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Here's some reading material that you might find interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/FreeDarko-Presents-Macrophenomenal-Basketball-Almanac/dp/1596915617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301638666&sr=8-1

Appreciating good basketball is important, but it's the art of the game, and really that of any pro sports, which makes it worth watching. Part of the art of the game are the storylines that unfold in sports.

As a Bulls/Packers fan I have been pretty blessed as far as the art and story of the game go with the GOAT in Michael Jordan, a guy that appears to be an all time great in Aaron Rodgers, Super Bowl wins, great playoff series like Bulls vs. Celtics 2009, etc.

It's something that is hard to explain, but the art, story, and the entertainment it provides is something great that comes from sports, and should not be denied to just viewing the game from a purely practical standpoint.

Jordan was absolutely not a leader. I stand by that. Pick up a copy and read The Jordan Rules or Blood On The Horns and I think you'll agree. Was he the Chicago Bulls best player? Absolutely. But this guy punched Steve Kerr in the face, never spoke a word to Dennis Rodman, punched Will Purdue in the face a couple of times, was a dick to and tried to sabotage the career of Bill Cartwright, conned Pippen out of some money, etc. If Jordan played under the watchful eye of today's media, featuring Twitter and Reddit, he would be known as a locker room cancer.

The "myth" is that it was Jordan that won those championships. He went 1-9 in playoff games without Scottie Pippen. To make matters more interesting, Pippen and the Bulls won 55 without Jordan and made the game 7 of the 1993 WCF. MJ played six seasons without winning a championship. Would he have been able to get a ring without his supporting cast and the systems of Phil Jackson? Sure. One? Maybe two? But it's a myth that those Bulls won six championships because of Jordan. One would be more justified suggesting Jordan won six rings because of those Bulls and Phil Jackson.

Edit: Just want to add that I feel like Phil Jackson's systems, and MJ buying into said systems, is what moved Jordan from best of his era, to arguably best of all time. My point with all of this wasn't to further expose MJ, it was to suggest that great players (such as WB) need to buy into quality systems to transcend into elite/generational talents.

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!

Garbage time, or playing up or down to a team, can be accounted for.

I don't wanna sound elitist but the explanation requires more math than I'm willing to do. If you're interested in it I would HIGHLY recommend Basketball on Paper by Dean Oliver. He has a chapter devoted to this subject that is really good and is eminently readable. The book itself is inspirationally good.

There's a lot of other sports stats guys who talk about the same thing. I think Wages of Wins talks about it a lot.

tl;dr: if you run the numbers and test which stat is more predictive, win record or point differential, it's point differential.

One of my best memories of visiting the Philippines (my dad lives there half the year and I try to visit every other year or so) is playing pick up ball with the locals. Pick up culture there is completely different from pick up games here, it was a trip having games just continue on and on and having people just sub in instead of calling next or anything like that. Also playing in a gym built inside a shopping mall.

And they play a lot more zone defense and a lot less defense in general! People looked at me like a fucking mad man when I was crashing the boards hard and running the break, like some sort of Kenneth Faried/Dennis Rodman hybrid (in the States I'm much more Jason Terry). It helps at 5-8 I was one of the taller players in a lot of these games.

Rafe Bartholomew of Grantland fame has a pretty excellent book on Philippine basketball culture, I definitely recommend it!

His Washington years get made fun of but he was pretty damn good. Reading the book on those years illuminated the fact that Jordan's knee had severe tendinitis basically his entire first season as a Wizard, due to being older and training heavily out of nowhere (he announced his comeback very late in the offseason prior), and had to be drained multiple times. He was such a maniac about playing that he refused to let it rest until he just couldn't play anymore. Because of this, his stats don't really look very good in comparison to the rest of his career. His second season his percentages are up across the board and, most impressively, he played all 82 games as he was turning 40 years old averaging 37 minutes a game. That's incredible.

The efficiency isn't great, particularly that first year, but the entire league was not very efficient at that time. It was a tough era to watch basketball if you were a fan of offense. Lots of isos, particularly by Jordan.

Another thing: He took the veterans exception to play as a Wizard, which was only like $1 million a year, and he donated his salary for those two years to charity. I want to say it was a 9/11 victims charity but I'm not 100% on that. I'm going by memory on this. The way I remember it is that he announced his comeback pretty soon after 9/11, almost like it was a response to the event

