(Part 3) Best basketball books according to redditors

I highly recommend "The Art of a Beautiful Game" for insight into Kobe Bryant's mentality, as well as a bunch of other cool shit. Dude is absolutely obsessed with winning.

does he have this?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Basketball-According-Sports-ebook/dp/B002MUAFWY

it's like the basketball bible written by the jesus of basketball fans

also, if he doesn't have it already, a ballstreams account with a roku box

You can check out the book,

"We'll Always Have Linsanity: Strange Takes on the Strangest Season in Knicks History"

Yeah, that's a real title of a real book.

Here: https://www.amazon.com/Well-Always-Have-Linsanity-Strangest/dp/0988266202

I've read a lot of nonfiction sports books. When a decent writer covers a fascinating sports topic they can be pretty hard to beat. Some of my absolute favorites:

Play Their Hearts Out by George Dohrmann Phenomenal story that shows the insanity of elite high school basketball and the recruiting machine.

Bringing the Heat by Mark Bowden Fly on the wall account of the Philadelphia Eagles' 1992. Some great insights into players like Jerome Brown, Randall Cunningham, and Reggie White and Bowden (who also wrote Black Hawk Down) describes on and off-field action very well.

Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski A mix between Freakonomics and Moneyball as it relates to international soccer. If you have any interest in soccer or international sports/business its definitely worth a read.

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby Reflections on intense fandom from a novelist. Soccer-related (and unfortunately this book is the reason why I am now stuck supporting Arsenal) but Hornby's musings definitely apply across sports.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer Journalist returns to his Alabama roots to follow the Tide's football season in an RV amongst die hard fans. Great book about fandom and a chronicle of a season.

Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew Just finished this one. Filipinos are obsessed with basketball and this book describes the depths of the national obsession as well as covering the 2007 season of the Alaska Aces in the Philippines Basketball Association. Asian professional basketball is a bit different than its NBA cousin and I found the book to be incredibly interesting.

The very best basketball books are written by Dick DeVenzio. These are the cornerstone of my basketball development and anyone not reading these are doing themselves a huge disservice. I should actually put these in the sidebar.

Think Like a Champion discusses the mental aspect of basketball. How to have the right attitude, developing your killer instinct, how to overcome adversity, dealing with bad teammates, slumps, how to train, etc.

Runnin the Show is about leadership in basketball (and also life). Really excellent about motivating teammates, getting the most of everyone around you, how to gain respect of your teammates, etc.

Stuff Good Players Should Know teaches a ton of small tips and tricks, basketball IQ, really just a lot of small, applicable things and provides you a new framework for thinking about the game. You'll realize "oh crap, it's possible to think about the game at this level!"

The other books people recommended are good and all (I've read most of them), but they don't even come close to these three. The other ones are more "fluffy" while these three talk directly about game situations and how to handle them. Devenzio's stuff is much more applicable. It's "in life, never take shortcuts. It's better to work hard" vs "If you're in a bad rebounding position you can push the guy under the rim instead of outwards because the only shots that go under the rim are made shots".

Since its becoming a bit of a meme, maybe I should add to the conversation. [HERE] (http://indianahsbasketball.homestead.com/files/gyms.htm) you can find the capacities of Indiana's 150 or so largest gyms.

And [HERE] (https://www.flickr.com/photos/68911335@N00/sets) is a link to several albums with Indiana gym pictures. This guy has seen an game in all of Indiana's 92 counties and always takes pictures.

And [HERE] (https://www.amazon.com/Hoosier-Hysteria-Road-Book-Basketball/dp/1888698276) is a link to the Hoosier Hysteria Road Book which contains a write up on each of Indiana's 400 schools. It contains info on each town, area restaurant's, unique gym info, and the gyms address. It was a remarkable achievement and was 100% complete when it was first published. New schools have obviously opened in the last 20 years.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/162937668X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_uXtjDb58Z6NX3

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I recommend "Drive: The Story of My Life" by Larry Bird. However I would also check out "Then Russell Said to Bird..." because it covers stories from most of the Celtics era including the time period you're interested in. I haven't read that one yet, so I would check out the description before hand.

Book 1:
http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Story-Life-Larry-Bird/dp/0553287583/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394004880&sr=1-1&keywords=larry+bird+biography

Book 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Then-Russell-Said-Bird-Greatest/dp/1600788513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394004983&sr=1-1&keywords=celtics+books

I started keeping pretty late (after college). Since I didn't have a coach, I learned by reading. It's been a while since I took to the books but this one comes to mind.

There are a LOT more resources now. Alberto Ruiz's YouTube channel is a great start.

Good luck!

He is an absolutely amazing human. I had the pleasure of attending one of his coaching clinics, which he still does to this day.

Dr. Krause is the most widely published basketball writer with over 30 books, most famously Skills and Drills, with a highly inspired forward by Coach K.

He was an assistant at GU for a couple years, and after a 5 year teaching stint at West Point, became GU's Dir. Basketball Ops in 2001, a position they created specifically for him. Throughout his career he championed analytics such as offensive and defensive efficiencies. He was the first real Ken Pomeroy.

He also developed the standards for the continuity of backboards and rims for the NCAA to minimize the "home bounce", and served on the NCAA Rules Committee for several years. He is still the Research Chair for the NABC. Very well known and respected mind throughout the basketball world.

