This one was definitely a top 3 basketball books ever for me. Also a kind of forgotten story. CCNY was once the crown jewel of NYC hoops. The scandal itself is captivating enough, but the setting also paints an incredible picture of college hoops and New York City of 1940’s 50’s. From the old Madison Square Garden to the Bronx to the Catskills, loved all of it.

Hi All, I’m very conscious having started this subreddit nearly 6 months ago that I have now recommended pretty much every Basketball Book I’ve read and my interaction and posts going forward will be consequently relatively reduced. But rather than, metaphorically, somewhat ghosting you all, I thought it a good idea to do a quick AMA, happy to discuss anything, why I started the community, what other books I read, why Basketball etc.. Completely understand if I have a very lonely and quiet hour 😂 but wanted to give it a go nevertheless, your interaction would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏻

Another revisit as I slowly run out of Books I have read that I would recommend; ‘Foul!’ authored by David Wolf, is most definitely worth a rerecommendation, it is the fascinating and at times desperately sad story of Connie Hawkins. A man who, if not for a litany of systemic abuse, could well have been a deep part of the GOAT debate, that will never be known because of the harrowing and unrelenting circumstances that kept him out of the NBA for so long. With this classic Book, Wolf wrote one of the best biographies ever written, a portrayal of ‘The Hawk’s rise from poverty to being black-listed to eventual vindication. Perhaps Basketball’s greatest What If?

All Jack Macullum does is chew gym and write compelling books on basketball history and he's been out of chewing gum for awhile! Great read about Oscar Robertson and the real Hoosiers (Hickory High from Milan) and Oscar Robertson's Crispus Attucks teams that had to compete on and off the court in racially charged 1950's Indiana. Definitely a top McCallum read in my book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182761516-the-real-hoosiers

From Good Reads:

The true story behind Crispus Attucks High School and the all‑Black basketball team loosely depicted as the championship opponent in the beloved classic sports movie Hoosiers , pulling back the curtain on the unheralded underdog playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana.
 
For far too long the storyline of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers . Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel‑good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film, and The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative absent from the film. This is the story of the real‑life team that inspired the team that most have long assumed was Hickory High’s championship opponent. They were Crispus Attucks, an all‑Black team playing in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana. Veteran sportswriter and the bestselling author of Dream Team , Jack McCallum, excavates the history of the Crispus Attucks Tigers. After a crushing loss to Milan High School (the real Indiana team Hickory High is based on) in the 1954 semi-final (not the final), Attucks went on to win back‑to‑back Indiana state championships led by a young Oscar Robertson and an African American coach who recognized the seemingly insurmountable challenges of playing basketball in a state that was a bastion not only for the game but also for the Ku Klux Klan.

I haven’t read this book by Mike Prada but it has piqued my interest, has any one from the community read it? What are your thoughts?

Any recommendation on Marc J Spears books?

Or has the third book not been written yet? Wanting to get a full history of the all the Knicks era.

I wanted to take the opportunity to repeat a recommendation I made in the early days of this community for those recent joiners to the subreddit. As a vertically challenged player myself, I would have only ever watched and read about Basketball if it weren’t for the inspiration given to me by Tyrone ‘Muggsy’ Bogues. This Book ‘The Boys of Dunbar’ authored by Alejandro Danois, tells the inspiring story of one of the greatest high school teams of all time, the undefeated high-school basketball team in 1980s Baltimore and its remarkable Coach.
Bogues led a team alongside standouts like David Wingate, Reggie Lewis and Reggie Williams, all of whom went on to play in the Pros. The Poets’ story is so much more than their undefeated season though, it’s a piece of literature that rewards every reread.
I love this Book and everything it represents, but especially as a 5’6” Point Guard, I was always bound to.

Was looking for Fly Williams book and came across this. Big fan of Shammgod in the 90s and his move never gets old. Has anyone read his book?

