Basketballs fun--let's play! Find all the basics ion this lively guide. The markings on a basketball court What basketball players wear The three team positions The excitement of passing the ball The thrill of making a basket All these and more are included, with a useful glossary at the end.

The sports world according to Michael Rapaport—actor, Top 50 podcaster, award-winning film maker, and sports fanatic—from the greatest and downright worst athletes, players, teams, and jerseys, but minus statistics, analytics, or anything else that isn’t pure hustle in this “hell of a book” (Shaquille O'Neal). In 1979, nine-year-old Michael Rapaport decided he was going to do whatever it took to be a pro baller. He practiced and practiced, but by the time he was fifteen, he realized there was no place for a slow, white Jewish kid in the NBA. So, he found another way to channel his obsession with sports: talking trash. In the “crazy, passionate, funny and intense” (Colin Cowherd) This Book Has Balls, Rapaport uses his signature smack-talk style and in-your-face humor to discuss everything from why LeBron will never be like Mike, that Tiger needs the ladies to get his golf game back, and how he once thought Mary Lou Retton was his true love. And, of course, why next year will be the year the New York Knicks win the championship. This book is a series of rants—some controversial, some affectionate, but all incredibly hilarious. “Something is wrong with Michael Rapaport but that’s what makes him right,” (Charlamagne tha God).

Looking for a game? Here's your guided tour of the country's best pickup basketball courts, from the blacktops of Brooklyn to the asphalt of Anchorage to the gyms of Jackson, Mississippi. It's all inside: where the pros play, the most scenic runs in the land, and a ranking of the top five courts. ø Chris Ballard and three other former college players piled into a used Chevy van and traveled thirty-one thousand miles in seven months, playing at over a thousand courts in 166 cities in forty-eight states. This is the story of their roundball road trip and a guide to the places, people, and communities they encountered. ø More than a travel guide, Hoops Nation is "a celebration of the game of basketball as it is played in America." It includes guides to streetball fashion, the lingo of the courts, the etiquette of the pickup world, the tricks of old-guy basketball, and tips for the dunking impaired. Also included are profiles of playground legends and dispatches from the legions of basketball lifers who populate the country's courts. ø This book can tell you where they?re running today, all over America. Who?s got next?

Hiding in the Light is a young adult, action-adventure, coming of age story about the effects of bullying and the measures one takes to be accepted. Set in the South in the late 1960’s, it’s the journey of Joseph Graham’s efforts to find himself and accept himself while facing the injustices of adversaries. They mock his differences: His looks, his speech, and his thoughts are different from the other boys. This brings unwanted attention from the neighborhood bullies. The bullies and the affluent within his community all draw lines in the sand, and Joseph is pushed to the middle. He searches for a way to escape his life of lack. But poverty, anger, and abuse offer no open doors. So, he struggles to stand and fight the slings and arrows of his haters until his moral compass is shattered. Joseph becomes a pawn in the street game of thuggery. Trying hard to prove himself and fit in, he takes on the persona of his alter ego. Through this fictional character he’s able to hide his sorrows in the light. He pretends the hurt doesn’t hurt until he loses himself within his alter ego and spirals out of control; landing at death’s door. All while the bullies continue to sucker punch him with their verbal beat-downs. It wasn’t until he met the one he calls, “The Smartest Man Alive,” that his sun began to shine.

Warren Edward Armstrong Jabali was my hero. In the hearts of his family and friends across the country, he was a superstar. Known for his basketball feats at Central High School (1962-1964), Wichita State University (1964-1968), and in the American Basketball Association (ABA) 1968-1976, this book presents an uplifting story of how a man, labeled as "one of the two meanest men in the ABA," overcame the vilification of his character. By positively channeling his energy on the educational empowerment of African American youth, he became an extraordinary role model and father figure for many in South Florida. Divided into two sections, the first part of the book is Warren's incomplete manuscript. He described the wide ranging cultural attitudes, political environment and social conditions which motivated his actions and profoundly affected his basketball career. it is supplemented by newspaper articles and interviews in which he discussed various controversial topics and elaborated on the skills and legacies of his contemporaries. The last half is written by the "love of his life." A very complex and private person, the section illustrates multiple aspects of his personality which portray an intimate understanding of him that only someone he cherished could ever reveal. This narrative validates the strength of his character as he boldly faced personal challenges. It demonstrates his unwavering commitment to education as he persevered in his lifelong pursuit for equality. Additionally, it highlights how benevolent his interpersonal relationships were as he journeyed along the road less traveled

From the author of Ohio (Best Books of Summer 2018 Selection in Time, Vulture, and the New York Post) comes a brilliant, hilarious, and deeply touching memoir that blows the roof off the genre. Fed up with the complicated quest of trying to get a book published, Stephen Markley decided to cut to the chase and simply write a memoir about trying to publish a book—this book, to be precise. It's the most "meta" experiment he's ever untaken, and like a Mobius strip in book form, the concept is circular, self-indulgent, and—maybe, possibly, hopefully—brilliant. For fans of Dave Eggers and David Sedaris, Publish This Book is the modern day saga of an idealistic, ambitious, audacious, unyielding young writer who is tired of waiting his turn. Like any work that claims gleefully to be about nothing, it's really about pretty much everything—sex, drugs, politics, pop-culture, ex-girlfriends and sexy vampires. From the hope of early adulthood to the rage of life's many (unavoidable) disappointments, it is a story of overcoming the obstacles and discovering a happy ending at last. Most importantly, it's a story that will inspire readers to find their true voice in their work and in their life. Praise for Stephen Markley: "Markley seems clever and funny, but it may be his "fire" that ultimately makes him worthwhile." — Literary Chicago "Compelling, emotionally resonant passages . . ." — Publishers Weekly "Markley is a knockout storyteller" — Kirkus Reviews

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The wildly opinionated, thoroughly entertaining, and arguably definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA—from the founder of The Ringer and host of The Bill Simmons Podcast “Enough provocative arguments to fuel barstool arguments far into the future.”—The Wall Street Journal In The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major NBA debate, from the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.