r/BasketballBooks

Hang Time by Alan Eisenstock tells the remarkable story of Elgin Baylor, one of the NBA’s great pioneers and one of its most underappreciated superstars and first frequent flyers. Blessed with extraordinary athleticism, creativity and a seemingly effortless ability to hang in the air, Baylor transformed the possibilities of basketball in the late 1950s and 1960s.
The book follows Baylor’s journey from humble beginnings to becoming the cornerstone of the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, where his spectacular scoring and acrobatic style made him a sensation. It also explores the racial and social barriers he encountered, his complicated relationship with the Lakers, and the personal cost of playing at such an extraordinary level.
Including the grace of his final farewell as the Lakers were poised to win it all, such utter class.

Hey guys, I put together a database spreadsheet for basketball books that have been mentioned on this sub and then thought I'd share it. I've also messaged the mods to see if we can pin this on the main page.

Link to the database - /r/BasketballBooks Database - Google Sheets

7. THE Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons: an essential book, helped get me into the sport as its a who-s who of pre-2010's basketball. Entertaining and Im a big fan of Bill. However, obvious celtics bias, focused too much on hating certain players (Dirk whixh aged hilariously as the next year he won it all, Ewing), aged horribly (some pretty iffy stuff that modern day crowds would call offensive. I wasn't offended but jt took me by surprise) and at times dragged a little long in terms of tangents.

8. Tall Men Short Shorts: by Leigh Montville: I am genuinely a huge fan of Montville. Have enjoyed his baseball books and interacted with him on Twitter where he called me a bright young man myself. Very interesting period of basketball history and a very entertaining and fluid read. Does a little too much self glazing (the beight young man title got old)

9. Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam: Good book, read a lot like the Last Dance docuseries. VERY insightful and helped me learn about Jordan's career as a guy born 4 years after Jordan left Chicago the last time.

10. Wish it Lasted Forever: by Dan Shaughnessy: Very interesting from a writer Im not big on. But as a huge Larry Bird and Kevin McHale guy, it was fascinating to learn about the era from a guy on the inside. I do find it fascinating to read books from guys on the inside

3.why so Serious by Mike Singer: Nuggets fan and Jokic fan so it was amazing to learn about my basketball hero and finding that he was as great of a person as I thought.

2. BLOOD in the Garden by Chris Herring: Very well written and was a page turner. READ like a e0 for 30 documentary and I couldn't put it down. Doesn't read like a puff piece either. Honestly, captures the era of 90s basketball better than most.

3. Larger than Life by Robert Cherry: very long but very easy to read. I find Wilt fascinating and this book gives a nuanced view on him thats neither glaze or unfair. Some sources do treat him unfairly as Wilt has haters.

I wanted to recommend a Book that afforded me the opportunity to acknowledge Russell Westbrook’s retirement, even with all his faults I absolutely loved watching him play. This book is due for release on November 3rd, according to the current marketing blurb for the book author Jonathan Abrams takes a deep dive into the lives and careers of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden, using their entangled paths as a lens to view the myriad facets of the player empowerment era.
It's one of the greatest “what ifs” in sports – what if the Thunder had kept Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, three of the league’s young, exciting stars and future MVPs, together? Their departure from Oklahoma City begins two decades of repercussions for basketball and the formation of the modern NBA. I cannot wait to read this Book 🙏🏻

I try to visit used bookstores wherever I go, specifically to find old, rare, or weird basketball books. Recently, I was near-ish DC, and I took a trip to Frederick, MD, to visit Wonder Book and Video, a phenomenal second-hand store for all types of media. It turned out to be a great visit, in large part because one of the books I bought is completely insane.

The book is called Basketball Stars (1997), a rather elementary overview of some all-time greats, and its ridiculous size (nearly 19 inches tall) seems to be a marketing gimmick geared toward middle schoolers on Book Fair Day. As a serious basketball historian, I would usually never give a book like this a second glance, but it was sitting by itself on the bottom shelf after I got through all the other hoops books. It was the last one. Right before I stood up and left the section, I nonchalantly picked it up and flipped for about 2 seconds, and it just sort of fell open to the Sam Jones page. And his autograph was on the page. His actual autograph, not a reprint that was part of the profiles in the book.

So I looked through every page in the book, and I found two Earl Monroe autographs on his profile, and three George Mikan autographs -- two on his profile, and one on the Introduction (which was not written by him, so ???). I've come across some crazy things while looking at old basketball books, but this one takes the cake! BTW, it cost $8.95, and after talking to a collector friend of mine, I'm just keeping it. It's not worth a bunch of money, so now I got a story piece with a bunch of George Mikan signatures. Morale of the story: Flip threw used basketball books, no matter how dumb they look, lol.

Winning Sounds Like This is about the women's basketball team at Gallaudet University during the 1999-2000 season. If you didn't know, Gallaudet is a Deaf university in DC that was founded over 150 years ago, and I believe it's still the only fully Deaf college in the world. In addition to being a basketball historian, I used to study ASL and was decent enough at one point to be a volunteer interpreter at conventions and sporting events, so this story was of particular interest to me.

The author, Wayne Coffey, was with the Bison for the entire season, helping outsiders understand how a team of players who couldn't communicate out loud were able to be so good, fresh off of a 24-6 season that was most noteworthy for knocking the #1 ranked College of New Jersey out of the DIII tournament. Anchoring the squad was center Rondo Jo Miller, Gallaudet's all-time leader in scoring and rebounding (over 2,500 pts and 1,500 rebs) who nearly made it to the WNBA, but the book really delves into the lives and backgrounds of all of the players and coaches. This is the most emotional basketball book I've ever read since so many players' families had isolated or turned their backs on them, and this team was far more of a family to them than how that word 'family' is usually used by athletes. It's a real tearjerker, also because the book is full of numerous triumphs, which you might pick up on by its title and the accompanying cover photo.

Just because I found this interesting: Gallaudet's sports teams are called the Bison because it's an animal that is strong yet silent, plus there are connections to their importance in some Native cultures, which was in turn important to early 19th century Deaf communities in the US since American Sign Language came about at that time as a combination of signs and signing structure from France and from some Native tribes.

Yes, there are difficulties for a Deaf team--the coach's on-the-fly directions during games are usually missed for a few possessions, they can't shout things out to each other, etc.--but they have some advantages, as well: they are attuned to vibrations in the floor of opponents approaching them from behind so steals like this don't happen as much as you might think, games use lights and visual cues for whistles and buzzers that can throw off opponents, they're able to openly communicate things to their teammates that opponents can't understand (lip-reading makes the reverse of this far less successful), and their home crowd is eerily quiet which is disorienting to visiting squads and causes them to talk less often and with less volume. The way their Deafness affects how they play is fascinating; as a somewhat connected aside, you may be aware that the football huddle was invented by Gallaudet's gridiron team in the 1890s to keep opponents from seeing their signed play calls.