"This inimitable collective returns with a bigger scope, deeper research, and renewed passion as [FreeDarko] takes on the whole of pro basketball history. Here we'll see the full evolution of the league: from the Celtics of Red Auerbach (compared by FreeDarko to the filmmaker John Cassavetes) clear through to the years of Frazier, Jordan, Iverson, and LeBron and Kobe. Of course, it's more than simply a history. In these pages we'll also see a taxonomy...

"A 75-year history of the National Basketball Association."-- Celebrate the NBA with stories that capture the association's larger-than-life players and jaw-dropping events. From 1946 to 2020, there are stories and archival images that cover the best dunks, shots, dribble drives, and cross-overs. And the retrospective doesn't shy away from controversy, covering the league's struggles with racial bigotry, Magic Johnson's HIV diagnosis, and the cocaine-fueled...

"When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college--as young basketball prodigies were expected to do--but instead enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros. That trend would continue until the NBA instituted an age limit in 2005, requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for...

"The definitive biography of Charles Barkley, exploring his early childhood, his storied NBA career, and his enduring legacy as a provocative voice in American pop culture He's one of the most interesting American athletes in the past fifty years. Passionate, candid, iconoclastic, and gifted both on and off the court, Charles Barkley has made a lasting impact on not only the world of basketball but pop culture at large. Yet few people know the real...

"The story of the National Basketball Association from its origins through the major events and players who made basketball what it is today"--

"Basketball team building is the ultimate challenge at the NBA level and the last few years have seen a massive change in the amount of money, technology, and approaches to finding and evaluating players. This process starts at the high school level, goes through college, and culminates in the NBA, where the ability to identify and cultivate talent is at an absolute premium. Media and fans like to talk about "busts" when a player doesn't work out,...

"Who is the greatest dunker of all time? Which version of the Michael Jordan was the best Michael Jordan/ What is allowed and absolutely not allowed in a game of pickup basketball/ Basketball (and Other Things) presents readers with a whole new set of pivotal and ridiculous fan disputes from basketball history, providing arguments and answers, explained with the wit and wisdom that is unique to Shea Serrano. Serrano breaks down debates that NBA fans...

"Against the backdrop of ongoing massive resistance to racial desegregation and increasingly strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation's imagined descent into disorder. The press and the public blamed young Black players for the chaos in the NBA, citing drugs, violence, greed, and criminality. The supposed decline of pro basketball became a metaphor for the first decades of integration in America: the rules of the game...

"No athlete is referenced as frequently in commentaries on Black politics as LeBron James. The NBA all-star, gold medal Olympian, four time NBA champion, and four-time finals MVP has been a pivotal figure in both the culture and politics of basketball. Despite his unmatched skill, success and popularity, James has never been fully free from the entrenched racism and anti-blackness in American life. His story, of both success and adversity, represents...

"The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987 season was the peak of that golden era, a year of incredible drama that featured a pantheon of superstars in their prime-the most Hall of Famers competing at one time in any given...