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Best Basketball Books: The Top 25 List
Best Basketball Books: Perfect for Giving or Receiving
Whether you are looking for your next book to read or are looking to find a book for the basketball fan in your life, this list of basketball books is perfect for you.
The following list covers our favorite basketball books and our recommendations for you. The books on this list will cover basketball coaching, playing, life in general, and many other topics that apply to the sport of basketball. We are confident that you will find what you are looking for in our list of the top 25 basketball books.
From one basketball junkie to another, enjoy! Also, if you enjoy listening to books on audio, make sure you check out the Free Audible Trial that Amazon offers. This will allow you to listen to a couple of these basketball books free of charge!
Basketball Books: The Top 25 List
1.
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Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players and Coaches
Book Price: $8.38
About This Basketball Book: Jay Bilas has always been one of the more outspoken college basketball commentators. He has been able to make a name for himself, giving good insights into the game of college basketball. Before that, though, he was also one of the great college basketball players to play under Coach K at Duke and was a part of two national championship teams. Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court will talk about the mental toughness that it takes on and off the court to be successful in basketball and life.
2. Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $14.
13
About This Basketball Book: It is incredible to think that Phil Jackson was able to win 11 NBA championships. For this one fact alone, he is worth listening to when it comes to basketball. Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success is going to cover what went into Phil’s ability to be successful for so long in the NBA as a head coach. It will share stories from his time with some of the best basketball teams ever assembled with the Bulls and Lakers. Along with coaching some of the best teams ever, he also coached legends like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal. Insights from Phil Jackson should not be missed.
3. Life is Not an Accident (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players and Fans
Book Price: $6.52
About This Basketball Book: Before Jay Williams became a basketball analyst, he was a promising NBA player who had one of the best college basketball careers of anyone ever to play the game.
Life is Not an Accident will talk about his life after his motorcycle accident and how he reinvented himself, and how there is more to life than just basketball.
4. Tales from the Kentucky Wildcats Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Wildcat Stories Ever Told (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Fans
Book Price: $19.95
About This Basketball Book: Kentucky has one of the most storied college basketball programs of all time. Getting a look behind the scenes at this success has to appeal to any true basketball fan. Tales from the Kentucky Wildcats Locker Room includes stories from the players, coaches, and other members of the program that have been a part of this dynasty over the years. Whether you are a Kentucky fan or not, this book is sure to please.
5. The Jordan Rules (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players, Coaches, and Fans
Book Price: $13.
08
About This Basketball Book: Michael Jordan is widely considered the best basketball player ever to play the game, but there is always more than meets the eye. The Jordan Rules will give an inside look at MJ and some of the areas that he dealt with off the court in his first championship season with the Chicago Bulls. See what went into the making of one of the most iconic sports stars ever and get a better understanding and appreciation for what makes MJ who he is.
6. Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $7.68
About This Basketball Book: You cannot create a list of the best basketball coaches of all time without including the name Pat Summit. She started coaching at the University of Tennessee when she was 21 and over the next 38 years won over 1,000 games.
Sum it Up will give you the lessons that she learned along her journey as a head coach for the Vols. From tough times to good times in her career, this book is going to cover it all, and in a way that will keep you engaged as you read.
7. The Assist (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Fans
Book Price: $13.95
About This Basketball Book: The Assist is going to center around a high school basketball team in the Boston area that competes for a state championship every year while also dealing with; race, social class, and other factors that go into living in the inner city. You will get an in-depth look into what makes sports so great and the barriers that sports can overcome.
8. Bleeding Orange: Fifty Years of Blind Referees, Screaming Fans, Beasts of the East, and Syracuse Basketball (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $15.
09
About This Basketball Book: You are not able to talk very long about a 2-3 zone defense in basketball without Jim Boeheim or Syracuse University coming up. Coach Boeheim has been a staple of college basketball over the years. Bleeding Orange is going to cover what he has learned in his 50 plus years at Syracuse University. If you enjoy learning from other basketball coaches, this is going to be the book for you.
9. Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players and Fans
Book Price: $9.98
About This Basketball Book: Pistol Pete Maravich was one of the most skilled players ever to play basketball. This book is about more than just his basketball accomplishments, though. In Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, author Mark Kriegel discusses what it took for Pistol Pete to accomplish all of his success.
He also covers what it cost him and his family along the way. The story of Pistol Pete is an interesting story that any true basketball fan would enjoy reading.
