Special Collections
Basketball
- Table View
- List View
The Holy Grail of Hoops
by Josh SwadeWhen Josh Swade found out that the original 13 rules of basketball, penned by Dr. James Naismith--the father of modern basketball--were up for auction, he knew that it was his duty as a lifelong Jayhawks fan to make sure that they ended up where they belonged.Penned in 1891, Naismith's original rules were auctioned off by Sotheby's in New York City on December 10, 2010. Upon hearing the news that Naismith's grandson, Ian Naismith, had offered the rules for auction, Swade could not accept the notion that this sacred document could reside with just some stranger or in a random home or hall. He resolved to ensure that Naismith's rules be returned to his spiritual home of forty years, The University of Kansas. Swade had his raison d'etre. He had all the determination one could need. There was only one issue.He did not have 4.3 million dollars.Spanning the course of thirty-nine frantic days, Josh Swade embarked on a fanatical journey that would take him across the country. His nearly religious obsession brought him face-to-face with NBA players Paul Peirce and Steve Nash, NBA greats Jerry West and Larry Brown, and many others who knew the importance of this relic. With multiple hurdles ahead of him, will Josh be able to find the money and support to purchase the rules before it's too late?
Hoops
by Major JacksonMajor Jackson continues to mine the solemn marvels of ordinary lives. The substance of Jackson's art is the representation of American citizens whose heroic endurance makes them remarkable and transcendent.
Sacred Hoops
by Phil JacksonWith a new introduction, Phil Jackson's modern classic of motivation, teamwork, and Zen insight is updated for a whole new readership"Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball." --Phil JacksonEleven years ago, when Phil Jackson first wrote these words in Sacred Hoops, he was the triumphant head coach of the Chicago Bulls, known for his Zen approach to the game. He hadnt yet moved to the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he would bring his total to an astounding nine NBA titles. In his thought-provoking memoir, he revealed how he directs his players to act with a clear mind--not thinking, just doing; to respect the enemy and be aggressive without anger or violence; to live in the moment and stay calmly focused in the midst of chaos; to put the "me" in service of the "we"--all lessons applicable to any person's life, not just a professional basketball player's. This inspiring book went on to sell more than 400,000 copies.In his new introduction, Jackson explains how the concepts in Sacred Hoops are relevant to the issues facing his current team--and today's reader.
The Mamba Mentality
by Phil Jackson and Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant and Andrew D. BernsteinThe first book from the basketball superstar Kobe Bryant—a lavish, deep dive inside the mind of one of the most revered athletes of all time
In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe “The Black Mamba” Bryant has decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of the legendary “Mamba mentality.” Citing an obligation and an opportunity to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it “the right way,” The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever.
For the first time, and in his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They’ll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career.
Bryant’s detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant’s very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016—and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer.
The combination of Bryant’s narrative and Bernstein’s photos make The Mamba Mentality an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the career of one of the world’s most celebrated and fascinating athletes.
A New York Times Bestseller
Mindful Athlete, The
by George Mumford and Foreword by Phil JacksonMichael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance. His proven, gentle but groundbreaking mindfulness techniques can transform the performance of anyone with a goal, be they an Olympian, weekend warrior, executive, hacker, or artist. Mumford's deeply moving personal story is unforgettable. A basketball player at the University of Massachusetts (where he roomed with Dr. J, Julius Erving), injuries forced Mumford out of the game he loved. The meds that relieved the pain of his injuries also numbed him to the emptiness he felt without the game and eventually led him to heroin. After years as a functioning addict, Mumford enrolled in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, and made meditation, on and off the cushion, the center of his life. He kicked drugs, earned a master's degree in counseling psychology and began teaching meditation to inmates and others. When Michael Jordan left the Chicago Bulls to play baseball in 1993, the team was in crisis. Coach Phil Jackson, a long-time mindfulness practitioner, contacted Dr. Kabat-Zinn to find someone who could teach mindfulness techniques to the struggling team--someone who would have credibility and could speak the language of his players. Kabat-Zinn led Jackson to Mumford and their partnership began. Mumford has worked with Jackson and each of the eleven teams he coached to become NBA champions. His roster of champion clients has since blossomed way beyond basketball to include corporate executives, Olympians, and athletes in many different sports. With a charismatic teaching style that combines techniques of engaged mindfulness with lessons from popular culture icons such as Yoda, Indiana Jones, and Bruce Lee, Mumford tells illuminating stories about his larger than life clients. His writing is down-to-earth and easy to understand and apply. The Mindful Athlete is an engrossing story and an invaluable resource for anyone looking to elevate their game, no matter what the pursuit, and includes a foreword by Phil Jackson."Self-consciousness is when you're focused on how you're doing instead of what you're doing. We have to learn how to push and challenge ourselves, but not in an insensitive way. Honing your performance really comes down to being comfortable with being uncomfortable."--George Mumford
The Last Dance
by John FeinsteinThere is no event in sports quite like the Final Four. John Feinstein explores what it means to a school, a coach, and a player to be in the Final Four or even at The Final. There are the moving stories of players and coaches who thought they'd never make it to college basketballs final weekend, the spectacular triumphs of the winning teams, and the heartbreaking defeats for those who missed the cut. Feinstein also brings us inspiring and dramatic stories from the people behind the scenes: from the officials and referees to the scouts and ticket-scalpers. With the unflinching eye of a seasoned reporter and the remarkable skill of a true storyteller, Feinstein exposes the driving forces behind one of the most revered events in American sports.
