Best basketball books according to redditors

This is like the exact opposite of what happened. He was a serious commentator for Grantland. Then he started the ringer, and has become a shitty hot-take artist.

E: More context on how the guy above me is talking out of his gaping asshole. Bill wrote The Big Book of Basketball. It's basically the Hive Queen to Shea Serrano's Hegemon in terms of basketball literature (sorry for the enders game reference, it's all I got here). He basically got a show on HBO when he started the Ringer to be a hot take artist. The show tanked, but clearly he wants to keep doing it, because htat's all he's been doing since.

Holy shit at Dan saying Bill Simmons has a lot of Stugotz in him. I never really made that connection but it’s so accurate. Simmons has published his own personal record book

1: If we dont trade Love we are going to try to compete for the 8th spot in the west. If we do trade Love its back to rebuilding for the next few years.

2: He played his heart out here for us with his time here and we did everything in out power to unsuccessfully rebuild for the next decade.

3: I havent seen one in particular for the Wolves but I would suggest the Book of Basketball which does a great job of covering the NBA in a whole with fun back stories.

4: Best game in Wolves history

5: I am not a big beer drinker but I am sure there are alot of others here that could suggest some great ones.

Unsolicited recommendations:

The Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard

FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac

Kerry's most recent book: Jail Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball

From this book:

• "he was selfish and hard to coach"
  
  
• "Bob Ryan said 'he is one of the most boring players and worst human beings that ever lived'."
  
  
• "Others mumbled things about how difficult Hayes could be."
  
  From this book:
  
  
• "a toublesome player to coach"
  
  
• (his 1st 2 coaches) "neither of whom had good things to say about the Big E"
  
  
• on not wanting to play for a certain HOF coach's system: "The Big E insisted it would hurt his offensive stats"
  
  
• Peter Vescey's nickname for him in the clutch: "The Silent E"
  
  From this book:
  
  
• quotes Sports Illustrated piece in Feb '74: "During his 4 years with the Rockets, Hayes was variously considered a ball hog, a rotten apple, a dumbbell, and a guaranteed loser."
  
  
• "I wonder if the other players respected him that much. I'm guessing no."
  
  
• quoting a Sports Illustrated feature during the '78 Finals: 1) "Individualism overcame Elvin in yet another big contest", 2) "Hayes once more disappeared in the moments of crisis", 3) "It's imperative for the Bullets that their only real 'name' player justify his status by not dissolving at the end of the 7th game" (spoiler alert: he fouled out at the start of the 4th quarter of a tight Game 7 on the road, and they rallied & won without him)
  
  
• quoting Rockets coach Bill Fitch telling young Ralph Sampson, who an end-of-career Hayes said he was going to mentor: "You stay away from that no-good fucking prick."

Check out Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball by Rafe Bartholomew.

the two freedarko books are excellent, but i suggest the undisputed guide to pro basketball history.

If you like his writing i suggest his book "The Book of Basketball". Its a great read I'm about halfway done with the book.

As controversial as he is around these parts, Bill Simmons wrote a great book for beginners called "The Book of Basketball"

It's a history of the game from the beginning and a survey of the game's history. Now, it is biased, as almost any history of anything will be biased. But the nice thing is that you can easily spot the bias with Simmons. First off, he usually admits it upfront. But also he tends to overrate Celtics players and underrate Lakers. He also tends to overrate individual player achievement, while paying less attention to the luck of team construction and coaching... unless it suits him to do so.

Overall it's a great survey book for someone just jumping into the sport.

This might not be what you're looking for, but I'm a new-ish (this is my 2nd year really following the nba) basketball fan and these are the things that have really helped me enjoy the game more.

1. Learn about all the basic plays and defense styles: pick and roll, give and go, zone defense, man defense, etc then try to recognize when people are executing them in a game. Once I started seeing this stuff I feel like watching basketball really opened up for me.
   
   
2. Follow one team and get to know them. For a long time I would randomly watch games and I never really paid attention to a particular team. But recently I've been watching the Nets a lot (because the ticket package was much cheaper than the Knicks), the Celtics (because they are always on TV), the Heat, and the Magic (because they were my favorite team when I was a kid). So, get to know the players and their strengths and their weaknesses. Then, you will get to know the rest of the NBA because you'll see them matched up against the players that you know well. You'll get to know their strengths and weaknesses also.
   