10. Wooden: A Coach’s Life (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $22.25
About This Basketball Book: You are not able to talk about college basketball coaching greats without bringing up the name John Wooden. At one point, he had an 88 game win streak and was a part of winning 10 NCAA championships in 12 years. This John Wooden book is expertly written by author Seth Davis and includes stories from over 200 different people that interacted with him over his life. With all of these personal accounts, you will be able to get a look at John Wooden like never before.
11. When the Game Was Ours (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players, Coaches, and Fans
Book Price: $7.
08
About This Basketball Book: Larry Bird versus Magic Johnson was one of the best player rivalries of any sport. The competitiveness and desire to win that both players brought to the court every time they played reminisces a time when gladiators fought in the Coliseum. What started as a bitter rivalry turned into a lifelong friendship at the end. When the Game Was Ours is going to cover this period in the NBA and what it looked like from both players’ perspectives.
12. The Miracle of St. Anthony (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches and Fans
Book Price: $16
About This Basketball Book: Many basketball experts have labeled Bob Hurley as the best high school basketball coaches ever to coach the game. Some of his teams at St. Anthony’s are that of legend. This book will follow coach Bob Hurley through an entire season with one of his St.
Anthony teams. In the book, he looks to lead his team to success while also making sure his players are taken care of outside the lines. If you enjoy learning and reading about other successful coaches and their teams, The Miracle of St. Anthony needs to be your next read.
13. Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $8.16
About This Basketball Book: College basketball continues to turn into a one to two year stop for players with NBA promise, the turnover rate with new players becoming faster and faster. No one knows this better than John Calipari. Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out covers John Calipari’s first four years at Kentucky and the struggles of coaching a brand new team of 18-year-old players each season.
14.
Fab Five (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players, Coaches, and Fans
Book Price: $27
About This Basketball Book: The Fab Five is one of college basketball’s greatest stories, with five freshmen leading their team to the national championship game. When you mix in the off-court findings and the allegations of recruit tampering, the story gets even more interesting. This book will break down this epic run and the full story of the Fab Five of Michigan.
15. The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches and Business Professionals
Book Price: $12.25
About This Basketball Book: Pat Riley is one of the most winning basketball coaches ever to coach the game. His book about winning from within is designed to help you be successful both in basketball and life.
If you enjoy coaching books that are designed to challenge you and empower you to do more with your life, The Winner Within is going to be an excellent option.
16. Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $16.91
About This Basketball Book: If you win ten national college basketball championships, you deserve to have more than one book listed in the top 25 basketball books. This specific John Wooden book will focus on creating a winning organization and the importance of being a great person in life. If you know anything about John Wooden, you know that as much as he was a great coach, he was a better person. This coaching book on leadership highlights who John Wooden was and how you can better emulate his character and coaching.
17.
Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players, Coache, and Fans
Book Price: $10.98
About This Basketball Book: Kobe Bryant is one of the most captivating sports figures of his generation. His work ethic alone is worth a book. Add in the success that he has had on the court and some of the off-court issues during his career, and you have a gold mine for a book. If you enjoy player biographies, this is one of the better ones to read.
18. The One Day Contract: How to Add Value to Every Minute of Your Life (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches and Business Professionals
Book Price: $5.49
About This Basketball Book: The One Day Contract: How to Add Value to Every Minute of Your Life was written by hall of fame coach Rick Pitino.
It will focus not only on basketball-specific concepts but also on what it takes to have a successful life. You will be challenged to live every day as a one-day contract. This means waking up with a pursuit to be better and a pursuit to chase your dreams. So if you want to be challenged and pushed towards living your best life, give this basketball book a try.
19. Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches and Business Professionals
Book Price: $10.99
About This Basketball Book: Leading with the Heart was written in 2001, but the teaching still applies today when it comes to coaching and living a successful life. This book will cover topics like; leadership, communication, dealing with pride, and the importance of trust. With Coach K arguably being the best college basketball coach of all time, it will be easy for you to buy into this book and the gameplan that he lays out for being successful in basketball, business, and life.
