Basketball Audiobooks | Sports & Recreation

Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich Audiobook

Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream---and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete---a basketball icon for baby boomers---all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.

Mark Kriegel (Author), Lloyd James, Lloyd James (Narrator)

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Be Quick- But Don't Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime

Perhaps the least controversial sports honor in living memory was the selection of John Wooden as "Coach of the Century" by ESPN, honoring his ten NCAA basketball championships in twelve years. His UCLA teams won with quickness and always with class. Wooden was a teacher first and foremost, and his lessons -- taught on the basketball court, but applicable throughout one's life -- are summarized in his famed Pyramid of Success. An all-city high school player in Los Angeles, Hill played -- a little -- in three national championships, from 1970 to 1972. Hill was upset at how unequally Wooden treated his starting players, and clashed with Wooden over a variety of social political issues. Hill went on to a successful career in television, rising to the presidency of CBS Productions. And one day, some twenty-five years after graduating from USLA, he realized that everything he knows about getting the best out of his people he had learned directly from Coach John Wooden. Be Quick -- But Don't Hurry! tells the story of their renewed friendship while sharing the lessons and secrets that hold the key to managing creativity in the idea-driven economy of the twenty first century. Full of sound advice and warm reminiscence, this is the management book of a lifetime.

Andrew Hill, John Wooden (Author), Andrew Hill, John Wooden (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Woman's Guide to Basketball

Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, their names are regularly in the headlines, now it's time to learn why they're famous. Paula Duffy, "sportstress" extraordinaire, is lending her knowledge and enthusiasm to one of the most exciting sports today with A Woman's Guide to Basketball: How to Talk His Language. In her exciting follow-up to A Woman's Guide to Football Duffy hits the court with the 24-second clock running to explain the game of basketball and invite women to join in the fun. A firm believer that a little sports knowledge can go a long way, Duffy says "sports talk is the most easily learned and best way to break the ice in any context: at home, in business or at play. I am here to debunk the myth that men don't like to talk. Men do like to talk...sports. I enjoy teaching the ladies how to connect through sports, what men like to talk about and how to understand their language." Women who don't know the rules of the game are often intimidated, but in under an hour, they can get a firm grasp of the game. In no time, they'll learn the basics, who the top players are and the crowd-thrilling moves such as the Alley Oop, the Pick and Roll, and how to shoot from way downtown. From the first jump ball to the final second on the clock, women can finally bring together nascent hoop dreams and their desire to relate to the b-ball obsessed men in their lives.

Paula Duffy (Author), Paula Duffy (Narrator)

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Leading with the Heart: Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life

In this informative and inspirational book, Coach K, Duke University's head basketball coach, tells readers how he coaxes peak performances from his team, relying on lessons he learned as a captain in the U.S. Army. Duke University's head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has proved himself a leader both on and off the court. He's led the Duke Blue Devils to five straight Final Four appearances, culminating in back-to-back championships in 1991 and '92. He has received five National Coach of the Year Awards-and many of the players he coached in college have gone on to NBA stardom. From sportsmanship to respect, Leading with the Heart is a genuine gift from a coach who knows how to lead with heart.

Donald T. Phillips, Mike Kryzewski (Author), Mike Kryzewski (Narrator)

Audiobook

Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game

America's favorite sportswriter teams up with Red Auerbach, the most successful and admired coach in basketball history, to tell the best stories of a legendary life.Living legend Arnold "Red" Auerbach led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships, eight of them consecutive, during his 17 year tenure in Boston, from 1950 to 1966. The fiery coach is a unique personality; brash, opinionated, and unfailingly accurate. As a coach, he never stood still along the sidelines, and in retirement he remains a lively part of the game, still consulted by coaches, players, and general managers at age 86. For years, John Feinstein has met regularly with Red Auerbach and his friends, drawing out Red's life story in a raucous series of unforgettable sessions. From those smoke-and laughter-filled rooms come the colorful reports about all the players and coaches Red has worked with and played against over the years. Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, Bill Russell, and Michael Jordan, you name them, the basketball greats are all here. Red Auerbach's incredible experiences in sports and John Feinstein's unparalleled skill as a sports storyteller make this one of the greatest books to come out of the game of basketball.

John Feinstein (Author), Arnie Mazer (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul

Nine-time NBA Champion coach Phil Jackson knows all about being in the spotlight-about high-profile, high-pressure seasons coaching gigantic personalities through adversity and controversy in the middle of a media hothouse in which every move is another headline, another installment in the soap opera. But nothing-not six championships with the Bulls of Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen, not three previous championships with the Lakers of Shaq and Kobe-had quite prepared him for the only-in-Hollywood high-wire act of the Lakers' 2003-2004 season. In The Last Season, Jackson tells the full inside story of the season that proved to be the final ride for this great Lakers dynasty. From its beginnings in the off-season-with the signing of the future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton and the enormous expectations it created, and the bombshell news of the felony sexual assault charges against Kobe Bryant, one of the league's marquee superstars-Jackson describes the many challenges that arose during this turbulent season. Juggling enormous egos with enormous sums at stake, managing difficult relationships and public feuds, facing injuries, contract disputes, and team meltdowns, all in the shadow of the Kobe Bryant trial-slash-media circus, Phil Jackson somehow guided his team through to its fourth NBA Finals in his five years as its coach. There, finally, his team ran out of road, a failure Jackson examines with the same deep honesty and wisdom he brings to bear on the rest of this amazing season. Few seasons in memory can rival this one for drama, and fewer coaches rival Phil Jackson in the ability to write about it with such wisdom and clarity. The combination has produced, in The Last Season, a book of tremendous human drama and timeless appeal, rich in lessons about coaching and about life.