   
3. Go see the games live. There is tons of stuff going on that gets cut out of the TV shot. This helped me understand what was going on a lot more.
   
   
4. To get some history and context for what's going on I like freedarko.com. Also Bill Simmons wrote (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Basketball-NBA-According-Sports/dp/034551176X)[The big book of basketball] which I haven't read, but I have been meaning too.
   
   
5. I like watching NBA GameTime on NBA TV, but I think SportsCenter will get you caught up on all the major games.
   
   Anyway I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but I wish someone would have told this to me when I first started watching bball.

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History Hardcover

Easy read, really cool illustrations, very informative.

Seven Seconds or Less - a look at the behind-the-scenes happenings of the run and gun Phoenix Suns (Nash, Shawn Marion, Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, etc.) and the stories during their surprising playoff run while Amare was injured most of the season. It's an amazing read for basketball fans.

The Free Darko basketball history book is in the same vein, plus it has cool illustrations.

Unrelated, but am I alone in thinking the end of the Book of Basketball was incredibly corny? It’s been 10 years since I read it and one of the few things I remember about it is that he ended it by unironically quoting 2pac.

A couple of quick housekeeping things to start:

• Here are tags for everyone who said they were interested in the club in case they're set up to get an orangered when mentioned: /u/bobby4470, /u/undercoverballer, /u/Illmattic, /u/MaigoULTD, /u/idontcarefuckit, /u/tdm911, /u/compengineerbarbie, /u/BulldogBlitz, /u/greene27, /u/jpole1, /u/Zeepher, /u/aberdoo, /u/literallyalot, /u/lufkinmj4
  
  
• If you mouse over the "Theme Threads" banner in the sidebar it will drop down a menu that will always have a link to the most recent Book Club post.
  
  
• The link in the post has the book for free download. Books are strange for this because libraries are obviously free but if you can I think it would be nice to buy the book or at least think about buying it if you like it. It's $10 in either paperback or Kindle through Amazon.
  
  ***
  
  My suggestion would be to break the book up by the parts of the season instead of just numbers of chapters. Just by the chapter titles we could do:
  
  
• Chapters 1-3 (p 11-64) - History, lottery, draft, trades
  
  
• Ch 4-5 (p 65-102) - Preseason, Turkey, philosophy
  
  
• Ch 6-9 (p 103-182) - Regular season
  
  
• Ch 10-12 (p 183-214) - Eastern conference playoffs
  
  
• Ch 13-Epilogue (p 215-236) - The Finals
  
  The lengths aren't really even (section 2 is 40 pages, section 3 is 80) but it's at least logical for the season. We don't necessarily need to have the same amount of time for each section.
  
  I think we should try to do the first reading before the season starts. What about discussing the first three chapters on the 20th or 21st? I'll be traveling that week and won't be able to participate but it gives everyone time to get started and there isn't exactly a ton of text on each page so I think once people start reading they'll clear through 50 pages pretty quickly. Is that enough time? Too much? I'm just throwing a date out there.
  
  Thanks for kicking us off. I've already loaded it up on my Kindle and hope people stay involved in this and participate as I think it could be a fun thing for the sub that could grow as we go along.

Fab Five:Basketball, Trash Talk and the American Dream is by far the best basketball book I have read, quite cool details on how the fab 5 got scouted as well as details of games etc as well as a big emphasis on the Coach Fisher and how his tactics on and off the court!

I'm mostly a basketball guy so...


You don't need to have ever seen a basketball game to appreciate these first two books.

Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam which it probably the best NBA book. It follows the 1978 Portland Trail Blazers and gets way more access than anyone could get now. Plus Halberstam was a great writer so he gets the most out of excellent material.

The Last Shot by Darcy Frey this is probably my favorite basketball book. It follows high school basketball players and it works as biography as well as an exploration of sports culture, race, class, and youth. The Hoop Dreams of books. Great journalism on a great subject.

Freedarko's The Undisputed Guide to Basketball History Captures the visceral and intellectual thrill of watching basketball better than any other book. Manages to capture big picture and little picture.

Seven Seconds or Less Lifelong basketball writer follows one of the funnest teams in NBA history for a year


Pistol Biography of Pistol Pete and his insanely driven father. Manages the rare feat for a sports biography of not slipping into hagiography.


Baseball

Moneyball How baseball teams were run a decade ago. Really well written and somehow manages to make baseball and business really entertaining. Great for fans and non-fans.