20. The Hoops Whisperer: On the Court and Inside the Heads of Basketball’s Best Players (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches and Trainers
Book Price: $8.26
About This Basketball Book: Idan Ravin has worked with players like; Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and many other high-level players. The Hoops Whisperer will break down some of the basketball drills and techniques that he uses with these elite level players. If you are a basketball trainer, this book is a must-read. However, even if you aren’t a trainer though, this is still an interesting ready that will have you appreciating Idan Ravin’s skill as a trainer.
21. The Golden Whistle: Going Beyond: The Journey to Coaching Success (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $14.
99
About This Basketball Book: The coaches that have endorsed The Golden Whistle are; Coach K, George Raveling, and John Calipari. The book is going to cover ten different learning opportunities that a young coach finds himself confronted with. You will not only find truths to help you become a better coach, but also a better person as well. And, whether you are a young coach or not, this coaching book is still going to be an excellent read for all basketball fans.
22. Stuff Basketball Player Should Know (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Players
Book Price: $13.47
About This Basketball Book: Stuff Basketball Players Should Know is a must for every player that is serious about their game. The book breaks down the different concepts that basketball players should know into bite-sized pieces. This is going to make it easy to understand and apply for players of all different levels.
So if you are a basketball player, this is going to be a must-read book. Also, if you have a young basketball player in your life, this would make an excellent gift.
23. My Losing Season (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $9.90
About This Basketball Book: “We are either winning, or we are learning” is a pretty common phrase that coaches use. If you are learning from your losses, you really can never lose in the grand scheme of things. My Losing Season covers the lessons that Pat Conroy learned when he played college basketball at the Citadel. In the book, Pat will cover all of the different lessons he learned through his losing season. The book is well written and would be a good read for any basketball coach or fan.
24. Practical Modern Basketball (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Coaches
Book Price: $7.
25
About This Basketball Book: This is the third and final John Wooden book, and it is just as good as the other two. Practical Modern Basketball will cover philosophy, skill development, and a ton of other coaching keys. So if you are more into the strategies and philosophy of John Wooden, this will be the book for you. You will be able to get a peek behind the curtain and see some of the keys that helped John Wooden win 10 NCAA National Championships.
25. The Last Shot (link)
Recommended Basketball Book For: Basketball Fans
Book Price: $4.85
About This Basketball Book: The Last Shot will cover the story of an up and coming basketball player from NYC. It will give you a glimpse into the culture of New York City basketball and allow you to be a part of one player’s journey. If you are fascinated by New York City streetball (who isn’t?), this book is a must-read.
It will open the door to a whole new brand of basketball and a culture that is just as unique.
Best Basketball Books: Honorable Mentions
This list had to cap at some point, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more than 25 great basketball books out there. So if there is a basketball book that you think others would appreciate, we would love to hear about it in the comments below. Also, here are some other basketball books that deserve an honorable mention for this list and are excellent reads.
Honorable Mentions
- Heaven is a Playground (link)
- Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA (link)
- Hanging On To My Dreams: Bouncing Back From All Rejections (link)
- A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indian Hoosiers (link)
- Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the ABA (link)
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com.
Best Books to Learn How to Play Basketball
Although basketball is best learnt on the court, reading a book on the game and sport can help you understand the basics of the game. And while basketball isn’t too difficult to understand, at least from a basic perspective, reading a book from an authoritative source can better assist you in getting acclimated to the game and understanding the basic offensive and defensive plays.
Below, we are going to review the best books to learn how to play basketball. These books are all written for beginners and newer entrants to the sport and the gam. And although these books are written for beginners, they provide a wealth of information that even more experienced and advanced players can benefit from.
However, before we review the best books to learn how to play basketball on, please note, that we here at Ball Are Life are affiliated with both the Amazon Associates Program and other affiliate programs. This means we may receive a small commission from any purchases made via our links below.
This is at no additional cost to you. While we appreciate the additional commission, we would never recommend a product or service which does not align with our core values nor any product which we would not, and have not, used ourselves.
Looking for additional basketball book recommendations? Consider checking out our reviews on the best basketball books on mental toughness and the best basketball books on leadership!
Basketball for Kids: A Complete Illustrated Guide for Kids and Beginners Players!
Buy Now at Amazon
Basketball for Kids: A Complete Illustrated Guide for Kids and Beginners Players is one of the best basketball books on the market to fully learn how to play the game and the sport. Written in a practical, easy to understand manner, this illustrated guide will give you and your child the chance to get your sweat going, as well as enjoy some quality time together!
