For PC Board Regulars: Best Basketball Books?

[eyriq]

Basketball on Paper & The Book of Basketball

Edit: I realize you have them referenced so I'll just let this stand as a vote of confidence

[penbeast0]

I know it's fashionable to bash him, but John Feinstein's "A Season Inside: One Year in College Basketball" was really enjoyable -- not as fond of "A Season on the Brink" or the one on the Patriot League.

[Optimism Prime]

15. The Pivotal Season: How the 1971--72 Los Angeles Lakers Changed the NBA. Charley Rosen

It is obvious quickly that Rosen is no fan of Wilt Chamberlain and worships Jerry West and Bill Sharman. Don't get me wrong, Wilt had his faults, and West was phenomenal, and Sharman should be in the hall of fame for his coaching, but I will present four passages to prove how much of a vendetta Rosen has:

Rosen's a hack, but you've got just as much of a vendetta FOR Wilt as you claim he does against Wilt.

Pot, meet kettle.

[Dipper 13]

I am not Judd Vance (Air Judden).

[pancakes3]

I liked Jackie MacMullen's "When the Game was Ours" about Magic/Bird but it doesn't tell you much more than the HBO documentary doesn't already so if you've seen that... don't read the book. if you've done neither then... shame on you.

[Ktron]

Edit: On second thought, too personal a question. Not basketball related.

[Point forward]

If you are not exactly looking for hard info, but rather 300 straight shooting pages which are not totally devoid of depth... "Chocolate Thunder" is the autobio of Darryl Dawkins. It is a no punches pulled, deeply subjective and homerific, but weirdly authentic account of his career during the ABA-NBA merger and the drug riddled Bird/Magic years.

It provides a honest, warts and all account of a guy who was basically Wilt with the brain of a 10 year old - which is a huge minus, but always kept him strangely innocent. We are talking about a guy who (down by 1, team has the last shot) rather looks at sexy women instead of the drawing board, who freely admits that he bedded 3k women but "was too scared to try coke", and often blamed coaches, refs and "pure bad luck" but admitted that "Kareem just destroyed me".

Some of the strongest parts are the parts with Darryl's hilariously childish black superiority issues ("I only respected white guys who could jump, like Bobby Jones"), Doc ("superb but dead on D due to bad knees"), Michael Ray Richardson ("could have been Magic II but selfdestructed on coke") and his beef with Bill Walton ("ultimate white boy").

[Warspite]

I would add "The Jordan Rules" and "A View from Above"

[jwillkom]

...

[G35]

Set in the 70's...kind of seems like the main character "Silky Sims" is based on either David Thompson or Dr. J. It is written by Charley Rosen a long time basketball writer and how the New York Stars got a group of different personalities to come together and basically beat the Los Angeles Lakers, a super-team led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Great story.

[wojoaderge]

If you are not exactly looking for hard info, but rather 300 straight shooting pages which are not totally devoid of depth... "Chocolate Thunder" is the autobio of Darryl Dawkins. It is a no punches pulled, deeply subjective and homerific, but weirdly authentic account of his career during the ABA-NBA merger and the drug riddled Bird/Magic years.

It provides a honest, warts and all account of a guy who was basically Wilt with the brain of a 10 year old - which is a huge minus, but always kept him strangely innocent. We are talking about a guy who (down by 1, team has the last shot) rather looks at sexy women instead of the drawing board, who freely admits that he bedded 3k women but "was too scared to try coke", and often blamed coaches, refs and "pure bad luck" but admitted that "Kareem just destroyed me".

Some of the strongest parts are the parts with Darryl's hilariously childish black superiority issues ("I only respected white guys who could jump, like Bobby Jones"), Doc ("superb but dead on D due to bad knees"), Michael Ray Richardson ("could have been Magic II but selfdestructed on coke") and his beef with Bill Walton ("ultimate white boy").

Henry Bibby's pickup line

[DQuinn1575]

Agree with prior post that Loose Balls by Pluto is the most enjoyable book on basketball..

A book not mentioned yet is Foul by Wolf, a book on Connie Hawkins I enjoyed reading a long long time ago

[Vladimir777]

Awesome idea for a thread!

[LukaTheGOAT]

Thinking Basketball is a must and the most transformational book regarding understanding what goes into winning in the NBA at the highest levels.

[wutevahung]

like LukaTHEGOAT just said, Thinking Basketball by our own ElGee is a great book that I think every single NBA fanatic should read. It gives you a perspective I think 99% of the NBA fans just don't ever and will ever think about.

Basketball- A love story is a great book for the history of the basketball, compiled by quotes from hundreds of different players and coaches and anyone who had anything to do with the game.

The Soul of basketball- looks at the first season of Miami Heatles, which changed the modern NBA forever.

Three Ring Circus I just finished last week, a great look inside the dysfunctional locker room and dramas of the Shaq and Kobe Lakers.

Showboat- A book about Kobe. You get a lot of back stories on Kobe's career, mindset, and the drama surrounding it that no one ever talks about.

Eleven Rings by Phil was a good read about his whole coaching career, though he does buy into his own hype and mystics a bit.