In My Skin
by Brittney Griner and Sue HoveyHailed by ESPN as the world’s most famous female basketball player, Brittney Griner, the dunking phenom and national sensation who is shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries, now shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found her strength to overcome bullies and to embrace her authentic self.Brittney Griner, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, is a once-in-a-generation player, possessing a combination of size and athleticism never before seen in the women’s game. But “the sport’s most transformative figure” (Sports Illustrated) is equally famous for making headlines off the court, for speaking out on issues of gender, sexuality, body image and self-esteem.At 6’8”, with an 88-inch wingspan and a size 17 shoe (men’s), the Phoenix Mercury star has heard every vicious insult in the book, enduring years of taunting that began in middle school and continues to this day. Through the highs and lows, Griner has learned to remain true to herself, rising above the haters trying to take her down.In her heartfelt memoir, she reflects on painful episodes in her life and describes how she came to celebrate what makes her unique—inspiring lessons she now shares. Filled with all the humor and personality Griner has become known for, In My Skin is more than a glimpse into one of the most original personalities in sports; it’s also a powerful call to readers to be true to themselves, to love who they are on the inside and out.With a 8 pages of photos.
Basketball
by Jackie MacMullan and Rafe Bartholomew and Dan KloresInspired by a forthcoming major ESPN film series, this is an extraordinary oral history of basketball—its eye-opening untold history, its profound deeper meaning, its transformative influence on the world—as told through an unprecedented series of candid conversations with the game’s ultimate icons. This is the greatest love story never told. It has passion and heartbreak, triumph and betrayal. It is deeply intimate yet crosses oceans, upends lives and changes nations. This is the true story of basketball. It is the story of a Canadian invention that took over America, and the world. Of a supposed “white man’s sport” that became a way for people of color, women, and immigrants to claim a new place in society. Of a game that demands everything of those who love it, yet gives so much back in return. To tell this story, acclaimed journalists Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores embarked on a groundbreaking mission to interview a staggering lineup of basketball trailblazers. For the first time hundreds of legends, from Kobe, Lebron and Steph Curry to Magic Johnson, Dr. J and Jerry West, spoke movingly about their greatest passion. Iconic coaches like Phil Jackson and Coach K opened up like never before. Those who shattered glass ceilings, from Bill Russell and Yao Ming to Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie, explained what it really took to lay claim to their place in the game. At once a definitive oral history and something far more revelatory and life affirming, Basketball: A Love Story is the defining untold oral history of how basketball came to be, and what it means to those who love it.
Hoop Dreams
by Ben JoravskyAward-winning journalist Ben Joravsky vividly brings to life all the richness and subtlety of the experiences of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two gifted urban hoopsters determined to make it to the NBA, in this intimate, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching adaptation of the award-winning film documentary.
The Rebounders
by Amanda OttawayUnlike the stories of most visible Division I college athletes, Amanda Ottaway’s story has more in common with those of the 80 percent of college athletes who are never seen on TV. The Rebounders follows the college career of an average NCAA Division I women’s basketball player in the twenty-first century, beginning with the recruiting process when Ottaway is an eager, naive teenager and ending when she’s a more contemplative twentysomething alumna. Ottaway’s story, along with the journeys of her dynamic Wildcat teammates at Davidson College in North Carolina, covers in engaging detail the life of a mid-major athlete: recruitment, the preseason, body image and eating disorders, schoolwork, family relationships, practice, love life, team travel, game day, injuries, drug and alcohol use, coaching changes, and what comes after the very last game. In addition to the everyday issues of being a student athlete, The Rebounders also covers the objectification of female athletes, race, sexuality, and self-expression. Most college athletes, famous or not, play hard, get hurt, fail, and triumph together in a profound love of their sport and one another, and then their careers end and they figure out how to move on. From concussions and minor injuries to classrooms, parties, and relationships, Ottaway understands the experience of a Division I women’s basketball player firsthand. The Rebounders is, at its core, a feminist coming-of-age story, an exploration of what it means to be a young woman who loves a sport and is on a course of self-discovery through that medium.