Mj doesn't have high quality highlight reels on youtube but he does have a lot of legendary games like Lebron. But because MJ's career is over the best way to catch up on MJ is to watch documentaries about him that will weave many of them together with all the relevant storylines for an easy and entertaining watch OR you could buy entire Chicago Bulls seasons or playoffs on DVD (I have a bunch). You can buy them online on amazon for instance like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Bulls-1990-1991-Champions-Collectors/dp/B000JLTRGS/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1522048887&sr=1-1&keywords=chicago+bulls+1991

https://www.amazon.com/NBA-Ultimate-Anniversary-Three-Disc-Collectors/dp/B0002IKSFC/ref=pd_sbs_74_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0002IKSFC&pd_rd_r=1HRNZHXC2BEX2QM1BY12&pd_rd_w=BCGh6&pd_rd_wg=mTAG4&psc=1&refRID=1HRNZHXC2BEX2QM1BY12

https://www.amazon.com/NBA-Dynasty-Chicago-Bulls-1990s/dp/B0001Z37IQ/ref=pd_sbs_74_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0001Z37IQ&pd_rd_r=1HRNZHXC2BEX2QM1BY12&pd_rd_w=BCGh6&pd_rd_wg=mTAG4&psc=1&refRID=1HRNZHXC2BEX2QM1BY12

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

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

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.

I recently read Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson, it's a little more philosophical than cold hard decision making (as one would imagine in a Phil Jackson book), but it offers some amazing insight into his coaching style as well as a ton of great behind the scenes stories about those legendary Bulls and Lakers teams.

Also the book Boys Among Men by Jonathon Abrams of Grantland isn't exactly what you're asking for because it's more about players than coaches/GMs, but it offers a ton of insight into the scouting/drafting process and is a fantastic read overall.

If you guys are interested, there's already a book on the Bulls last season. It's called Playing for Keeps

It's written by the great David Halberstrom. He got full access to following the team that year. It's not just the last season but also mini biography on most of the players and coaches, but mostly centered around Jordan.

The book is really good and would have been even better if Jordan didn't renege on his promise to sit down after the season 1-1 with Halberstrom.

BTW, the book is really great at showing how much the players HATED Krause and how hard it was for Jackson to try to balance the stars and keeping management out of the way, all while coaching that year on his own expiring contract. It has other great details, like how at the end Reinsdorff would negotiate with Jordan 1-1, no one else, no agents. They'd sit in a room and work it out on their own.

Fair question, and one that is worth exploring, with the right personnel.

However, in general the best defensive players are not ones that fit in a Nash run offense. You want to pair athletic guys that can run and finish from a Nash dish and that can hit the 3 on a fast break.

If an individual can figure out how to take the best of the offensive techniques from 7 seconds or less and pair them, effectively with a solid defense, I think Nash can. Having Kobe on board only heightens the chance of success.

A day late but you should check out 11 Rings, the book by Phil Jackson. He gives a lot of insight into MJ and how those loses fueled him to become a better player and trust his teammates more. Great book for any basketball fan.

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.

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 book is super entertaining, though a little outdated. The awesome illustrations make it worth it, so I recommend it. Good book to open to a page and leave on a shelf to add that basketball ambiance.

Basketball is the number one sport in my country, the Philippines,
there's a book about it [Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball]
(http://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Rims-Flip-Flops-Philippines-Basketball/dp/0451233220), no other sports compare

Edit: I personally think volleyball is a close second not because of how much tv time it gets but because a lot of people plays the sport, football(soccer) is slowly becoming popular, i know baseball is pretty popular back then but it has declined.
Edit2:how could i forget about boxing? Manny Pacquiao is a demigod

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.

Dead wrong about the SSOL Suns being potentially uninteresting. There is actually a great book about the team, called Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns. It's possibly my favorite book of all-time.

I'm not much of a book reader, but this one was captivating, especially as an NBA junkie who grew up watching the SSOL Suns. The season the author chose to follow was especially interesting because it was the year where Amare basically sat out the entire season. For context, if you didn't get a chance to follow the team, while Nash ran the offense, Amare was the second-most important player on the team, as he was an offensive juggernaut, their main scorer, and one of the NBA's star young big men at the time. In addition to the main players, like Nash and Coach D'Antoni, the book also goes into details about the personalities, styles, and characteristics of a lot of the role-players and assistant coaches, too, like Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, James Jones, Raja Bell, Tim Thomas, and Alvin Gentry. Totally awesome book.

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 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.

What's that you say?

Got this as a gift for my father 10 years ago since he's a big Bulls fan. He loved it.

I'd love Blu-Ray though.

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.

Well, "Pacific Rims" is about his journey/immersion to the Philippines in search of this crazy-obsessive basketball culture he heard about in the States. He thought it was an interesting enough subject to cover so he convinced his Fulbright panel to send him here. I may be biased because I'm Filipino haha I'm 80 pages in and I love this thing.

Here's an Amazon link for the book and a webseries he did for NatGeo called "Pinoy hoops."

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.

I dig articles like this. It's way too easy to sit back and assume these players are robots who only exist when we see them on TV or see them on social media. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg.

