"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 middle-grade celebration of the unheralded people and stories that helped shape the game of basketball, from unsung pioneers to unforgettable moments of the game"--

"By 1977 the University of Evansville's Purple Aces basketball team had won five small-college national championships. With a charismatic young coach and a freshman phenom, this small Indiana city hoped to see its team shine in the national spotlight. Then, on a foggy night, after just four games, the plane carrying the team and its coach crashed after takeoff, killing everyone on board. The tragedy seemed insurmountable, a devastating blow to the...

At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices...

The "untold story of Perry Wallace, a brilliant student and talented athlete who became the first African-American basketball player in the SEC at Vanderbilt University during the tumultuous late 1960s. The [book] places Wallace's struggles and ultimate success into the larger contexts of civil rights and race relations in the South"--Provided by publisher.

New York's City College was a tuition-free, merit-based college in Harlem known far more for its intellectual achievements and political radicalism than its athletic prowess. In 1949-1950 every single member of the City College Beavers was either Jewish or African American. Under the guidance of the legendary former player Nat Holman, this unheralded group of city kids would stun the basketball world by becoming the only team in history to win the...

"The story of the UConn-Tennessee rivalry, the most celebrated and most controversial in women's college basketball history"--

The unlikely story of a Chicago high school basketball team that became one of their state's first-ever girls' basketball champions after the passage of Title IX, which banned gender discrimination in school athletics.

"The bestselling author of Dream Team tells the interconnected stories of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the early-1970s Los Angeles Lakers, two extraordinary teams playing in extraordinary times and linked by one extraordinary man: Jerry West. During their 1971-72 championship season, the L.A. Lakers won thirty-three games in a row, a streak that still stands as the longest and greatest in the history of American professional sports....