Best Basketball Books

As a basketball player and as a basketball fan, you would love to understand the game more and more. You would be passionate about learning new techniques and learning from the experiences of the outstanding players.

There are many basketball books available on the market that cover many aspects of the game. Some of the basketball books are autobiographies of brilliant basketball players, a sportswriter writes some, and some are written by head coaches of the team etc, and as a result, you understand the game from many different perspectives.

Many of these books reveal many amazing facts about the game, give you new insight into the game, make you learn new techniques, share the life of basketball players, and highlight the players’ methods.

These books are beneficial and aim to expand your knowledge about the game. This article has targeted seven basketball books and briefly touched on some of these books’ crucial points.

Best Basketball Books

The Mamba Mentality: How I Play 

Kobe Bryant needs no introduction! We all know how excellent he was as a player. This book is written by him to deliver the readers the best of his knowledge and understanding of the game.

If you are a basketball player or intend to play the game in the future, this book will help you a lot. Mamba mentality is a famous phrase used by Kobe Bryant on Twitter, but it is more than a hashtag.

It targets the process more and leads you to achieve your targeted goal than the goal.  Despite being an incredible player, he had never ignored the importance of daily preparation.

His routine was tough; he used to get up early in the morning and practice at night. According to him, his daily practices made him more strong and more prepared for the seasons.

He focuses and advises the reader to give equal importance to the mental part of the game and tells them that it is as important as the game’s actual part.

He further mentioned that he used to plan for different moves that he intended to use during the game, and then he used to practice for them as well.

Moreover, you would see many pictures in this book that Kobe has included, and Andrew D. Bernstein clicks these pictures. These photographs highlight certain aspects of his games and help broaden the readers’ vision of the game.

He has also mentioned his injuries and how he did not leave playing despite the pain. He also tells the readers not to get distracted by other activities and always focuses on the game.

Relentless: From Good To Great To Unstoppable 

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable was written by Tim S Grover. Time S Grover is one of the most brilliant trainers. He has provided his services to many shining stars of the basketball game like Kobe Bryant, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, and many others.

This book is impressive for the readers because it underscores how an unstoppable or relentless person outshines others. It emphasizes that when you become relentless, you become more likely to achieve new heights of success.

This book mentions three personalities, i.e., coolers, closers, and cleaners. The cleaners are above the coolers and closers; they are relentless or unstoppable and are above the rest of the two. Tim S Groove has discussed 13 things that cleaners do to encourage the readers to become relentless.

He says that a cleaner is never satisfied with himself and always challenges himself. He always looks for something new and high. He does what others fear to do. This book is fantastic not only for basketball players but also for persons working in any field.

Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success 

This book, Eleven Rings: The Soul Of Success, is written by Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson is a brilliant man who has been a fantastic head coach of the two most prominent teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls.

Under his supervision, the teams won 11 times the NBA championship title was won by the teams, Chicago Bulls earned the NBA Championship title 6 times, and Los Angeles earned this title 5 times.

This book gives the readers eleven leadership lessons in a very reasonable manner. In this book, Phil Jackson tells the audience how he motivated his players and how he treated individual players separately so that the outcome delivered then by them was quite remarkable. 

He gives the readers the message that every method can not be useful for everybody; different people become productive by various methods. He further described how he made the players trust each other and turned the teams into powerful teams. 

He also tells the audience how he stayed focused, and this book also provides you with a reasonable perspective on which behaviors will make you win the basketball championship.        

The Book Of Basketball: The NBA According To The Sports Guy.

This book is authored by Bill Simmons and is a useful book for anyone interested in the basketball game and who plays this game. It discusses the past of the NBA, reviews the present of the NBA, and predicts the NBA’s future. 

His book reflects that he studied very deeply and invested a reasonable amount of time collecting quality material for his book. The writer has mentioned his opinion on how the inductees of the Hall of Fame should be selected.

He also discusses a pyramid in the book. In the pyramid section, the writer ranks the NBA’s great players based on his opinion. The book opens new doors of understanding of the game to the readers and has provided perfect statistical accounts to the readers.