Stuff Good Players Should Know: Intelligent Basketball from A to Z has taught me the most about playing the game. I'm sure I didn't buy it for $30 though.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/2925013-jack-twyman-maurice-stokes-foundation-tim-duncan-karl-malone-cincinnati-royals

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/59493/the-story-behind-the-twyman-stokes-award

http://www.amazon.com/Unbreakable-Bond-Brotherhood-Maurice-Stokes/dp/1937943178

Of the books I've read:

• A Season on the Brink - John Feinstein Feinstein's chronicling of Bob Knight the 1985-1986 Indiana Hoosiers. The book was very successful and Feinstein followed it up with a number of inside looks at college basketball. 10/10
  
• The Last Amateurs It's about the Patriot League which, at the time of publication, was one of two conferences that didn't award athletic scholarships (Ivy was the other). 7/10
  
• Basketball on Paper - Dean Oliver Oliver is the granddaddy of basketball analytics. His examples are primarily focused on the NBA, but it's an interesting read that might change your perspective on how you watch basketball. 8/10
  
• Don't Put Me In Coach - Mark Titus Maybe it's just because I was a big fan of Club Trillion back in the day, but I think it's a really funny and interesting read about what big time college basketball is like today. Like A Season on the Brink, it helps you realize that, regardless of the era, these guys are just college kids. 7/10
  
• Playing for Knight - Steve Alford There are some interesting Indiana stories in here. But whereas A Season the Brink is enjoyable and a must read for any college basketball fan, this one is probably just worth reading if you're an Indiana fan. 5/10
  
• Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four - John Feinstein Eh. Not as good as some of the other ones I've read by him. 4/10.
  
  On my bookshelf but I haven't read them yet:
  
  
• Underdawgs - David Woods The story of Butler's first trip to the Final Four. This is the one I'm most excited to pick up next.
  
• Rising from the Ashes - Terry Hutchins It's about Indiana's dumpster fire leading up through it's return to the Top 25 in 2011-2012. Honestly, I only bought it because Hutchins and Woods were selling them side by side at a Butler Indiana game and I felt weird buying just the Butler book while wearing Indiana gear. It's a story that I already know by heart because I lived through it so I might never get around to reading it.
  
• The Last Great Game - Gene Wojciechowski About 1992 Kentucky - Duke. Haven't read it yet. Although I certainly plan to.

I'm replying to this knowing that I'm probably wasting my time, but I like talking basketball so here goes -

> I've never been impressed by his in game adjustments or x's and o's.

Twenty years ago he published his first book. It consisted of nothing but diagrams of the offense he was running. It's about as x-and-o oriented as a book can get. No Calspeak. Just diagrams and strategy. I have a copy. It's a very informative book, and I've seen a play or two in Wisconsin's "swing" offense that look very similar. Somewhat ironically, Ryan had used less and less of his traditional offensive sets in the 2014-15 season in order to accommodate one-and-done Dekker. Sort of like how Calipari has to reinvent his offensive scheme annually in order to best adapt to roster turnover each year.

> If he's going to win, he'll have to do it with younger players.

That's mostly what's been happening. Sometimes young teams never fully come together (like UK's 2013 team), but for the most part, Calipari is able to have his teams playing very well by the time March rolls around.

> UW's coaching staff has had absurd success in the past 16 years or so.

I don't think "absurd success" is the right descriptor when at least 20 other teams have a better record during that same timeframe. UConn alone has won 3 titles in that period, and 4 if you go back 17 years, which is just as arbitrary a timeframe as the 16 years you chose, I'm assuming in order to include Wisconsin's 2000 Final Four. I remember watching that game live. Like most other people who watched it, I wish I didn't.


> That's sort of irrelevant though, as Calipari's strategy is clearly just to load of up on talented players

Well, yes. Every coach wants to load up on talented players, and the best ones don't stay for long. But let's not pretend it's as simple as you are making it out to be. It takes a lot of work to get those guys to one school, and even more effort to make those guys play together. Each one of them would get more minutes playing for almost any other college team. Each one of them has to adjust from being the undisputed best player on the floor to an environment where they need to learn their role among equally talented guys. It takes a lot of talent for a coach to get 18-19 year olds to check their egos and work together.

> my point is just that it looks to me like his teams underperform relative to their talent

Just like how older teams, with lots of juniors and seniors, seem to overperform relative to their talent. Talent alone doesn't win games. It certainly helps, though. Just like experience and maturity. Calipari has been able to win either way. Pat Forde is a sportswriter that hates Calipari. But even he managed to write this: Calipari's greatest strength as a coach is his ability to create teams that play together. His 1992 Massachusetts team remains one of the most overachieving units The Minutes has ever seen, featuring a shooting guard with range so limited he made one 3-pointer all season (Jim McCoy), a 6-foot-3 power forward (Will Herndon), and a left-handed center who stood all of 6–7 (Harper Williams). Somehow, that collection of marginal talent went 30–5 and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.

> Last year's matchup was the perfect showcase of the way UW and UK run their programs, and we did, ya know, win

I'd love to hear you go into more detail here. How can one game, standing alone, symbolize much of anything? Other than lazy analogical reasoning, that is. When UK beat Wisconsin in 2014, what did that showcase? Or better yet, pick any of the team chaos victories from this season. All that a single game shows is how well a team performed relative to another team on that day.

Kind of! It’s a comprehensive story of the league.

The book is also VERY good:

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Love-Story-Jackie-MacMullan/dp/1524761788

http://www.amazon.com/Basketball-3rd-Edition-Success-Activity-Series/dp/1450414885

is a great start. It's hard to learn from a book sometimes though, so when you're learning a fundamental from the book, find an example on youtube.

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 strongly recommend "The art of a Beautiful Game" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Beautiful-Game-Illustrated/dp/1439110212)

It has some amazing insight. I really liked the chapters where he met with Steve Kerr and talked/experiment about if great shooters were born or made. The chapter of Steve Nash and the origins of his style from high school (foot injury on his layup foot meant he would dribble around the basket like he does.) Insight into Shane Battier's intense defensive analysis of opposition.

The Bill Simmons book is good too. You don't have to agree with all Bill's opinions. It has lots of very interesting trivia and heaps of history.

But why ?