In words and pictures, Michael Jordan celebrates for the first time the mentors, teachers and role models who have helped shape his extraordinary life, career and personal philosophy.

    Coach Bob Hurley had been working miracles at St. Anthony High School for over thirty years, winning state and national championships and offering his players rescue from their surroundings through college scholarships, when he met his most dysfunctional team yet. In The Miracle of St. Anthony Adrian Wojnarowski follows Hurley through a gripping and heartrending season as he struggles to lead a troubled team to glory through his unparalleled understanding of the game and his ceaseless determination to see no more children lost to these streets. In The Miracle of St. Anthony, acclaimed sports journalist Adrian Wojnarowski follows Hurley through a gripping and heartrending season, as he struggles to lead a troubled team to glory through his unparalleled understanding of the game and his ceaseless determination to see no more children lost to the city streets.

    One of the most successful coaches in the history of professional basketball offers his own take on his turbulent 2003-2004 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

    Most of the best players were white; the set shot and layup were the sport’s chief offensive weapons. But by the 1970s, the league ruled America’s biggest media markets; contests attracted capacity crowds and national prime-time television audiences. The game was played “above the rim”–and the most marketable of its high-flying stars were black. The credit for this remarkable transformation largely goes to two giants: Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. In The Rivalry, award-winning journalist John Taylor projects the stories of Russell, Chamberlain, and other stars from the NBA’s golden age onto a backdrop of racial tensions and cultural change. Taylor’s electrifying account of two complex men–as well as of a game and a country at a crossroads–is an epic narrative of sports in America during the 1960s.It’s hard to imagine two characters better suited to leading roles in the NBA saga: Chamberlain was cast as the athletically gifted yet mercurial titan, while Russell played the role of the stalwart centerpiece of the Boston Celtics dynasty. Taylor delves beneath these stereotypes, detailing how the two opposed and complemented each other and how they revolutionized the way the game was played and perceived by fans. Competing with and against such heroes as Jerry West, Tom Heinsohn, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and Elgin Baylor, and playing for the two greatest coaches of the era, Alex Hannum and the fiery Red Auerbach, Chamberlain and Russell propelled the NBA into the spotlight. But their off-court visibility and success–to say nothing of their candor–also inflamed passions along America’s racial and generational fault lines. In many ways, Russell and Chamberlain helped make the NBA and, to some extent, America what they are today.Filled with dramatic conflicts and some of the great moments in sports history, and building to a thrilling climax–the 1969 final series, the last showdown between Russell and Chamberlain–The Rivalry has at its core a philosophical question: Can determination and a team ethos, embodied by the ultimate team player, Bill Russell, trump sheer talent, embodied by Wilt Chamberlain? Gripping, insightful, and utterly compelling, the story of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain is the stuff of sporting legend. Written with a reporter’s unerring command of events and a storyteller’s flair, The Rivalry will take its place as one of the classic works of sports history.From the Hardcover edition.

    In the championship game for the NCAA title that year, Don Haskins, coach of the then little-known Texas Western College, did something that had never been done before in the history of college basketball. He started five black players, and in the now legendary game, unseated the nationally top-ranked University of Kentucky. Broadcast on television throughout the country, the Miners victory became the impetus for the desegregation of all college teams in the South during the next few years. Now, for the first time, Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins tell his story. Beginning as a small-town high school basketball coach, Haskins was known for his tough coaching methods and larger-than-life personality. As a child growing up during the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, he developed a strong set of values and discipline that he would instill in his players throughout his coaching career. With recollections from his former players, including those of the 1966 team, along with Haskins's own Seven Principles for Success, Glory Road is the inspiring story of a living legend and one of the most respected coaches of all time. With a foreword by basketball legend Bobby Knight, and coinciding with the release of the film Glory Road, the story of Don Haskins and his championship team is sure to become a classic for sports fans and historians.

    LakersThe L.A. Lakers have long been one of the NBA's most exciting teams. In The Show, critically acclaimed sportswriter Roland Lazenby brings the story of this charismatic team to life in an unprecedented oral history, featuring such legendary players as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, and Magic Johnson, along with current stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.Through in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and many other key figures, Lazenby follows the Lakers from their birthplace in 1946 Minneapolis to their eventual successes and failures in Los Angeles, using his flair for storytelling and eye for detail to show you exactly why the 14-time NBA champion Lakers are a celebrated favorite for sports fans all over America.