Over the course of reading this book, you will learn and be able to teach your child how to shoot a basketball properly, boost your child’s offensive and defensive abilities, simple and effective dribbling, passing, and rebounding drills and much more.
How to Play Basketball for Kids: : A Complete Guide for Parents and Players
Buy now at Amazon, Walmart, or eBay
This book is an excellent guide for inspiring youths and kids who want to excel in the game of basketball. Author Tony R. Smith provides not only the basic fundamentals that are needed for success, but a blueprint that can be used on any level of the game.
Basketball is an extraordinary sport to support whole child development. The author showcases key fundamentals for sound player development. Concentrating on essential skills of the game: including conditioning, jumping ability, shooting, defense, rebounding, footwork, boxing out and much more. Smith outlines basics in accessible and easy to understand language.
Basketball is a game of mental and physical endurance – this book shows how to gain it all. As a bonus, a section has been added to help players with diet and strength training. If you are looking for the best basketball books to effectively learn how to play the sport, then this book is the perfect fit.
How to Play Basketball – Fundamentals
Buy now at Amazon
While many people consider shooting and scoring as the main elements to a game of basketball, there are many additional aspects which are too often overlooked and ignored. In. How to Play Basketball, the author discusses the nuances of the sport and provides simple, clear instructions on how to master them.
Beginning by discussing how to effectively dribble the ball, to moving on to discussing how to properly pass the ball, to discussing how to properly shoot the ball and score in a layup situation.
This book discusses all aspects of the game and does so in a clear, and clearly defined, manner. Highly recommended for anyone looking to learn step-by-step on how to be a better overall and all-around basketball player.
How to Play Basketball: A Guide to Getting Better By Playing Pick-up Games
Buy now at Amazon
In How to Play Basketball: A Guide to Getting Better By Playing Pick-up Games, author Thomas Wilkins focuses solely on the pick-up game and how a player can elevate their game by playing against local competition.
Too often, the pick-up basketball game is relegated as an afterthought, a game without many set rules or consequences. However, for many of us, the pick-up game is our main form of play and competition.
And learning how to better play on and at a pick-up game can not only provide us with the confidence we need to compete, but also can help us to avoid common mistakes and errors that may be made on the concrete surface.
Coaching Basketball For Dummies
Buy now at Amazon, Walmart, or eBay
While many people may frown upon the “for dummies” franchise, they have proven to be a great source for information on a plethora of topics and guides. In Coaching Basketball for Dummies, you will receive expert advice on teaching the basics of basketball—from dribbling and shooting to rebounding and defending—and guiding your kids to a fun-filled, stress-free season.
In addition, you will get a crash course on the rules and regulations of the game, as well as clear explanations of what all those lines, circles, and half-circle markings mean on the court.
You’ll be better positioned to assign team positions, run great practices, and work with both beginning and intermediate players of different age groups. You’ll also see how to ramp up your players’ skills and lead your team effectively during a game. This book will also help you discover how to:
- Develop your coaching philosophy
- Understand your league’s rules
- Conduct a preseason parents’ meeting—crucial for opening the lines of communication
- Teach offensive and defensive strategies
- Keep your kids healthy and injury-free
- Encourage good sportsmanship
- Make critical half-time adjustments during a game
- Help struggling players
- Address discipline problems and handle difficult parents
- Coach an All-Star or Travel team
How to Be Better At Basketball in 21 days
Buy now at Amazon, Walmart, or eBay
While How to Be Better At Basketball in 21 Days isn’t exactly meant for beginners to the sport, it can provide newcomers with confidence and goals to become one of the best in the game.
And while that may seem like a lofty dream, it can be done and this book clearly guides you on just how to do so.
Whether you’re struggling to nail that winning shot or just can’t seem to pull off the spectacular passes and incredible crossovers you see on TV, author James Wilson will walk you through how to elevate your basketball game in just 21 days.
In the book, Wilson teaches you precision drills and specific exercises to stack skill after skill. Using his core philosophies, this thorough system will improve your form, develop new skills, and help you challenge even the most advanced players.
Similarly, you’ll gain many offensive and defensive advantages on the court after reading this book. Including the following:
- Expert techniques to dramatically increase your basketball shooting accuracy
- How to crush your crossovers and handle the ball like a boss
- How to toughen your mental state and play with courage, confidence, and control
- How to challenge those more advanced players and succeed while doing it
- How to be that go-to player who takes the winning shot and much more!