Thank you to r/Accurate_Opposite_36 for your recommendation which I’m sharing here for the community - ‘What's Happenin'?: A Revealing Journey Through the World of Professional Basketball’ authored by Blaine Johnson, again a book I have not read but as r/Accurate_Opposite_36 described, it is “the story behind the 1976-1977 Sonics, giving the perspective of what it was like to be a basketball reporter, find out what kind of coach Bill Russell was, and understand the difference between basketball players on and off the court.”
Would be interested in other readers thoughts and again thank you for the recommendation 🙏🏻

Thank you once again to r/Hot-Description9052 who commented on a post a few days ago and gave three fantastic book recommendations, this is the third and final of those, though we are hoping for more in the future 🙏🏻;
‘Hoops Heist: Seattle, the Sonics, and How a Stolen Team's Legacy Gave Rise to the NBA's Secret Empire’ is a 2020 Book authored by Jon Finkel - Again this is one I haven’t personally read, yet, but I’d love to hear from people who have and their thoughts on it. Again a huge thank you to r/Hot-Description9052

It only covers up to the NCAA championship, so basically some high school and then all of college.
I found it really interesting and definitely a lot of stuff I hadn’t heard before even via the recent docs that have come out like the Celtics city one and a while back the Magic and Bird one.

Just curious if anybody else had read it and what they liked or disliked about it.

What struck me most was learning how openly franchises were treated as commodities, swapped around by owners with little regard for the communities that supported them. But beyond the business story, the book showed me something deeper: Buffalo had talented players—really talented players—but the franchise couldn’t build around them. Great talent came and went, never cohesive enough to make a championship run, yet good enough that you could see what might have been.

Randy Smith’s story anchors all of this. As the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 15,655 points, he embodied both the promise and the tragedy of the Braves. He was spectacular, the kind of guard who should have been the centerpiece of a dynasty, yet he played in a system that couldn’t sustain success around him.

This book isn’t just about basketball history—it’s about a city’s heartbreak and a franchise’s missed potential. For anyone who grew up loving the Braves, or anyone curious about how NBA history actually unfolded off the court, Buffalo, Home of the Braves is essential reading. It turns a local legend into a larger cautionary tale about ownership, ambition, and bad luck.

Highly recommended.

Thank you again to r/Hot-Description9052 who commented on a post a couple of days ago and gave three fantastic book recommendations, this is the second of those;
‘Asphalt Gods’ - This one I have read and I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation.
Authored by Vincent Mallozi, the Book is an oral history of the fabled Rucker Tournament, begun in the 1950s by Harlem-born Holcombe Rucker, the tournaments included some of outdoor basketball's greatest games and players throughout the decades. While he celebrates the tournament's past glory Mallozi doesn't shy away from its latterly at times controversial moments and more corporate inflected style. A great Book, especially for historians of the game.

If you are Sixers fan - read this NOW

If you are an NBA fan - read this soon

If you like basketball at all - read this this summer

As a lifelong, die-hard Sixers fan, who was a kid in the 80s, this book is amazing. I am loving every word of it, even the descriptions of the years the Sixers lost in the playoffs and finals.

Thank you to u/Hot-Description9052 who commented on a post yesterday and gave three fantastic book recommendations, this is the first;
‘Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball’ - I haven’t personally read it, yet, but I’d love to hear from people who have and their thoughts on it. I’ll also be posting the other two recommendations in the coming days.

Released 50 years ago, ‘Heaven is a Playground’, by the author Rick Telander, is a Book that stands apart in the literature of Basketball. It is both humorous and sad throughout but ultimately incredibly inspiring and so rich in conjuring a time and place. The author, a photojournalist and former high school basketball player, spent part of the summer of 1973 and all of the summer of 1974 in Brooklyn living the playground life and exploring the streetball culture with his subjects at Foster Park in Flatbush. He slept on the floor of a park regular’s apartment, observing, questioning, traveling, playing with and learning from a ragtag group of local teenagers whose hopes of better lives were often fanatically and irrevocably attached to the game itself. Telander introduces us to so many legendary characters of the game whose names still inspire knowing nods from those that love the history of the game. This is an absolutely fantastic book, still as relevant and well worth reading and rereading 50 years later which says so much.

What Books have you read that you found really disappointing and would dissuade others from reading? Reading time is precious after all...