    In his relentless quest for excellence at the University of Connecticut, he has led the Huskies to five national championships. Yet his soul never rests. For Auriemma, life affords only the briefest moments of happiness -- a good round of golf, forty minutes of great basketball, a day at the beach with his family, a nice glass of wine -- while disaster is seemingly always waiting to strike. It's a fatalistic philosophy, a remnant of his hardscrabble early years, but it's an outlook that has driven him to unparalleled success. In this deeply personal memoir, Geno Auriemma reveals for the first time the man behind the legend. He talks candidly about his coaching style, famed for being one of the most demanding in all the sports world. He spills the beans about his stormy dealings with other coaches such as his archrival, Pat Summitt, of the University of Tennessee. And with warmth and a genuine love for his champions, he writes openly about Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Nykesha Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Swin Cash, and all of his other UConn stars who have gone on to stellar WNBA careers. You get a courtside seat to all of the action -- including an epilogue on the 2004-05 season, as well as interviews with the team's most celebrated players. A rare look inside the soul of a true competitor, GENO is the story of how one passionate man overcame his own fears to achieve an extraordinary record of success.

    Head coach Roy Williams had his work cut out for him: to piece the team back together and inspire the players to use their adversity as the surest path to victory. On April 4, 2005, Carolina defeated Illinois in the championship finals. "How else could it have ended?" reflected forward Jawad Williams. "We've been the lowest and now we're the highest."Led By Their Dreams, a celebration of the Tar Heels' 2005 season, features interviews with the players and coach Roy Williams. It also includes Williams's famous inspirational quotes--his "Thoughts for the Day"--which often foretold something about to happen and always served to push the team toward better teamwork and, ultimately, the NCAA championship.With full-color photographs throughout, postseason notes, a list of the honors and awards received by standout players, and a CD of the radio call of the championship game, this is the ultimate book for fans to remember the best team of 2005 and its return to glory.

    Some facts about women's basketball today: - Globally, basketball is the most popular sport among female teens, according to the International Basketball Federation- The women's college championship game in 2003 was the most watched sporting event in the history of ESPN- According to the NCAA, 31% of all consumers between the age of 9 and 55 follow women's college basketball- In the 1990s, the number of girls playing on interscholastic basketball teams increased by 40%, to nearly 3 million players

    But his journey to America—like that of his forgotten foil, 7‘1" Wang Zhizhi—began long before he set foot on the world’s brightest athletic stage.Operation Yao Ming opens with the story of the two boys’ parents, basketball players brought together by Chinese officials intent on creating a generation of athletes who could bring glory to their resurgent motherland. Their children would have no more freedom to choose their fates. By age thirteen, Yao was pulled out of sports school to join the Shanghai Sharks pro team, following in the footsteps of Wang, then the star of the People’s Liberation Army team. Rumors of the pair of Chinese giants soon attracted the NBA and American sports companies, all eager to tap a market of 1.3 billion consumers.In suspenseful scenes, journalist Brook Larmer details the backroom maneuverings that brought China’s first players to the NBA. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, Larmer uncovers the disturbing truth behind China’s drive to produce Olympic champions, while also taking readers behind the scenes of America’s multibillion-dollar sports empire. Caught in the middle are two young men—one will become a mega-rich superstar and hero to millions, the other a struggling athlete rejected by his homeland yet lost in America.

    For the past 25 seasons, Keady's Purdue Boilermakers were among the Big Ten Conference's most difficult opponents, winning 512 of 772 games, including six Big Ten championships and a pair of trips to the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight. While many know Keady for his fiery sideline demeanor and classic fist pump in a moment of athletic passion, this former national coach of the year has a softer side, which includes an honest respect for the media and a terrific sense of humor. Within the pages of The Truth and Nothing But the Truth, the recently retired Purdue coach talks about everything from his relationship with Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, who was Keady's rival for 20 seasons at Indiana, to how the Boilermakers were able to successfully recruit 1994 National Player of the Year Glenn Robinson out of Gary Roosevelt High School in Lake County, Ind.Keady, 68, explains details how his father—a boxer turned wholesale florist—instilled a deep—seeded love for athletics, which Keady parlayed into a successful playing career at Larned High School, Garden City (Kan.) Junior College and then Kansas State University. Keady was signed by the National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers in the summer of 1958, but a knee injury cut his pro football career short. He returned to Kansas, accepting a teaching/coaching position at Beloit High School, where basketball—not football—was the only coaching post available. The rest is history. In April, 1980, Keady accepted then—Purdueathletic director George King's offer to replace Lee Rose, who left West Lafayette for a South Florida job. Keady rolled up his sleeves and put Purdue on the college basketball map in a state where Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers were the high—profile targets. It took Keady only four seasons to win his first Big Ten title. From there, he became one of college basketball's icons, while never losing the common touch he learned from his hardworking father in western Kansas.

    Wickedly humorous, the book includes candid commentary, amazing anecdotes, comic quotes, fascinating biographical sketches, and little-known trivia. From the star who credited LSD with improving his game to the player charged with sexual harassment during a game, this fun read covers the good, the bad, and the ugly in this mega-popular sport.