Read “How to play basketball” - Gomelsky Vladimir Alexandrovich - page 1
| V. A. Gomelsky How to play basketball photos Larisa Gomelskaya and Sergey Kuznetsov 9000, schemes and illustrations Catherine Verguzova © Gomelsky V., text, 2015 © Eksmo Publishing Company, 2015 * * * “I really appreciate Vladimir as a professional! The surname Gomelsky is a sign of quality, strength, character and success. The secrets of all this are in this book. VALERY TIKHONENKO, basketball player, Olympic champion, world and European champion, Honored Master of Sports “I was delighted with the personality of Vladimir Gomelsky even at our first meeting. He is a true professional, he played himself, coached athletes, and now he is commenting on this wonderful sport. Vladimir pays a lot of attention not only to the technique of the game, but also to leadership qualities that guarantee success in sports and in life. I have great respect for everything that Vladimir Gomelsky does. This book is no exception." ETTORE MESSINA, basketball coach, senior assistant to the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs NBA club “Thanks to Vladimir Gomelsky, I learned about the existence of the cities of Cleveland, San Antonio, Portland, Detroit and Gomel. And also that I really love basketball, which, by the way, is strange not to love. Especially after reading this book. IVAN URGANT, TV presenter, actor, showman, producer “The name Gomelsky and basketball have been inextricably linked for many decades. In order to know and feel the sport like that, it’s not enough to go the way of a player and coach yourself, it’s not enough to just be an educated person, you need the great coach Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky to be your dad. This book is proof of that." VICTOR LOSHAK, journalist, First Deputy General Director of Kommersant Publishing House “Vladimir Gomelsky's book strikes with its accessibility, naturalness and depth. The acclaimed commentator pulls the reader in from the intro and doesn't let go until the last page, narrating basketball truths with the dexterity of a novelist. No less important, the author does it in good Russian. This work is not only possible, but also should be cited as an example to graduates of pedagogical universities, because in its essence it is an exhaustive course of lectures on a given topic with a thoughtful immersion in the specifics. LEV SAVARI, editor of the "Basketball" section of the "Championship" portal Introduction Hello, dear readers! The book you hold in your hands is by no means a basketball textbook. I didn't intend to write a textbook or manual for coaches who work with young basketball players. In this book, I have tried to share with you my thoughts on this game and have ventured to give you some advice. Why I took such courage and began to write, I will now honestly explain. You should probably start with yourself. Completely independent of my will, it turned out that I was born in the third generation of a family of basketball players. I was born in October 1953, and all the older members of the family were connected in one way or another with this wonderful game. My maternal grandmother, Nina Yakovlevna Zhuravleva, is the most titled basketball player in the family, the only one who was both an Honored Master of Sports and an Honored Coach of the USSR. Dad, mom, uncle, aunt and her husband were all basketball coaches. And when I was born, my dad was already working in Riga, and I was transferred there from Leningrad at the age of four months on March 1954 years old. Throughout my childhood, I grew up with the thought of basketball, it cannot be said that it was instilled in me on purpose, it’s just that the whole family loved their work very much and considered it the most beloved, the most interesting and the most creative. With their conversations, behavior, attitude to business, they rooted in me the understanding that basketball is the most important thing in life. I grew up with the idea of sports, my life developed around the game: at first I studied at a children's sports school, then I played in the backup team of CSKA, after which I coached young men first, then the youth team and, finally, teams of masters. And for the last 25 years, even a little more, I have specialized in this sport, commenting on basketball on television. For many years I have tried to end my reports on different channels with the same phrase: “Love basketball, play basketball if you can, this is the best sport, I am absolutely sure of it.” And this is not a mantra, not a prayer and not a pose, but a call, a slogan, a cry or even, as they say now, a slogan. I really hope to see with my own eyes a wonderful picture in the near future - people in our beloved country are massively involved in basketball, sincerely worry about the success of our national team and club teams and send their children to children's sports schools, which are widespread throughout the country and are accessible to everyone , regardless of age and physical data. Any person begins with a family, and it is worth telling about mine in detail. I believe that my passion for basketball in early childhood would not have manifested so strongly if the family did not have the