Phil Jackson (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The most successful coach in college basketball history, and among the most beloved, offers his comprehensive program for building and maintaining winning teams in sports, business, and life. For almost forty years, Dean Smith coached the University of North Carolina basketball team with unsurpassed success, both in victories won and in shaping the lives of the players he led. Well known are the Michael Jordans, Kenny Smiths, and George Karls, but overall more than 96 percent of Dean Smith's players earned their undergraduate degrees, and more than 33 percent earned graduate or professional degrees. Now, in The Carolina Way, Coach Smith fully explains his entire coaching philosophy and shows readers how to apply it to the leadership and team-building challenges in their own lives. In his wry, sensible, wise way, Coach Smith takes us through every aspect of his program, illustrating his insights with vivid stories. Accompanying each major point is a "Player Perspective" from a former North Carolina basketball star and an in-depth "Business Perspective" developing some of the wider applications of Smith's precepts from Gerald D. Bell, a world-renowned leadership consultant and a professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Each year Coach Smith gave his team the same three goals: - PLAY HARD: Insist on consistent effort. The final result is often outside your control. Create a system that demands effort, rewards it, and punishes its absence. - PLAY SMART: Execute properly. Understand and consistently execute the fundamentals. Reward their execution and punish their absence. - PLAY TOGETHER: Play unselfishly. Don't focus on individual statistics. Recruit unselfish players, reward unselfish play, and punish selfish play and showboating. Coach Smith taught all his teams that if they kept their focus on these three goals, winning would take care of itself. And more times than any other coach in history, he was right.

Dean Smith (Author), Dean Smith, Gerald D. Bell, John Kilgo (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Last Season

With the honesty and insight that are his hallmarks, one of the most successful coaches in the history of basketball, nine-time NBA Champion coach Phil Jackson, offers his personal account of the extraordinary ride of the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers. Though familiar with high-profile, high-pressure seasons and the coaching of gigantic personalities, nothing could have prepared Phil Jackson for the high-wire act of the Lakers' 2003-2004 season. In THE LAST SEASON, Jackson tells the inside story of the season that proved to be the final one for the Lakers dynasty, from the signing of the future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton and the bombshell news of the felony sexual-assault charges against Kobe Bryant to the NBA finals and the team's ultimate dismantling. Jackson discusses it all - juggling enormous egos, public feuds, injuries, contract disputes and chronic team dysfunction - with his trademark honesty and depth of insight.

Phil Jackson (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Losing Season

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir about family, love, loss, basketball-and life itself-by the beloved author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini During one unforgettable season as a Citadel cadet, Pat Conroy becomes part of a basketball team that is ultimately destined to fail. And yet for a military kid who grew up on the move, the Bulldogs provide a sanctuary from the cold, abrasive father who dominates his life-and a crucible for becoming his own man. With all the drama and incandescence of his bestselling fiction, Conroy re-creates his pivotal senior year as captain of the Citadel Bulldogs. He chronicles the highs and lows of that fateful 1966-67 season, his tough disciplinarian coach, the joys of winning, and the hard-won lessons of losing. Most of all, he recounts how a group of boys came together as a team, playing a sport that would become a metaphor for a man whose spirit could never be defeated. Praise for My Losing Season "A superb accomplishment, maybe the finest book Pat Conroy has written."-The Washington Post Book World "A wonderfully rich memoir that you don't have to be a sports fan to love."-Houston Chronicle "A memoir with all the Conroy trademarks . . . Here's ample proof that losers always tell the best stories."-Newsweek "In My Losing Season, Conroy opens his arms wide to embrace his difficult past and almost everyone in it."-New York Daily News "Haunting, bittersweet and as compelling as his bestselling fiction."-Boston Herald From the Hardcover edition.

Pat Conroy (Author), Chuck Montgomery (Narrator)

Audiobook

I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It

If there's one thing Charles Barkley knows, it's the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country-the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to be shocked and scandalized by I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It, but many more will stand up and cheer. Like Molly Ivins or Bill O'Reilly, Charles Barkley is utterly his own thinker, and everything he says comes from deep reflection. One way or another, if more blood hasn't reached your brain by the time you've finished this book, maybe you've been embalmed.

Charles Barkley (Author), Charles Barkley (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Losing Season

Pat Conroy (Author), Jay O. Sanders (Narrator)

Audiobook

Success Is a Choice

MAKE RICK PITINO YOUR PERSONAL COACH AND ACHIEVE MORE THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE. For Rick Pitino, the first coach to bring teams from three different schools to the Final Four, success isn’t about shortcuts. Pitino’s secret–and the reason he has become both a great coach and one of the most sought-after motivational speakers in the nation–is his strategy of overachievement. Now, in Success Is a Choice, he takes the same proven methods that have earned him and his teams legendary status and gives you a ten-step plan of attack that will help you become a winner at anything you set your mind to: ·Build your self-esteem ·Set demanding goals ·Always be positive ·Establish good habits ·Master the art of communication ·Learn from good role models ·Thrive on pressure ·Be ferociously persistent ·Learn from adversity ·Survive your own success An inspiring program that is as fun to read as it is practical, Success Is a Choice can make the difference between achievement and failure in your own life. “So much more than another Armani suit, Pitino has done a job of psychology and salesmanship that should serve as a how-to manual for his profession.” –Chicago Sun-Times “Pitino’s track record is extraordinary . . . his personal style is also winning.” –Time

Rick Pitino (Author), Rick Pitino (Narrator)

Audiobook

Basketball Audiobooks in Sports & Recreation