For those interested in more of these types of stories, I'd recommend Paul Shirley's "Can I Keep My Jersey?" so you can read about how Baron Davis would hold up the Hornets' introductory dinner by casually showing up 45 minutes late with a beer in his hand and that time Kendall Gill was power tripping on a terrible Chicago Bulls team by trying to subject Shirley to rookie hazing even though he was 26 years old and not a rookie.

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."

FreeDarko's Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats and Stars in Today's Game has an amazing section on Sheed. They post his stats before/after getting teched up, and they're astounding.

Goes from being really good to basically being one of the best big men of all time.

Loose Balls: The short and wild ride of the ABA

Was as accurate as you're probably going to get about the ABA and absolutely hilarious. Was definitely one of the best books I've ever read.

there are so many what if's with that team. it gets brought up pretty often but this book about that season is truly dope.

edit: this book actually covers the 79-80 season but goes over a bunch of that history. also awesome parts on billy ray bates, the original "where the fuck did this guy come from" story before jeremy lin.

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

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

Have you read this it's a great read specially about that playoff series but you get great behind-the-scenes look at the Suns team

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.

I like books where the author spends a season with a team and Seven Seconds or Less about the Nash/Marion/Amare Suns is a really fun read.

Not from this decade, and it's a lot longer and more serious material, but I highly recommend The Jordan Rules as well.

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.

Yup - I loved reading SSOL - Seven Seconds or Less - as it perfectly described the day-to-day life of this team a decade ago.

(The title comes from the Suns' gameplay - the idea was to always make a basket within the first seven seconds of the shot clock).

Sounds like Marcus said "author of..." (about to refer to this book: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Miraculous-Rise-Steph-Curry/dp/1501147838) and goaded Steph, who obviously knew what was up, and Steph said "...shut up man..." jokingly. Pretty funny to see them clowning around.

I've been reading this book about basketball in the Philippines and the PBA and it is awesome. I really want to visit Manila now and just play pick up games all the time.

He is an absolute legend in the Philippines (PBA). Rafe Bartholomew, who was a Grantland contributor, wrote a great book about the PBA and a good chunk of it is about Bates.

Amazon link

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.

Ref's hold grudges against certain players. As you can see, Joey Crawford was also a ref in this game. I am not sure if this game was AFTER a time when Joey Crawford ejected Duncan for laughing on the bench. If so, I'm pretty sure J.C. and that other ref talked pre-game and had a 'target' on Duncan this whole game.

Source: Tim Donagy's Book

http://www.amazon.com/Can-Keep-Jersey-Countries-Basketball/dp/0345495705

on the left hand side click: "look inside" you can rea the first few pages for free.

A writer got to spend the entire season with the Suns that year and wrote one of my favorite books on his experience. It really goes in depth with the team, describes most of the key players' and staffs' personalities including Nash, Amare, Matrix, and D'Antoni, as well as covers their surprising playoff run.

I'm currently reading The Breaks of the Game so I recognize several of the non-obvious names on there.

Lionel Hollins' signature is pretty fancy haha

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.

I think they made those series already.

NBA Dynasty Series: Chicago Bulls - The 1990s

NBA Dynasty Series: Los Angeles Lakers - The Complete History

NBA Dynasty Series: Boston Celtics - The Complete History

San Antonio Spurs -1999-2007 NBA Champions Special Edition

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.

you should check out this book. it explains why filipinos love basketball and why the sport flourishes as the number one sport in the country

FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History Hardcover

Easy read, really cool illustrations, very informative.

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.

Unsolicited recommendations:

The Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard

FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac

Loose Balls is an oral history of the ABA. It's full of amazing anecdotes about that era of basketball and also shows how today's NBA developed out of the ABA's innovations.

I might be biased, but I thought Seven Seconds or Less was a very good read.

It came out in a book written about his time with the Wizards

http://www.amazon.com/When-Nothing-Else-Matters-Comeback/dp/0743254279

It wasn't very interesting overall. The Kwame story was by far the best part.

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

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.

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

You might enjoy this.

John Feinstien wrote a whole book about it. Quite good, actually.

https://www.amazon.com/Punch-Night-Changed-Basketball-Forever/dp/0316735639

oops sorry about that. In that case I'd read anything Phil Jackson has written, he has some cool insight to stuff you usually wouldn't hear about regarding certain eras/players. This is his most recent one.

the book about this is amazingly interesting

http://www.amazon.com/Punch-Night-Changed-Basketball-Forever/dp/0316735639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453329450&sr=8-1&keywords=the+punch+book

Thanks, I'm gonna check this one out.
link for the lazy

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.

Yes, anyone who believes otherwise should read this

Wish they had a Rockets reporter. If we know anything about D'Antoni, it's that he allows extensive behind-the-scenes access.