victories that my dad achieved. These victories were very attractive for me. Oddly enough, “Papa” is the nickname of my father: Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky, who in the last years of his work as a basketball coach was simply called “Papa” all over the world. He deserved this nickname: the "Dad" of national basketball worked as a coach with teams of the highest ranks for a record number of years - 45! - In my opinion, no one else in our country has been able to do this. But before coaching, there were victories: he won 17 USSR Championships, 7 European Championships, twice World Championships and became an Olympic champion. For the first time, my father went to the Olympics at 1956 in Melbourne, then in 1964 in Tokyo, in 1968 in Mexico City, in 1980 he coached our team in Moscow, and, finally, in 1988 in Seoul he won the most valuable, most honorable medal in sports - the medal of the Olympic champion, which is kept by me. Every time I look at her, I am truly in awe. My father was a great coach and a great athlete, he dreamed of this medal all his life, and when a person like him sets a goal, he achieves it. In addition to winning basketball since childhood, I really liked the fact that this sport makes you think: you can be a very fast, very tall person with good coordination, you can master the technique, but you can become a great basketball player that the public goes to watch only in if you understand all the nuances of this game well, if you quickly make the right decisions on the court. And in order to develop this skill in yourself, you need to work hard, hard and hard: I would like to talk about this in my book. The beginning of my basketball career can only be envied: there was a joke in the family that I started playing even before I was born, that is, I have been playing longer than I have lived in the world. As in every joke, there was some truth here: I was born in October, and my mother, Olga Pavlovna Zhuravleva, married Gomelskaya, went to the site in May. The rivals laughed that the Leningrad Spartak, for which my mother played, was playing with six of them - they knew that she was playing while in position. Balls were my first toy as a child. The time was difficult and not rich: the country was recovering after the war, and therefore I didn’t dream of some incredible toys then, but I had any balls, of the most different sizes. And at 19In 1957, the European Champions Cup appeared in the house - a basketball basket in the shape of an ancient Greek amphora with handles. The cup of this most honorable club tournament in Europe was won by the SKA Riga team, which was coached by dad. I wasn't even four when I started tossing my rubber balls into this basket on my dad's desk. The result was not always unambiguous, but we can assume that it was from this tender age that I started training. |
Read the book How to play basketball by Vladimir Gomelsky: online reading
Current page: 1 (the book has 14 pages in total) [accessible excerpt for reading: 4 pages]
V.
A. Gomelsky
How to play basketball
Photos Larisa Gomelskaya and Sergey Kuznetsov
and illustrations Ekaterina Verguzova
© Gomelsky V., text, 2015
© Eksmo Publishing Company, 2015
* * *
“I really appreciate Vladimir as a professional! The surname Gomelsky is a sign of quality, strength, character and success. The secrets of all this are in this book.
VALERY TIKHONENKO,
basketball player, Olympic champion, world and European champion, Honored Master of Sports He is a true professional, he played himself, coached athletes, and now he is commenting on this wonderful sport. Vladimir pays a lot of attention not only to the technique of the game, but also to leadership qualities that guarantee success in sports and in life. I have great respect for everything that Vladimir Gomelsky does. This book is no exception."
Ettore Messina,
Basketball coach, senior assistant to the head coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs
“Thanks to Vladimir Gomel, I learned about the existence of cities of Clivers, Porto, San-Antondo, Detroit and Gomel.
And also that I really love basketball, which, by the way, is strange not to love. Especially after reading this book.
IVAN URGANT,
TV presenter, actor, showman, producer
“The name Gomelsky and basketball have been inextricably linked for many decades. In order to know and feel the sport like that, it’s not enough to go the way of a player and coach yourself, it’s not enough to just be an educated person, you need the great coach Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky to be your dad. This book is proof of that."
VICTOR LOSHAK,
journalist, First Deputy General Director of Kommersant Publishing House
“Vladimir Gomelsky's book impresses with its accessibility, naturalness and depth. The acclaimed commentator pulls the reader in from the intro and doesn't let go until the last page, narrating basketball truths with the dexterity of a novelist.
No less important, the author does it in good Russian. This work is not only possible, but also should be cited as an example to graduates of pedagogical universities, because in its essence it is an exhaustive course of lectures on a given topic with a thoughtful immersion in the specifics.
