling and the art of conversation to give us the essential language and context of gender, meeting everyone where they are and paving the way for understanding, acceptance, and, most importantly: connection. He/She/They is more than a book on allyship; it also speaks to trans folks directly, answering the question, “does it get better?” with a resounding yes, celebrating radical trans joy. Myth-busting, affirming, compassionate, and fierce, He/She/They is a crucial, urgent–and lifesaving–book that forever changes the conversation about gender.

The defining part of this story, I think—the part that made the real difference—is the time I spent looking into the water, letting my mind drift, as I tried to think like a fish…What brings the big fish is an artful blend of drawing on experience and keeping an open, active mind. The secret ingredient is as simple as that.
–from Chapter 6

Jeremy Wade, the star of Animal Planet’s River Monsters, with nearly forty years of angling exploration behind him, shares a meditation on the art of angling—part science, part art, and part elusive something else. Thoughtful and funny, brimming with wisdom and, above all, adventure, How to Think Like a Fish is filled with reflections that anyone who has ever fished will identify with, for ultimately they touch on the fundamental principles that apply to all angling—and to life:
Less time can be more.
Listen to your gut.
Be inventive.
You may only get one opportunity, so make that opportunity count.

A beloved New York Times bestselling author and golf aficionado shares his insatiable curiosity, trademark sense of humor, and vast knowledge of the game in this cavalcade of original pieces about why we love the sport, now featuring three additional new pieces.

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at eleven years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool, and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. We meet the PGA Tour player who robbed banks by night to pay his motel bills, the golf club maker who takes weekly psychedelic trips, and the caddy who kept his loop even after an 11-year prison stint. We learn how a man on his third heart nearly won the U.S. Open, how a Vietnam POW saved his life playing 18 holes a day in his tiny cell, and about the course that's absolutely free.

Reilly mines all of the game’s quirky traditions—from the shot of bourbon you take before you tee off at Peyton Manning’s course, to the way the starter at St. Andrews announces to your group (and the hundreds of tourists watching), “You’re on the first tee, gentlemen.” He means that quite literally: St. Andrews has the first tee ever invented. We’ll visit the eighteen most unforgettable holes around the world (Reilly has played them all), including the hole in Indonesia where the biggest hazard is monkeys, the one in the Caribbean that's underwater, and the one in South Africa that requires a shot over a pit of alligators; not to mention Reilly’s attempt to play the most mini-golf holes in one day.

Reilly expounds on all the great figures in the game, from Phil Mickelson to Bobby Jones to the simple reason Jack Nicklaus is better than Tiger Woods. He explains why we should stop hating Bryson DeChambeau unless we hate genius, the greatest upset in women’s golf history, and why Ernie Els throws away every ball that makes a birdie. Plus all the Greg Norman stories Reilly has never been able to tell before, and the great fun of being Jim Nantz. Connecting it all will be the story of Reilly’s own personal journey through the game, especially as it connects to his tumultuous relationship with his father, and how the two eventually reconciled through golf. This is Reilly’s valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.

**The Sports Librarian’s Best of 2022 – Sports Books**

“Did I ever tell you about Wilt Chamberlain?” “Did I ever tell you about Bob Cousy?” “Did I ever tell you about Joe DiMaggio?” Whenever Arnold “Red” Auerbach starts a sentence with those six words — “Did I ever tell you about . . .” — anyone within earshot should prepare to hear a marvelous story.

As a living legend among sports fans, Red Auerbach — the fiery coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships, eight of them consecutive — has long been renowned for his formidable personality: brash, opinionated, and unfailingly accurate. As a coach, he had a great eye for talent, drafting such Hall of Famers as Bill Russell and Larry Bird, and managed to build a powerful franchise with an abiding legacy. Red never stood still along the sidelines and was never seen without his trademark cigar.

Now in retirement, at age eighty-seven, he remains a lively part of the game, still consulted by coaches, players, and general managers. And his admirers continue to be legion. Not long ago a former president postponed a meeting with Bill Gates so as not to pass up the chance to talk with Red. For the past several years, John Feinstein has met regularly with Red Auerbach and his friends in a series of raucous, unforgettable sessions.

Out of those smoke-and-laughter-filled rooms have emerged the stories of Red’s life, from his childhood on the playgrounds of Brooklyn to his triumphs at the famed Boston Garden, where he coached for sixteen years. Just listen as Red colorfully recalls all the players and coaches he has worked with and played against: Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, and Michael Jordan — you name them, the basketball greats are all here. Red holds nothing back.

In Let Me Tell You a Story, Red Auerbach’s unique experiences in sports and John Feinstein’s unparalleled skills as a storyteller combine to produce one of the most richly entertaining books ever written about the game of basketball.