Basketball in Long Beach
by Mike Guardabascio and Chris TrevinoLong Beach has produced some of California's best teams and players, from the NCAA success of Long Beach State to the CIF dominance of Long Beach Poly. Starting with the early hoop dreams of the 1900s, lace up your kicks, step in the gym and prepare for an unforgettable lesson in California basketball history. Explore the city's most celebrated athletes and teams, including local pioneers of women's basketball, who found an early home on the city's hardcourts. Complete with exclusive photos and interviews, authors Mike Guardabascio and Chris Trevino give a play-by-play of the sport's illustrious past in the city of Long Beach.
ACC Basketball
by J. Samuel WalkerSince the inception of the Atlantic Coast Conference, intense rivalries, legendary coaches, gifted players, and fervent fans have come to define the league's basketball history. In ACC Basketball, J. Samuel Walker traces the traditions and the dramatic changes that occurred both on and off the court during the conference's rise to a preeminent position in college basketball between 1953 and 1972.Walker vividly re-creates the action of nail-biting games and the tensions of bitter recruiting battles without losing sight of the central off-court questions the league wrestled with during these two decades. As basketball became the ACC's foremost attraction, conference administrators sought to field winning teams while improving academic programs and preserving academic integrity. The ACC also adapted gradually to changes in the postwar South, including, most prominently, the struggle for racial justice during the 1960s. ACC Basketball is a lively, entertaining account of coaches' flair (and antics), players' artistry, a major point-shaving scandal, and the gradually more evenly matched struggle for dominance in one of college basketball's strongest conferences.
Rising Above the Madness
by Laura AmatoTHE MEN WHO MADE MARCHFrom its humble beginnings in 1895 to its modern-day dominance over American culture for the entire month of March, college basketball is often called madness and is well-deserving of the title. Most NCAA basketball coaches fail; however, the special few profiled in this book didn&’t just succeed where others failed, they influenced the game; changed it; and altered its very course. The ten men featured in this anthology went about coaching differently, each bringing their own approach and mindset to the hardwood, and their success is unprecedented:John Wooden (UCLA) Bobby Knight (Indiana University) Adolph Rupp (University of Kentucky) Dean Smith (University of North Carolina) Phog Allen (University of Kansas) Mike Krzyzewski (Duke University) Jerry Tarkanian (UNLV) Jim Boeheim (Syracuse University) Lou Carnesecca (St. John&’s University) Jim Calhoun (University of Connecticut)
Improving Your NCAA® Bracket with Statistics
by Tom AdamsTwenty-four million people wager nearly $3 billion on college basketball pools each year, but few are aware that winning strategies have been developed by researchers at Harvard, Yale, and other universities over the past two decades. Bad advice from media sources and even our own psychological inclinations are often a bigger obstacle to winning than our pool opponents. Profit opportunities are missed and most brackets submitted to pools don’t have a breakeven chance to win money before the tournament begins. Improving Your NCAA® Bracket with Statistics is both an easy-to-use tip sheet to improve your winning odds and an intellectual history of how statistical reasoning has been applied to the bracket pool using standard and innovative methods. It covers bracket improvement methods ranging from those that require only the information in the seeded bracket to sophisticated estimation techniques available via online simulations. Included are: Prominently displayed bracket improvement tips based on the published research A history of the origins of the bracket pool A history of bracket improvement methods and their results in play Historical sketches and background information on the mathematical and statistical methods that have been used in bracket analysis A source list of good bracket pool advice available each year that seeks to be comprehensive Warnings about common bad advice that will hurt your chances Tom Adams’ work presenting bracket improvement methods has been featured in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and SmartMoney magazine.
