With the NBA season gearing up, I want to take a few minutes to review and pay homage to some of my off-season hoops reads.
After the NBA Draft is complete and free agency slows down, I typically take a few months to recharge and take some time to read other material outside of the daily blogs and newsletters that can consume the life of an NBA fan.
Almost always, I have multiple books that I’m working on simultaneously. Typically these are split into fiction, personal development, basketball-related books.
This summer, I found myself combining several of those categories together and consumed myself in a basketball-leadership focus. I became particularly fascinated with the likes of Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, who are some of the most successful coaches the the game of basketball has ever seen. There are a lot of similarities to team building with a roster of athletes and building a successful team at your job or another organization. I gleaned a lot from these two guys in particular.
Not every hoops book I consumed was coaching focused though, as I also took a dive into specific players as well as overall franchises. There’s always something to learn from the past.
Now, without further ado, here’s a look at The BarnBurner Book Club’s summer reading list.
Giannis: The improbable rise of an NBA champion (Mirin Fader)
Fader does excellent research for this book and you really get a good feel for the Antetokounmpo family and the hardship that they faced in easing their children - as well as the fascinating path(s) that Giannis (and his brothers) took to reach the NBA.
Her book covers in detail the racial inequalities that the family faced being migrants from Africa and the tribulations that they persevered through in Greece it’s truly moving and impressive.
On the basketball side, there is some fun insight into the drafting and scouting thought process of NBA teams. Something that was reinforced to me was that this book hammered home the concept that there is more to a draft prospect than meets the eye.
So much goes on behind the scenes with the background on guys and the interview process that the general public is not privy to.
We can watch all the film we want from our couched and desks at home, but the NBA teams have so much more information on which to make their decisions.
It’s well documented that Giannis is a grinder and an ultimate competitor. This book pulls back the curtain and reveals even more about what makes the man, the MVP.
Blood in the Garden (Chris Herring)
It has to be tough to be a Knicks fan. Being right on the precipice of greatness, but having the misfortune of your own success line up with the apex of one of the game’s greats.
Sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles.
Herring gives a great rundown on the inner-workings of the drama that was the 90’s New York Knicks.
He provides a very entertaining perspective that almost makes you feel bad for the Knicks franchise and their fans.
However, the Grizzlies have never won a title, so it’s hard for me to have too much empathy for any franchise who has reached the mountain top at one point or another.
This book did make me very interested in the NBA power player Pat Riley, so I’ve got The Winner Within lined up and ready to go soon.
Eleven Rings (Phil Jackson)
Phil freaking Jackson. What an interesting dude. This summer there was a lot of publicity around the Lakers franchise with the release of Winning Time on HBO as well as Legacy on HULU.
Obviously, Jackson played an integral role in the Lakers organization over the years and so it was interesting to see his perspective on his time with the franchise and compare it to others’.
Jackson highlights the many strategies that he utilized in coaching a wide variety of players and personalities. From MJ, Pippen, and Rodman to Kobe, Shaq, and even Derek Fisher, Phil lays out some of the strategies and tactics that he took in relating to him players and bringing out the best in them.
Coach is widely referred to as the Zen master due to his unconventional usage of meditation and spiritual discover with the his teams.
He would employ different leadership strategies with players depending where that specific team was in its journey.
Jackson viewed each team as a tribe and frequently references the book Tribal Leadership, which I also added to my home collection by way of eBay.
Rapture (Nick Nurse)
There may not be as many direct leadership lessons to be learned from Nick Nurse’s account of his coaching career, but there is certainly a perseverance and grit perspective that we can all appreciate.
The man who led the Raptors to their first NBA championship certainly had a wild and unconventional ride to the top. His experience includes many stops overseas in leagues that neither you nor I knew existed. He has proven to be a winner at all his stops along the way.
A few things that stick out to me from Rapture include Nurse’s desire to always be in the lab, studying old tactics and creating new ones. Preparing for the right day when he could finally showcase his abilities to the right decision-makers.
Nurse does understand that there is more than X’s and O’s when it comes to coaching and playing basketball. He does talk a lot about sports psychology and some of the philosophies that he has adopted across the years and teams that he has coached.
Another aspect of the book I appreciate is the style in which it is written. It very much feels like you are the one interviewing him. Just two guys at a bar, reliving the glory days of when you were young and broke and celebrating how far you’ve come.
Bubbleball (Ben Golliver)
Bubbleball was a fun read and provided intense insight into the NBA restart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though much of the events that occurred leading up to and in the bubble are documented across many platforms and news sources, Golliver’s book serves as an all-encompassing account of the anxiety, excitement, passion, and struggles that centered around the Disney World Bubble.
He was one of few people who actually experienced the bubble in person from start to finish.
It was a time that in one way seems so long ago, but in others seems like it was just yesterday and that we still live in that quasi-quarantined world - or at the very least we feel like it could be thrust upon us in an instant without warning.
Golliver goes into great detail on the makings of the bubble, it’s restrictions, the social justice movement that that swept America, and of course the drama and excitement of the games themselves.
The Jordan Rules (Sam Smith)
Like many people, I first became aware of this book in the summer of 2020 upon the release of The Last Dance. It was with that documentary that all the popular Michael Jordan biographies were snatched off of bookstore and warehouse shelves.
Jordan is intense. We all knew that, but Sam Smith’s work chronicling the Bull’s first title provides a great glimpse behind the scenes to the inner workings of a basketball team that is lead by one of the most alpha-dudes on the planet.
There is no mercy or acceptance of anyone who did not have the same drive and passion that he did.
Upon reading this book, I am fascinated with the amount of access that reporters like Sam Smith were allowed to the team. In different ways now, we are able to see a lot of behind the scenes action through news breakers like Woj and Shams. However, most of what they reveal is propaganda given to them by agents and GMs who are hoping to gain a leg up in some manner or another.
But, you might even get a TMZ video leaked every once in a while that shows someone getting slugged in the face in practice.
Anyway, the constant access given to reporter back in the day, hanging out in hotel rooms with superstars between road games, that just seems wild to me.
The Jordan Rules is a must read for anyone interested in basketball history and the man who is one of the greatest players and competitors ever.