My recommendation for today is a metaphorical palate cleanser, a repeat recommendation for my favourite Book about Basketball, the classic ‘The Breaks of the Game’ by David Halberstam.
The late, great David Halberstam followed Portland during the 79/80 season, 2 years after their championship series win over Philadelphia. The book that resulted remains one of the best books I have ever read and certainly my favourite Book about Basketball. The story follows the Portland franchise after its memorable ascent and during what ultimately became a lengthy decline. As a result, the ultimate team triumph, whilst still present in the book, is a reminder of a past and quickly receding glory, rather than the culmination that precedes the tidy wrap up and update in the epilogue, standing the Book apart from the majority of sport literature at the time. It’s full of vivid and imitable characters, from coach Jack Ramsay, whose inability to accept losses debilitated his mental health, to power forward Maurice Lucas, whose physical style of play is vital to the Blazers' success yet who feels grossly under appreciated, to Billy Ray Bates, the bordering on arrogant late arrival to the team who helps fuel the Blazers' late-season playoff run.
And, of course, there is Bill Walton, the supremely talented, sharp-passing, politically active Centre who had one of the greatest careers in NCAA history, yet who never quite delivered on his enormous promise in the NBA because of his recurring foot problems.
There is all this and so, so much more, this Book is a lasting classic for a reason. It will reward anyone who reads it and will do so again every reread thereafter.

I’ve hesitated in making this recommendation, purely because of the title’s baiting nature, but as I am nearing the end of the Books about Basketball I’ve read and would recommend I cannot in good mind avoid its posting.
The Whore of Akron by Scott Raab is fascinating, crude but warmhearted, poetic but raving, Raab, longtime staffer at Esquire, wrote an excellent, deeply personal exploration of his Cleveland fandom and his emotional connection to and disconnection from the titular whore, LeBron James. It’s a really great read, I just wish it had a less deeply pejorative title.

This Book, authored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with Raymond Obstfeld, is filled with personal and historical insights into lessons learned and experiences through an amazing life and career. As a political activist Abdul-Jabbar believes that public protest is a vital part of affecting change, even if that change doesn’t come immediately, he examines the activism of people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds that helped change America, documenting events from the Free Speech Movement through the movement for civil rights, the fight for women’s and LGBTQ rights, and the protests against the Vietnam War. This is all the lens of one of the greatest players on the history of Basketball, a very distinct perspective.

Hi all! I’ve been lurking in this sub for a few months now as a fan of basketball books since I was 16. If it’s fine, I’d be glad to share my story.

I still vividly remember seeing the first basketball book that I took my attention back in 2011. It was Sports Illustrated’s “The Basketball Book” which was displayed in a secondhand bookstore in my country. I really wanted to purchase it but I can’t since I was still a student on a meager allowance. After some time, the book was gone and the store closed down. Nonetheless, I told myself I will find it and have my own copy.

A few years later, I was trying to find a digital copy of the said book but all of my internet searches led by to Bill Simmon’s “The Basketball Book” instead. I got the digital copy of it and read it over and over again. ’Til now, I still haven’t purchased a physical copy of the book but a part of me hopes that Simmons will update the book in the next few years particularly his “Basketball Pyramid”.

A few years after that, after getting a job, I bought a few more books like Pistol’s autobiography, “Rise & Fire” by Shawn Fury and the staple “Jordan Rules” by Sam Smith which also expanded my small collection.

Recently, I found an online book seller who wanted to sell his copy of “The Basketball Book” and I decided to purchase it from him. A few minutes later, I also found out he was selling the Freedarko Basketball Books too which also took my interest a few years ago but couldn’t purchase it too. I took the opportunity and purchased almost all basketball books he was selling online.

For the mods, thank you for setting up this sub and hoping to see more recommendations. Thank you!

This is a sure Top 5 Basketball Book for me. Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association as told by the Players, Coaches, and Movers and Shakers who made it happen by Terry Pluto.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/227205.Loose_Balls

Oral history of the ABA, the greatest basketball league that few people saw live. The 3 pt shot, slam dunk contest, tri-color ball, Dr. J, Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, Warren Jabali, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, the Kentucky Colonels, Indiana Pacers are just a few of the legendary players, teams, and phenomenon mentioned. Well worth the read.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1911737/2020/07/08/oral-history-of-an-oral-history-the-story-of-terry-plutos-loose-balls/?unlocked_article_code=1.rVA.UBYa.4LbhU86KV2_h&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta