#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.

Are you ready to take your performance and that of your team to championship levels? When God wants to do something in the earth, He begins with a leader, but He finishes with a team - and you are called to be a vital player on that team!Not only can we learn great lessons from the coaches and players of outstanding sports teams, but we must...

Basketball is Jackson O’Connell’s life. Playing hoops helps Jackson forget his volcanic zits, crippling girl shyness ... and an alcoholic father who tore his family apart. When team politics keep him off the starting lineup, Jackson’s self-confidence plummets like an airball. Jackson must learn how to rebound ... and start shooting from the heart.

An essential history of the modern research university When universities began in the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IX described them as "wisdom's special workshop." He could not have foreseen how far these institutions would travel and develop. Tracing the eight-hundred-year evolution of the elite research university from its roots in medieval Europe to its remarkable incarnation today, Wisdom's Workshop places this durable institution in sweeping historical perspective. In particular, James Axtell focuses on the ways that the best American universities took on Continental influences, developing into the finest expressions of the modern university and enviable models for kindred institutions worldwide. Despite hand-wringing reports to the contrary, the venerable university continues to renew itself, becoming ever more indispensable to society in the United States and beyond. Born in Europe, the university did not mature in America until the late nineteenth century. Once its heirs proliferated from coast to coast, their national role expanded greatly during World War II and the Cold War. Axtell links the legacies of European universities and Tudor-Stuart Oxbridge to nine colonial and hundreds of pre–Civil War colleges, and delves into how U.S. universities were shaped by Americans who studied in German universities and adapted their discoveries to domestic conditions and goals. The graduate school, the PhD, and the research imperative became and remain the hallmarks of the American university system and higher education institutions around the globe. A rich exploration of the historical lineage of today's research universities, Wisdom's Workshop explains the reasons for their ascendancy in America and their continued international preeminence.

This book is a simple tribute to fathers. The collection of quotations celebrated the paternal side of parenting, and with good cause. Fathers bequeath a timeless legacy one that is passed from generation to generation. The hand that rocks the cradle also places its handprint upon eternity. This book contains an assortment of helpful hints that fathers everywhere might be proud to share. Sources include Henry Ward Beecher, James Dobson, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Eddie Rickenbacker, Harry S. Truman and many more.

The golfer who wishes to lower his handicap must first improve his putting skills. But putting woes are notoriously difficult to cure. Success around the greens requires a unique blend of physical skill and mental disciple. Criswell Freeman examines the mysterious art of putting through the words of golf's greatest teachers and practitioners.

As a follow-up to Dean Oliver's Basketball on Paper, Basketball beyond Paper recounts the insights gained over Oliver's twenty years of experience using statistics to understand basketball.