Hoops Writings- Best Basketball Reads

Damn, you got me good on this one today...ahhh...Summer Reading on ball....

BEST BASKETBALL READS: 4-3-2-1

4) PICKUP ARTISTS; STREET BASKETBALL IN AMERICA- Lars Anderson and Chad Millman

True underground read. You can feel the heat coming from the blacktops through the bottom of your chucks on this one. Brings it up through the McGuire brothers to Cousy and Joe Hammond to the Rucker League then back over to the Lloyd Daniels-Booger Smith era then kicks out like an Unseld outlet to the rise of Sonny Vaccaro and Nike and follows up with the NYC powerhouse AAU programs of the Riverside Hawks (Carolina Alums: Smith, Doherty, Reese, Sullivan, Stack) and the Bronx Gauchos.

Great legend stories in Chicago, LA, and prison ball too (Drop John Staggers name around Venice Beach and sit back and listen). Solid read on how ball influences our urban cities and culture, and what ball has become to us in the streets of America.

After reading this, it's amazing to think how we established our pipeline to NYC, and how important it is to our program's survival to get it going again. Check it!

3) LIFE ON THE RUN; Bill Bradley

I picked this one up while traveling the West, and I never put it down. Great diary read on life on the road in the NBA with the 73 Championship Knicks. Bradley has got a great mind with a lot of great insights. It's just a damn shame that he doesn't speak well in public. Truly a good human being.

You could have this as a required reading for an college course and get some great discussions on society. He really brings out a lot about the relations that were going on in the States in the early 70's. He adds a lot of great conversations from airport bars that depict some solid characters of Clyde, Lucas, Phil, Pearl, and DeBusschere. Each member on that team was special on and off the court. That was a team….

Also, a great read if you travel a lot. You'll relate to the old-school way these guys moved about the country and related with each other.

Should be a required read for every rookie in the league before they receive their first paycheck. Shows how great basketball is, it's ability to bring EVERYONE to work together….

2) PLAYING FOR KEEPS; David Halberstam

Required reading if you have a bit of blue in your blood. The definitive account of the BLACK CAT that is the legend of MJ. After reading this, you'll be able to solely focus on the highlights every time a Jordan SportsCentury special or Come Fly with Me video comes on. God, I hate the two Jerrys

Great stories on the old Carolina Basketball School. Man, that will really throw you back for some good memories and how Dean pulled Mike to the Hill. For you 80's guys, you'll dig it like a Double Cheeseburger on a Pita. Halberstam got some great stories from people. There's a great one on the "Jordan Stove". You'll be able to tell that one at any cocktail party over and over. Welcome back....Roy.....

1). HEAVEN IS A PLAYGROUND: Rick Telander

For me it begins and ends with me on this one. I'll never forget the time I saw this and tucked it underneath my shirt in the Stacks of the UNCG library to read at home. I later let a friend borrow it for his ride up to HarlemWeek, and I never saw it again. Some people had Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, I had Fly Williams and Albert King. After I read it over five times I scribbled Fly all over my notebooks and school lockers for years….

Basketball in Brooklyn during the Summer of 74. Throughout the summer, Telander also wrote several excerpts in SI on Tiny Archibald and other guys coming back home to NYC from the league….It's a timeless book. You have a seat on the park bench with a bird's eye view of what goes down in Foster Park in Brooklyn. All you need is your Pro Keds. After reading it you'll find it's funny how the things that we find so dark with basketball along with the beautiful things that we see with ball have not changed much.

In my senior year I saw Telander at the SAC during the UNC-Tech game during my Senior year with "Fat-Ass" Krause. I came up to them during a timeout. Jerry rolled his eyes and gave me an eat shit look. He must have thought I was another student about to give him a tip on George Lynch or bust his balls on how he could package Will Perdue and Stacey King for Tim Kempton and a boiled hot dog. But I went up to Telander, and told him how much his book opened my eyes to another world outside of NC. He talked with me a bit, and strangely took my address down while "Fat Ass" crossed his arms and annoyingly kept poking his head into our conversation.

I left them alone at the half, and went back to my seat. Three days later I got a package that contained a copy of the book inscribed…Bret….For the Love of Hoops…Rick Telander.