LEV SAVARI,
editor of the "Basketball" section of the "Championship" portal
Introduction
Hello, dear readers! The book you hold in your hands is by no means a basketball textbook. I didn't intend to write a textbook or manual for coaches who work with young basketball players. In this book, I have tried to share with you my thoughts on this game and have ventured to give you some advice. Why I took such courage and began to write, I will now honestly explain.
You should probably start with yourself. Completely independent of my will, it turned out that I was born in the third generation of a family of basketball players.
I was born in October 1953, and all the older members of the family were connected in one way or another with this wonderful game. My maternal grandmother, Nina Yakovlevna Zhuravleva, is the most titled basketball player in the family, the only one who was both an Honored Master of Sports and an Honored Coach of the USSR. Dad, mom, uncle, aunt and her husband were all basketball coaches. And when I was born, my dad was already working in Riga, and I was transferred there from Leningrad at the age of four months on March 1954 years old. Throughout my childhood, I grew up with the thought of basketball, it cannot be said that it was instilled in me on purpose, it’s just that the whole family loved their work very much and considered it the most beloved, the most interesting and the most creative. With their conversations, behavior, attitude to business, they rooted in me the understanding that basketball is the most important thing in life.
I grew up with the idea of sports, my life developed around the game: at first I studied at a children's sports school, then I played in the backup team of CSKA, after which I coached young men first, then the youth team and, finally, teams of masters.
And for the last 25 years, even a little more, I have specialized in this sport, commenting on basketball on television. For many years I have tried to end my reports on different channels with the same phrase: “Love basketball, play basketball if you can, this is the best sport, I am absolutely sure of it.” And this is not a mantra, not a prayer and not a pose, but a call, a slogan, a cry or even, as they say now, a slogan. I really hope to see with my own eyes a wonderful picture in the near future - people in our beloved country are massively involved in basketball, sincerely worry about the success of our national team and club teams and send their children to children's sports schools, which are widespread throughout the country and are accessible to everyone , regardless of age and physical data.
Any person begins with a family, and it is worth telling about mine in detail. I believe that my passion for basketball in early childhood would not have manifested so strongly if the family did not have the victories that my dad achieved.
These victories were very attractive for me. Oddly enough, “Papa” is the nickname of my father: Alexander Yakovlevich Gomelsky, who in the last years of his work as a basketball coach was simply called “Papa” all over the world. He deserved this nickname: the "Dad" of national basketball worked as a coach with teams of the highest ranks for a record number of years - 45! - In my opinion, no one else in our country has been able to do this. But before coaching, there were victories: he won 17 USSR Championships, 7 European Championships, twice World Championships and became an Olympic champion. For the first time, my father went to the Olympics at 1956 in Melbourne, then in 1964 in Tokyo, in 1968 in Mexico City, in 1980 he coached our team in Moscow, and, finally, in 1988 in Seoul he won the most valuable, most honorable medal in sports - the medal of the Olympic champion, which is kept by me. Every time I look at her, I am truly in awe. My father was a great coach and a great athlete, he dreamed of this medal all his life, and when a person like him sets a goal, he achieves it.
In addition to winning basketball since childhood, I really liked the fact that this sport makes you think: you can be a very fast, very tall person with good coordination, you can master the technique, but you can become a great basketball player that the public goes to watch only in if you understand all the nuances of this game well, if you quickly make the right decisions on the court. And in order to develop this skill in yourself, you need to work hard, hard and hard: I would like to talk about this in my book.
The beginning of my basketball career can only be envied: there was a joke in the family that I started playing even before I was born, that is, I have been playing longer than I have lived in the world. As in every joke, there was some truth here: I was born in October, and my mother, Olga Pavlovna Zhuravleva, married Gomelskaya, went to the site in May. The rivals laughed that the Leningrad Spartak, for which my mother played, was playing with six of them - they knew that she was playing while in position.
Balls were my first toy as a child. The time was difficult and not rich: the country was recovering after the war, and therefore I didn’t dream of some incredible toys then, but I had any balls, of the most different sizes. And at 19In 1957, the European Champions Cup appeared in the house - a basketball basket in the shape of an ancient Greek amphora with handles. The cup of this most honorable club tournament in Europe was won by the SKA Riga team, which was coached by dad. I wasn't even four when I started tossing my rubber balls into this basket on my dad's desk. The result was not always unambiguous, but we can assume that it was from this tender age that I started training.