The Jordan Rules: The Inside Story Of One Turbulent Season With Michael Jordan And The Chicago Bulls

Sam Smith writes this book. This book mainly focuses on Michael Jordan and targets his behavior with his teammates and other members. The author has discussed many players and also touched on the background of some of them.

He mentioned that Jordan was not an easy one to handle. He was negative in his behavior with his other teammates and did not like to cooperate showing less interest in teamwork. This also led the team, Chicago Bulls, to lose the match. Moreover, he also says that at times, he shouted at other members. 

The writer is telling the readers and the players that winning demands teamwork and cooperation, and without them, it is more likely that you would lose your match. After that, in the Bulls against Lakers finals in 1991, Jordan let Paxson strike the jumper, and as a result, the team won. 

Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin’ in Flip-Flops and the Philippines’ Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball

This is an excellent basketball book written by Rafe Bartholomew. The author is an American journalist; he went to Manila to learn the secret of the Philippines’ grip on the basketball game.

Basketball games need the right height, whereas the Philippines has mostly small heights, but this game is still the number one sport in this country. The people are very passionate about the game and play it very heartedly.

The writer spent three years in the Philippines, met many people during his stay, and has written about most of them. Moreover, he mentions that politicians intervene in the game and try to exploit the team’s loyalty, mainly to succeed in the elections. 

He has also described his experience with the Alaska Aces, which is a professional PBA team. Besides that, he has also touched on different aspects of the social culture of the Philippines.

My Losing Season: A Memoir

My Losing Season: A Memoir
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My Losing Season: Pat Conroy writes a memoir, and he has written this book in a perfect way that delivers many lessons to the readers.

He has mentioned his tough childhood under his ruthless father and then discussed his four-year journey as the Citadel basketball team’s point guard. He also tells the readers about the season he lost in his final year while playing for the Citadel.

He discusses the happiness of the victory and the sadness of defeat. He also mentions the humiliation he faced and the pain it caused him. He also tells the readers about the lessons he learned from his failures and other situations.

Importance Of Basketball Books For The Players

Here, a question arises: why should you read the basketball books? This section will deal with many of the essential things that these books do. We have discussed some important points here that would give you an answer to this question.

Enhance Knowledge about the game.

Basketball books are very informative as they equip users with the rules of the game and as a result, add to the knowledge of the person about the game.

Learn new techniques of the games.

These books make you familiar with the rules of the game and make you learn new techniques. These techniques improve the skills of the players and help them perform better during the matches.

Learn from the experience of the players.

Basketball players write many basketball books that are available on the market. These books also discuss their personal experiences, and these experiences are very fruitful for the players as they learn from the mentioned experiences of various players.

Motivational

These books include motivational stories of players that encourage the readers to have confidence in themselves, teach them not to lose hope, and work to achieve their targets.

Basketball BookAuthorType
The Mamba mentalityKobe BryantMore Motivational books.
RelentlessTim S GroverAutobiography and discusses Philippine’s interest in basketball
Eleven RingsPhil JacksonBased on leadership lessons
The book of basketballBill SimmonsDiscusses NBA and provides statistical accounts of the game.
The Jordan RulesSam SmithLesson based and focuses mainly on Michael Jordan.
Pacific RimsRafe BartholomewAutobiography and discusses Philippines interest in basketball
My Losing SeasonPat ConroyAutobiography

Conclusion 

All the seven books discussed in this article are outstanding as each is written by a different writer and is different from each other. They vast your knowledge about the game and encourage you not to give up and always invest confidence in yourself.

Competition exists between things of the same kind, and this is also true with these books. All seven books discussed in this article are good, but the book that should be ranked number one is The Mamba Mentality: How I Play.

This book is the autobiography of Kobe Bryant. In this book, he discusses techniques that he used during his game and shares his experiences with his readers to enhance their knowledge about the game and learn from his experiences. 

He also discusses the importance of daily routine and targets the process, which leads to the goal than the goal itself. He has used many pictures in his book that show many aspects of his game, which makes the readers learn new techniques and broaden their vision of the game.

We highly suggest you get these books from the market and read them. Our recommended books would not disgruntle you!