sports & recreation / basketball

"The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987 season was the peak of that golden era, a year of incredible drama that featured a pantheon of superstars in their prime-the most Hall of Famers competing at one time in any given season-battling for the title, and for their respective legacies. In When the Game Was War, bestselling author Rich Cohen tells the colorful story of this incredible season through the four teams, and the four players, who dominated it: Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, and a young Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. Taking the reader from rural Indiana to the southside of Chicago, suburban North Carolina to rust-belt Michigan, Cohen explores the diverse journeys each of these iconic players took before arriving on the big stage. Drawing from dozens of interviews with NBA insiders, Cohen brings to vivid life some of the most colorful characters of the era-like Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley-who fought like hell to help these stars succeed"-- Provided by publisher.

"Life in the G details the G League experience and the relentless pursuit of the NBA dream through the lens of the Birmingham Squadron's first season"--.

"A lively and introspective look into Oklahoma City, where colorful city officials business leaders, artists, and sports fans have turned an unassuming Southwestern city into a thriving metropolis with a dazzling basketball team"--Provided by publisher.

"The Cleveland Cavaliers franchise has been in existence for more than forty-five years, and it hasn't been an easy ride for the team or their fans, with many ups and downs along the way. They had seen the 'Miracle in Richfield' in 1976, 'The Shot' by Michael Jordan to knock them out of the playoffs in 1989, the arrival of 'The Chosen One,' LeBron James, in 2003, and a trip to the NBA Finals in 2007, but never a title... takes readers on the rollercoaster ride from LeBron coming back to Cleveland, to their 2015 NBA Finals appearance, through the unforgettable 2015-16 season that gave the city of Cleveland their first major sports championship in fifty-two years."--.

"The story of Billy "the Hill" McGill, who set the still-unbroken collegiate scoring record for big men with an outstanding 38.8 points per game and then faded away into oblivion, underpaid, nearly forgotten, and barely able to survive"--.

""A complete history of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, including capsules of every tournament from 1930 to present, and detailed analyses of the top 100 games in tournament history"--Provided by publisher"--.

"The story of Christgau's 1968 season coaching lightweight basketball in California"--.

"Ann Meyers Drysdale has been one of the greatest stars in the history of basketball. But her rise wasn't without controversy. Her 1979 NBA bid to play with the Indiana Pacers brought a barrage of criticism. But Ann simply wanted to play among the best. She had always competed with the guys, and she never let anyone keep her down. A female first in many categories, Meyers Drysdale was the first woman ever signed to a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA, where she remains the only four-time Bruin basketball All American, male or female. Ann competed in five ABC Sports' Superstars, winning three in a row for the women. She became the only woman to be asked to compete in the Men's Superstars. After her athletic career Ann did color commentary for national stations, and the 1984 Olympic games with ABC. She covered the 2000, 2004, and 2008, 2012 Olympics for NBC. Ann has worked for ESPN for over 25 years, broadcasting men's and women's basketball and Championship games, and has also worked the Men's NCAA Tournament games on CBS. She continues to do work with FOX Sports and others. She and her husband Don Drysdale, legendary pitcher & announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, became the first married couple enshrined in their respective sports' Halls of Fame. Ann is the only female Vice President in the NBA (Phoenix Suns) and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, which has won two WNBA Championships since she took over four years ago. The New York Times featured her prominently in a piece in August called "Pioneers Continue to Shepherd Women's Basketball." Time Magazine recently named her one of the ten greatest female athletes of all time"--.

Autobiography of Pat Summitt, covering her childhood in Tennessee, building and coaching the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team, and health struggles, especially early onset Alzheimer's disease.