The other one is great too, love the art and diagrams.

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History
http://amzn.com/1608190838

Just here to suggest some more books:

Drive: The Story of My Life by Larry Bird

The Last Banner by Peter May

Unfinished Business: On and Off the Court With the 1990-91 Boston Celtics by Jack McCallum (I haven't read this one but I am a fan of McCallum)

Rebound by K.C. Jones

Also, here is a list of Celtics related books that I found on the team website: http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/publications.html

I really enjoyed 7 Seconds or Less. Story of the 05-06 Phoenix Suns.

I found that More than a game by Phil Jackson was an excellent book. It basically is a look into the life and coaching philosophy of one of the greatest coaches of all time as well as an inside look into the 2000 champion Lakers.

Also the Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons is an essential read for all NBA fans.

EDIT: I recently also read the Jordan Rules by Sam Smith. It isn't a particularly eye opening book, but basically it's about the 1990-1991 NBA championship season from the Chicago Bulls perspective, and also a look into MJ's transformation from a ball hogging douchebag to the greatest of all time. Good read.

I think I first heard about this track in FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History, but I don't have my copy handy to confirm. If not, I'd still recommend that book very highly.

https://www.amazon.com/NBA-Coaches-Playbook-Techniques-Teaching/dp/0736063552

You won't get their best stuff or anything but it's a start.

Read Play Their Hearts Out but George Dohrmann, it is one of my favorite books and does an amazing job detailing the underworld of AAU. It is a little dated (about a decade) at this point but many of the flaws have only become worse.

I wasn't, but if anyone wants a good history on the league, told by the players, coaches and others who were directly involved with it, go read the book Loose Balls by Terry Pluto. Fun knee title, I know.

Buy this book. Its the ultimate book for an NBA fan. He/she will not be disappointed. Here is the link.

Here is the book in question. And no, they chose the name Free Darko as a bit of a joke I think.

Loose Balls is an amazing read, and easy to just pick up where you left off to read 15-20 pages at a time. Very entertaining and a great oral history of the crazy league that was the ABA. Very sad to hear about Barnes. Never got to see him play really, but by all accounts he was one of the most dynamic scorers of his generation. Shame drugs got the best of him. RIP, Marvin.

I love the ABA. Anyone interested in knowing more should read up on the Silna brothers:
https://www.si.com/nba/2014/04/09/silna-brothers-nba

And check out Terry Pluto's great oral history, Loose Balls.

https://www.amazon.com/Loose-Balls-American-Basketball-Association/dp/141654061X

Loose Balls just has so many amazing stories in it.

There are a lot of bizarre stories about the ABA, and especially about the team the Silnas briefly owned, The Spirits of St. Louis. I recommend Loose Balls for more and even crazier stories.

I personally hated Simmons book. FreeDarko's "The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History" came out around the same time and I think is 10 times the hoops book.

http://www.amazon.com/FreeDarko-Presents-Undisputed-Basketball-History/dp/1608190838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377872046&sr=8-1&keywords=free+darko

You might start with Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball. Simmons is opinionated and says lots of things with which I disagree strongly, but he's always entertaining and the book is a great overview of the history of professional basketball. Once you are done with that, you can turn to books about specific players or eras -- just look at the list in that link marked "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought."

check this out

the book of basketball by Bill Simmons is a good book that puts how good certain players were in context at the time it was written.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Basketball-According-Sports/dp/0345520106

Bballbreakdown http://www.youtube.com/user/bballbreakdown

on youtube is a cool channel that explains how certain offensives work and what is actually happening on the court.

basketball on paper by dean oliver is a good start to a statistical analysis of basketball.

http://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Paper-Rules-Performance-Analysis/dp/1574886886/ref=pd_sim_b_14?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZM4AQKYZC4K42KYFDME

I read this

I don't know if it is worth $18 (I paid 22), but it has lots of data over the last few years, and I prefer book form. I'm sure you could find 90% of the info on the internet with enough searching.

Two books about kids and street basketball, both of which are classics.

Heaven is a Playground

and The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams.

You should have read Mitch Albom writing about the University of Michigan's "Fab Five" back in the early 1990s. Talk about hyperbolic...

This is a good book: http://www.amazon.com/NBA-Coaches-Playbook-Techniques-Teaching/dp/0736063552

This was an enjoyable read. The same author wrote the Seven Seconds or Less book about the Nash/Amare Suns, which is one of my favorite books.