Madness
by Mark Mehler and Charles PaikertThe annual NCAA Basketball Tournament, which has become known as “March Madness” has emerged as a major sports event, matched only by the Super Bowl and the Olympics. In Madness, Mark Mehler and Charles Paikert tell the stories behind the ten most compelling and memorable championship games in tournament history, from North Carolina’s triple-overtime victory over Wilt Chamberlain’s Kansas Wildcats in 1957 to Duke’s heart stopping victory over underdog Butler in 2010. As a bonus, five more games that just missed the cut are also examined. Madness goes beyond the games to tell the the backstories of these classics, each entirely unique unto itself. For example, Jim Valvano taking his impossible dream of a national title and making it come true for the 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack; Rollie Massimino turning spaghetti and clam sauce into inspiration for his underachieving 1985 Villanova team; and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, breaking down in tears while taking a Broadway curtain call in front of a wildly-applauding audience who two hours earlier didn't know who these two guys were decades after their head-to-head matchup in 1979. Some of these stories also resonate far beyond the basketball court, including the 1966 triumph by the Texas Western Miners, which helped chisel away the college basketball color line and stamped their victory as "Glory Road." Over sixty years of college basketball history is brought to life in this must-have for all basketball fans.
Shooting Hoops
by Micahel RaffertyCarlos and Sam want to play a game in the city so they have to get creative.
My Basketball Book
by Gail GibbonsThe markings on a basketball court, What basketball players wear, The three team positions, The excitement of passing the ball, The thrill of making a basket.
The Stars of the WNBA
by Michelle SmithThe WNBA is filled with heroes and role models: Strong, confident women who have achieved their goals. This book features eight of the most popular of these young women -- the true role-models for thousands of young girls. This exciting reader will step behind the scenes into the lives of these women and tell their tales -- from their childhood to today's successes. This is one of the debut books in the new line of NBA and WNBA Readers. Get set to read with Scholastic and the WNBA!
Doug's Hoop Nightmare
by Jim JihkinsDoug desperately wants to impress Patti Mayonnaise, his secret love. But at basketball camp, where Patti is an assistant coach, he can't seem to do anything right. All Doug wants to do is sink a shot without looking stupid.
Hoop Queen
by Marci PeschkeKylie Jean is usually good at everything she tries. So how come learning to play basketball is so hard?
Elle of the Ball
by Elena Delle DonneFrom 2015 WNBA MVP, 2016 Olympic gold medalist, and global ambassador to the Special Olympics Elena Delle Donne comes the first novel in a brand-new middle grade series with as much heart as there is game.Elle Deluca is a seventh grader who is tall—not just sort of tall. She’s six feet tall. And for a twelve-year-old girl, this means that her basketball team has high hopes for her changing positions and becoming their starting center. But a new position is not the only footwork she has to learn. Her class’s dance unit in gym is coming up, and that means she has to learn ballroom dance steps with a boy much shorter than her—and perform publically for a grade. In the first book in WNBA MVP and Olympic gold medalist Elena Delle Donne’s Hoops series, Elle must figure out a way to remain herself when others want her to be someone else.
Dribble, Dribble, Drool! #18
by Nancy Krulik and Aaron BlechaThere are no time-outs when the super burp takes control!George knows that his basketball team, the Fighting Ferrets, is really good. So when Louie proposes a bet for their upcoming game, George accepts the challenge: the person on the losing team has to be the winner's butler for a week! George is confident he'll lead his team to victory. But then his best friend Alex, a school safety monitor who's been on a rule-enforcing frenzy, reports George after the super burp makes him misbehave. That means George can't play in the big game! After he's lost the chance to play, will he also lose the bet?
The Everything Kids' Basketball Book
by Bob Schaller and Dave HarnishKids can dribble, shoot, and swish with hours of gaming fun in this new guide! Featuring thirty puzzles, this fun and educational book is a must-have for basketball players and fans. Children will learn the rules of basketball, the history of this popular sport, and tips for enhancing their game, as well as:The inspirational stories of basketball stars of yesterday and todayVarious offensive and defensive playsUp-to-date statistics and records of NBA teamsThe scoop on the NCAA, WNBA, and Olympic basketballFun basketball alternatives like "Around the World," "Street Ball," and "H-O-R-S-E" Most importantly, this guide shows kids the importance of teamwork and motivates them to stay active and healthy. This book will score points with kids and parents alike!
MVP #4
by David A. Kelly and Scott BrundageFrom the author of the Ballpark Mysteries comes the coolest sports club around—the Most Valuable Players! The MVP club needs to raise money for their basketball tournament. At first, they think selling popcorn will be easy . . . but then Luke eats more popcorn than he sells! Plus there’s a new kid at school who might need the money even more than the team does. Can the MVP kids raise enough money, win the tournament, and help their friend? Perfect for kids who love to compete in all kinds of contests and have fun with great friends, David A. Kelly’s series teaches readers that when you’re a most valuable player, you love sports, always show spirit, and never give up! Don’t miss bonus sports facts in every MVP book.