Just read Jonathan Abrams new book Boys Among Men which details this story too. Calipari got played. https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Among-Men-Prep-Pro/dp/0804139253

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

These don't count?

Halberstam's pretty keen on Jordan, but even he lists off some repugnant behavior.

ah i thought you meant this loose balls

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

Anyone read The Punch? About Rudy, Kermit, and how the fight changed each of their lives and the NBA?

Very interesting read.

It's what fueled him - making him think everyone was against him and he had something to prove. It worked clearly, but socially not so much. Check out the book The Jordan Rules.

Paul Shirley's Book touched on his experience with 10-day contracts, and was interesting in parts. Too bad the dude had his opinions and then decided to share them, and then doubled down on it. He had some decent writing back in the day.

Read any book about the NBA at that time ie the Jordan Rules, The Franchise by Stauth, etc.

I know many of you don't remember the 80s at all, or were probably not even born. But before Phil Jackson took over the Bulls, Jordan was widely regarded as an elite, flashy scorer in the late 80s, but a selfish ballhog that only cared about scoring, didn't give a damn about his teammates, and was out to pad his numbers.

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

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

https://www.amazon.com/Eleven-Rings-Success-Phil-Jackson/dp/0143125346

http://www.amazon.com/The-Punch-Changed-Basketball-Forever/dp/0316735639

What did you talk to him about? His book?

True? Ill look into that

Edit: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0345495705

"Last decade" -

Book of Basketball

Dream Team

When the Game was Ours

Not Last Decade, but you should read anyway -

The Jordan Rules

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

Simmons' Book of Basketball.

try here

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

there have been books written about this, for example

Check out this book on Filipino basketball culture by Rafe Bartholomew.

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Foul-First-Person-Account-Scandal/dp/061536263X

http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Foul-First-Person-Account-Scandal/dp/061536263X

I bought it for my Kindle a few months back, and my opinion of the league was changed quite a bit after reading.

As for the specific text about the event, I'd have to look through the book later today.

https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Seconds-Less-Season-Phoenix/dp/0743298136

Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made –
by David Halberstam

if you haven't you should

Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam about Bill Walton's Blazers

I believe Bill Simmons has cited this book as one of the main reasons he became a sportswriter

Loose Balls. It's about the ABA.

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

More context. Marcus Thompson, the guy asking the question, wrote a book called GOLDEN: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry and he's phrasing the questions as a plug for his book.

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

I'm not. Dean Oliver is. John Hollinger is. If anyone reading this hasn't read basketball on paper, change that right now...
https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Paper-Rules-Performance-Analysis/dp/1574886886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541703073&sr=1-1&keywords=basketball+on+paper

These stats are from Dean Oliver's 2004 book (and earlier, on his website):

https://www.amazon.com/Basketball-Paper-Rules-Performance-Analysis/dp/1574886886

Under the "Stats and Data Analysis", this should be reading for those that don't have a bachelors in NBA or a masters: Basketball on Paper by Dean Oliver

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

Did you even look at the other links on the page? This was right below

" In 2017, Marcus Thompson of The Athletic, author of the book "Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry," explained to " The Big Lead with Jason McIntyre" that Curry was not all that popular with some of the league's biggest stars, including LeBron James. "

The other bad part about Wilt planting himself in the post is that when he joined the Lakers, their 2 top stars (West & Baylor) were both great drivers who Wilt would not move away from the basket for (so his defender could easily help on those drives knowing Wilt wasn't going anywhere), which particularly killed Baylor's value since Wilt liked to set up on the left block and Baylor famously drove in along the left baseline. Wilt also wouldn't move out of the post for fear of getting less rebounds, so his teammate were never getting picks from him, he wasn't helping create driving lanes for them, etc.

BTW, I can't recommend people reading Ben Taylor's work enough. His book is phenomenal, his site & Twitter are phenomenal, his YouTube channel is phenomenal, etc.

I know Playing for Keeps is widely considered the best-written basketball book, but it's a bit outdated and more of a hagiography. However, David Halberstam is known as the best sports-biographer for a reason.

On the other end, Michael Leahry's When Nothing Else Matters details his failed efforts in Washington in terrific detail, but it's not particularly fun to read, and has been accused of twisting information to suit its narrative that Jordan is a psychopath. Bill Simmons says the book should be avoided.

"Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal that Rocked the NBA" - By Tim Donaghy
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Foul-First-Person-Account-Scandal/dp/061536263X

After reading Seven Seconds or Less years ago, my guess is that there's too much influence from a dickhead owner.

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 have literally no evidence to back this up

There's an entire book written by a former referee that did prison time for betting on games. He gives specific examples page after page.

Read the book about it a few years back. The Punch. Rudy got punched so hard it displaced his skull structure, he had spinal fluid leaking into his mouth. Crazy shit.