Its not like football- there is one big important cup (trophy, here) and this is the NBA championship. The FIBA and Olympics are there, and its something to watch, but its not as interesting/fun as the NBA season. Mostly because US is usually very dominant.

Do you have a favorite player? Favorite team? Bill Simmons has a great book on the NBA- its definately HIS opinion, but entertaining nonetheless. http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Basketball-According-Sports/dp/0345520106

this book is outdated but helpful

the glossaries are helpful

https://stats.nba.com/help/glossary/

https://www.basketball-reference.com/about/glossary.html

I would read about BPM

then this explains RPM decently

there actually isn't really a good guide out there, basketball stats are kind of a mess

NBA Coaches Playbook: Techniques, Tactics, and Teaching Points is highly recommended. https://www.amazon.com/NBA-Coaches-Playbook-Techniques-Teaching/dp/0736063552

That was a great one and I also liked Basketball Analytics: Objective and Efficient Strategies for Understanding How Teams Win

It was all a little too heady for me, but I was still able to get some good info out of both books.

David Halberstam is probably the most well-known NBA author in long-form content. "The Breaks of the Game" is an incredible account of the Blazers 79-80 season. "Playing for Keeps" is a narrative about MJ's career and impact. These are older works though.

As far as newer stuff, the Bill Simmons "Book of Basketball" is a monstrosity that has amazing in-depth content, provided you like Simmons.

The "FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History" is from 2010 and has amazing artwork and a unique perspective. I would highly recommend it.

you ever read the book of basketball?

If you want a great read that will really open your eyes and bum you out about the lives that some people grow up with, read The Last Shot by Darcy Frey


Stephon Marbury makes a few appearances in it to-- appearances that help the reader to understand his personality.

Thanks for posting this, OP. Have you ever checked out Stephen Shea's book, Basketball Analytics: Spatial Tracking?

Shea's calculations show a lot of the same trends, and he goes pretty far to describe the strategic reasons behind things like decreased offensive rebounding stats and pace changing. His analysis is great (albeit focused more on the stats from 2010-2014) and may help your next 49 posts. Looking forward to more cool graphics.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Basketball-NBA-According-Sports/dp/0345520106

try here

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Basketball-NBA-According-Sports/dp/0345520106/

It's from Sprawlball, Kirk Goldsberry's new book.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sprawlball-Visual-Tour-New-Era/dp/1328767515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549892263&sr=8-1&keywords=kirk+goldsberry

Got a book coming out, should be good, even if just as a coffee table book because of the nice shot charts.

Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association

This was one of the most entertaining and insightful books I've ever read. Highly, highly recommend.

https://smile.amazon.com/Loose-Balls-American-Basketball-Association/dp/141654061X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

And absolutely dominating the Philippine Basketball Association (then the 2nd-highest paying basketball league in the world).

Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew, who also writes for Grantland, talks about him extensively. Very interesting.

I think we may have miscommunicated about your ambitions. What you're referring to is a scorekeeper and I don't think it requires much, if any, formal statistics training. You had mentioned getting a master's degree so I was talking about something different. Those who are trained as statisticians or related fields and hired by NBA teams are called many things but often has "analytics" in the title. Think Daryl Morey, Warriors, Sam Hinkie, etc. Using numbers to inform play style, acquisitions, trades, etc. Here is a book about it that seems aimed towards the layperson. This one is considered the "Moneyball" of basketball but is quite dated. This is by Kirk Goldsberry and is specifically about the 3-point shot and probably has the highest production value and approachability.

"Last decade" -

Book of Basketball

Dream Team

When the Game was Ours

Not Last Decade, but you should read anyway -

The Jordan Rules

I enjoyed these two:

NBA Coaches Playbook: Techniques, Tactics, and Teaching Points

Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense

I've never coached, though, so not sure how helpful either would be. Just like to read and I thought they were interesting.

From my understanding, the best ways to learn coaching are from doing it and observing other coaches run a practice. I know college teams have open practices on occasion where high school coaches can go in and watch. There's surely yt videos online of such.

Kids are brats. Good luck

I'm also trying to get into fantasy modeling.

From my personal research these might be a few good resources:

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Analytics-Objective-Strategies-Understanding/dp/1492923176/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1482810850&sr=8-2&keywords=basketball+on+paper

https://www.amazon.com/Pro-Basketball-Forecast-John-Hollinger/dp/1574889621

Also, there is interesting stuff put out by the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference each year.

