Ricky is hurt. The Wolves are losing. The games are difficult to watch. It’s spring, and tanking season is underway across the league.
League Pass isn’t enough anymore. What’s a hoops blogger to do to satisfy his addiction?
Here at Punch-Drunk Wolves, we’re turning to books.
Last night, Andy mentioned he’s now reading Mark Titus’ new book DON’T PUT ME IN, COACH: MY INCREDIBLE NCAA JOURNEY FROM THE END OF THE BENCH TO THE END OF THE BENCH. I’m a voracious reader, too, and nothing beats a great basketball book.
Since talking about the Wolves isn’t much fun right now, I decided to follow Andy’s lead and talk books.Below the fold, I list my five favorite basketball books. A subsequent post will contain numbers 6-10. I’ll probably follow that up with a post on “notable basketball books that are conspicuously absent from Patrick J’s top 10 list.”
Without further ado…
Patrick J’s Top 5 Basketball Books
1. THE LAST SHOT: CITY STREETS, BASKETBALL DREAMS – Darcy Frey: My favorite hoops book of all time. It follows three Brooklyn teens–13-year old prodigy Stephon Marbury is one of them–chasing their hoop dreams.
2. FALL RIVER DREAMS: A TEAM’S QUEST FOR GLORY, A TOWN’S SEARCH FOR ITS SOUL – Bill Reynolds: A close second to THE LAST SHOT, this book follows Chris Herren’s storied Durfee High team, from Fall River, Massachusetts, while weaving the town’s history of blue-collar hoops together with its own sordid history–particularly the still-infamous Lizzie Borden murders. I first read this book when I was 16 and am not embarrassed to admit I totally geeked out when I first visited Fall River after I moved to Massachusetts as a late twenty-something adult. (I haven’t yet read Herren and Reynolds’ recent collaboration, BASKETBALL JUNKIE, but it’s on my list. I hope it’s a better basketball/heroin story than Jim Carroll’s THE BASKETBALL DIARIES. The bar is low.)
3. LOOSE BALLS: THE SHORT, WILD LIFE OF THE AMERICAN BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION- Terry Pluto: My top “non-coming-of-age” hoops book. Unless an colorful history of the ABA is a coming-of-age story. Which it basically is. This book is so, so good. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a sportswriter. Pluto’s book was the be-all, end-all of what I hoped to achieve. As an eleven or twelve year-old, I wrote him a hand-written letter. He replied with a phone call to my parents’ house, and we chatted for almost an hour. He seemed like not only a great sportswriter but also a generous guy. I’m not sure how many of today’s top sportswriters would take an hour out of a busy day to mentor a star-struck twelve year-old, but I’m sure glad Pluto did. You should read his stuff here and here, and, of course, follow him on Twitter.
4. A SEASON ON THE BRINK: A YEAR WITH BOB KNIGHT AND THE INDIANA HOOSIERS – John Feinstein: Feinstein does a great job of bringing out the complexities–the good, and the bad–of Bob Knight. I always loved the discipline with which Knight’s teams played, and Feinstein shows how Knight could demand leadership from key players, reward loyalty, effort, and toughness, and punish those whom he perceived to be lacking in these qualities. Fantastic, if almost uncomfortably intimate, narrative of Knight’s relationship with Steve Alford.
5. THEY CALL ME COACH – John Wooden (with Jack Tobin): This book made me want to be the best basketball player and person I could be. I still have a crumpled, handwritten copy of his PYRAMID OF SUCCESS, which I made when I was about 15 and have been carrying around in my wallet ever since. Given how effective Wooden is in a sports autobiography, I have a hard time getting my head around what a great coach he must’ve been.
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
Breaks of the Game (Halberstam) is the best basketball narrative I’ve ever read. Absolutely fantastic book about the late 70s Blazers (Walton and Lucas), and the underlying social issues.
In These Girls Hope is a Muscle is about a H.S. girls team that featured John Edgar Wideman’s daughter (who later starred at Stanford and played in the WNBA), and also dealt with the rigors of growing up, small town racial issues, and other interesting topics. (Madeline Blais author).
Hoop Roots is John Edgar Wideman’s memoir of his love of basketball. Tremendous.
Rick Telander’s Heaven is a Playground is a classic about the outdoor courts in Brooklyn in the 70s, with the sleazy recruiting, street agents, rampant poverty, etc. Features legends like Fly Williams and Albert King.
All of those (in the post, and in Eric’s comment) sound great – I think I’ve heard or read Bill Simmons describe the Halberstam book as one of his favorite sports books ever, and I’d guess he’s read a lot of them.
During the lockout, I plowed through Harvey Araton’s When the Garden was Eden, and Roland Lazenby’s (of recent Twitter infamy, for breaking the non-story of Pau Gasol’s imminent trade departure) Jerry West biography. I’d say Araton’s book was better on the whole — it’s an excellent portrayal of those legendary Knick teams of the 70’s. The personalities on a team that included Clyde Frazier, Phil Jackson, Bill Bradley, and Earl the Pearl… well, you can imagine. The West book was very interesting, for sure. He’s a strange guy and reading that book leaves you wondering if some of what he says comes from a bit too much retrospect–it feels like maybe he’s convinced himself of things over the years that perhaps aren’t quite that way. In any case, both are good books.
If we’re talking about the hoops book I most enjoyed, it’d have to be Mitch Albom’s Fab Five. I read it five times. But part of that was being a 13-year old white kid from rural Minnesota who desperately wanted to be pretty much the opposite of those things.
I’ve been meaning to read Halberstam for a while; this should give me the nudge I need to finally do it.
I hadn’t even heard of Hoop Roots (not a little embarrassing). But it looks like my kind of book. Thanks for the reco.
Heaven is a Playground is amazing. It was a difficult cut from this list, and will likely be #6 on the 6-10 list. Telander’s book is the best depiction of a social “place and time” I’ve read in the relatively small hoops genre, but Wooden’s book had such a meaningful impact on me personally that I couldn’t ding it. (His words having this kind of effect on people probably goes far in explaining UCLA’s dominance under him.)
I haven’t read any basketball books, but you’ve convinced me to pick up at least one or two. Loved the story about Mr. Pluto.
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