DM me, I'm curious about your background and experience. Maybe we can collaborate.

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons - great history lesson on the NBA that is the perfect long read for people with short attention spans.

http://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Analytics-Tracking-Stephen-Shea/dp/1503236277

I really enjoyed "Seven Seconds or Less" by Jack McCallum, which chronicles the 05-06 Phoenix Suns. It gives you a good look into how teams are run, how insecure NBA players can be (Shawn Marion), and how the players act in between games.

One interesting part of the book was reading about how much Nash disliked Kobe, which made him (one of my favorite players) coming to the Lakers really surprising.

I've also heard good things about "Breaks of the Game" by David Halberstrom, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Analytics-Objective-Strategies-Understanding/dp/1492923176

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Analytics-Tracking-Stephen-Shea/dp/1503236277

https://www.amazon.com/dp/013419330X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

https://www.amazon.com/Mathletics-Gamblers-Enthusiasts-Mathematics-Basketball/dp/0691154589

Check out Bill Simmons, founder/editor of Grantland (which Klosterman is a contributor to). Simmons mostly writes about sports, his best known work includes The Book of Basketball and Now I Can Die In Peace

ah i thought you meant this loose balls

i didn't know jayson williams had a memoir. is it any good? or believable?

Although it isn't specifically geared towards basketball tactics and skill building, I think Bill Simmons book The Book of Basketball is really good. At least the section on "the secret."

From what I can tell from here, that book is about Stephon Marbury and his brothers who lived in the Coney Island projects and played ball at Lincoln High. CI Projects are fucking murderous places too, but that ain't Bed Stuy.

So for the book club, I'll make a post tomorrow but this is the book we will read. any suggestions for chapters read by a certain date?

Start with The Art of a Beautiful Game by SI's Chris Ballard. It will make you fall in love.

I also recommend both the books from FreeDarko collective (buy them in hardcover for the fantastic artwork).

• Undisputed guide to pro basketball history
  
• The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac
  
  I started with The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam because literally everyone recommends it, but I found it dry like a boring history textbook or a Wikipedia entry on the Blazers.

I'm not going to try to convince people that he's worth listening to, but it's not like the guy doesn't have credentials:

• Founded Grantland
  
• Founded The Ringer
  
• Was an analyst on NBA Countdown for two years
  
• Wrote a best-selling book about basketball

Hollup I got you fam

there have been books written about this, for example

Simmons is awesome, anyone that hasn't seen his book, Book of Basketball. its worth a read

Thinking basketball is pretty great (Thinking Basketball https://www.amazon.com/dp/1532968175/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CNOCDbZD2VERY)

The author also has a podcast and YouTube channel that are equally useful if you want to learn about different strategies and sets in basketball.

Well Portland basketball did have a rep for being "bad" 20 years ago....

If you're a fan of Bill Simmons and are an NBA fan, The Book of Basketball is a great. It's like a 700pg Simmons article.

I only read books in school, never outside of school. I picked this up when I was 21 probably, and read it in about a week. Great book

FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History

Both were forerunners to the type of books Shea and Goldsberry wrote. Long form essays, an attempt to apply a taxonomy to great players, and awesome art. Also some irreverent humor.

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175

Thanks! It’s in my Amazon cart now. Really appreciate the tip, especially as a newer fan.

Any other suggestions for a newer work? The analytics side is really interesting to me as someone who has a background in baseball.

For anyone else looking for the Simmons book:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0345520106/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdo_t1_tZZBCbWHQCWSF

Three wrongs don't make a right, either. The AAU is also a swamp of vultures looking to prey on children who don't know any better. This book is a great, albeit completely infuriating, look at some of the shenanigans that go on at that level:

https://www.amazon.ca/Play-Their-Hearts-Out-Basketball/dp/0345508610

> Ed Martin was not necessarily a wealthy man.

Oh?

>He gave the recruits hundred of thousands of dollars

Well then...

>and had previously been investigated by the FBI for running illegal gambling rings.

Right, like I said: made money doing shady shit on the side.

> Ed Martin was a booster with recruit contact long before Fisher was head coach at Michigan.

Yup.

>Do not watch the Fab Five 30 for 30 documentary. ESPN allowed it to be put together by Jalen Rose, who was one of the Fab Five and has an axe to grind with Chris Webber. It is biased in the extreme.

Jalen Rose's side of the story is a fairly accurate side of the story. The only axe to grind against Webber is that Webber wrote off the rest of his teammates and the University of Michigan after the Ed Martin incident. Webber threw Martin under the bus...

"This case is about a man who befriended kids like myself, preying on our naïveté, our innocence, claiming that he loved us and that he wanted to support us, but later wanting to cash in on that love and support that we thought was free," Webber said at the time.

...and turned his back on his teammates. He refused to sit with them at the Natty and refused to participate or comment on their history.

FWIW the Fab Five are the reason I got into college basketball. First games I remember watching as a kid with my dad, a Michigan man. When I moved to Ann Arbor as a teenager, the first gift I received from my new friends at school was a book "The Fab Five: Basketball, Trash Talk, the American Dream."

• The Last Shot - one of the best books i have ever read.
  
• Unfinished Business - same author as
  
• :07 Seconds or Less
  
• The Breaks of the Game - i have never read it, but all i hear is good things.
  
• and of course, The Book of Basketball - good book, a bit hefty.
  
  i tried to pick things that you could easily find online and off.

Our Band Could be Your Life
The Last Tsar
The Book of Basketball

If you're the reading type, The Book of Basketball is a good, fun read that covers a lot of ground.

As a Canadian, the Raptors are a fun team to watch (for now), and since you grew up in the country you won't be considered a bandwagon fan at all. Since Vancouver is so close to Seattle, that would work too, but unfortunately that team moved to Oklahoma a decade ago or so. If you think you'll watch basketball for a while, it may be fun to choose one of the young (promising??) teams like Philadelphia, Minnesota, the Lakers (don't choose the Lakers), or Milwaukee cause you can watch them grow and mature over the next couple years.

Honestly, the game is SUPER fun to watch right now, but it's a little weird because Golden State and Cleveland are so much better than everyone else in their conferences. I thought GS would have to break up for $$ reasons, but players (Durant) took a paycut to keep the core together, so they'll be absolutely dominant for a couple more years at least.

All that to say, it's an exciting time to jump into the NBA! The game has changed a TON in the last few years (faster pace, blending of positions) and looks to continue evolving quickly in the next couple years. Welcome!

They've actually got two books out, but this is the only one I read and the one that has a chapter on the pre-history of the NBA:

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History

No worries man, I have loved watching the documentaries over the last month. Also, if you like reading you should check out The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy. Really big, but good to read book, so you need to enjoy reading to slug though that haha. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and loving it.

One really great place to start is the FreeDarko books--the first one is a history of the sport, which is a hell of a lot more interesting than you'd expect. The other book is a look at some of the greatest players of all time. Both these books are beautifully illustrated and have a totally unique take on basketball you won't find anywhere else.

As for being a Wolves fan, the SBNation blog is Canis Hoopus, which has a ton of really bright fans who keep up an active community and great game threads. Some other Wolves blogs:

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/
http://www.thedailywolf.com/
www.punchdrunkwolves.com

In The Book of Basketball he spends approximately 400 chapters explaining exactly why Bill Russell was superior to Wilt.

Play Their Hearts Out Incredible story and fascinating investigation of the youth basketball machine

Pacific Rims Basketball is humongous in the Philippines. This book examines the history of the phenomenon as well as a fly-on-the-wall account of a season in the country's top league.

Heaven is a Playground Rick Telander (who went on to write for SI and ESPN among others) spent a summer in New York City shortly after graduating college in the seventies to immerse himself in the playground game of the city. Telander spent virtually all his time playing and hanging out with playground stars including future NBA-er Albert King (brother of Bernard). An engaging mix of sociology and sports.

'Play Their Hearts Out' is a great read

A few of my favs

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Lifetime-Observations-Reflections-Court/dp/0809230410

The Book of Basketball (just a ridiculous amount of info)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Basketball-According-Sports/dp/0345520106

Hard Work - (Roy Williams) interesting perspective on the demands of college coaching to a family
http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Work-Life-Off-Court/dp/B006TQV62A

Loose Balls. It's about the ABA.

This is one of my favorites:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1608190838?pc_redir=1404576599&robot_redir=1

If you like reverential overanalysis of the history of basketball then this is for you.

I hope Luke buys this for Randle's Christmas present

Simmons' Book of Basketball.