Unfortunately, I do not remember the final game that took place in Riga at the Daugava Stadium, when an incredible record of spectators attending a basketball match was set - almost 20,000. Then a platform for the game was installed on the football field to accommodate everyone - basketball has always been very fond of in Latvia.
The only childhood impression of that legendary game was fright, because after the victory the players picked up dad in their arms and began to rock him, throwing him high. I was very frightened for my dad and held back my tears, only realizing that joy was expressed in this way.
I was always brought to basketball games in a wheelchair, it was even convenient: in the fifties there were no specialized halls, they played outdoors, and the whole family worked with me in such conditions. Dad coached, grandma and mom sat at the judges’ table and wrote protocols, and grandma sometimes also judged competitions when she came to visit us in Riga. Lying in a stroller, you won’t see much, and the memory of a child is not so perfect, but my relatives told me a lot about that time. One of my favorite funny stories was the incident with the sun: before the start of the game, the stroller with me was put in the shade, but basketball tournaments last long enough, the shadow shifted, and at the end of the game the sun shone with might and main on me, and not just shone, but I got real sunshine.
burns. After this story, dad scolded grandma and mom: “Two basketball fools, they couldn’t save one child!”
I began to go to basketball and watch the game meaningfully, probably from the age of 6, that is, from 1959, and then I began to remember all my father's players by their first and last names. Mom always sat nearby and, as a rule, explained what was happening on the site. From an early age, I learned that in basketball, the ability to make the right decisions ultimately leads to victory. The team that makes these decisions faster and more often wins. I have always looked at point guards with great pleasure and respect: those players on the court who have more and more possession of the ball and distribute passes to those who know how to score the ball into the ring. Basketball is now a five-on-five game, with five different roles of players on the same team. They are assigned numbers to make it easier to understand who they are talking about. The first number is a point guard, the second number is an attacking defender, the third number is a small forward, that is, a shorter forward, the fourth number is a power forward, larger in anthropometric data, and finally, the fifth number is a center - this is usually the tallest player on the court.
So, the first numbers, point guards, have always interested me the most, and I can list by heart all the great point guards of our country, who went down in the history of not only domestic, but also world basketball.
One of these players was the captain of SKA Riga and the USSR national team in the 1950s Maiganis Valdmanis. A unique point guard who never forgets that there are spectators in the stands. He looked very elegant on the court, and his technique was perfect. Later, after many years, I realized when I began to be interested in the National Basketball Association that those people who compared Valdmanis's game with Bob Kuzi's game on the NBA site in the Boston Celtics did not say in vain that they were similar. These basketball players resembled each other in technique and vision of the game, ahead of their time by many years. Such players are deservedly called geniuses, and Maiganis Valdmanis, in the place of point guard, is the first genius of domestic basketball.
Another amazing player, whose debut in the USSR national team in 1965 I saw with my own eyes, is Zurab Sakandelidze, perhaps the fastest basketball player in Europe at that time.
It is difficult to compare his speed with the speed of the stars of the National Basketball Association of those years: Sam Jones, Casey Jones, Jerry West, whose game I saw only on TV in black and white, but “Sacco” - Zurab Sakandelidze - was incredibly fast. I saw this wonderful player at the European Championship in Moscow, where I came with my parents at the beginning of summer and where I saw the cream of European basketball, and I understood the importance of the technique of this game. Sakandelidze not only ran the 100-meter race in 11 seconds and could have done athletics, where he would have become an unsurpassed sprinter, but at this speed he also handled the ball as if it were an extension of his arm, his hand, his fingers, and It was extremely difficult to defend against such a fast and technical player. This rule still works today - the faster and more technically a player, the more difficult it is to defend against him.
Many point guards inspired my admiration, I can't help mentioning Ivan Edeshko, with whom I was lucky to be in CSKA together.
It was a great pleasure to play with him because his passing skills were perfect. You just need to open up and break away from your opponent, at least a little, and Ivan gives you the ball. That is why the winning pass across the entire field from Ivan Edeshko to Alexander Belov in 1972 in the Olympic Munich did not surprise me at all - I trained with him and saw how easily he makes such passes in our training hall. Edeshko handed out a lot of such passes, they just didn’t catch the eye of the audience, and this pass became the main one in his life: the first ever victory of the USSR team and the first ever defeat of the US team at the Olympic men's basketball tournament. It was a very important milestone for our country.
I saw how Arminak Alachachyan played, I was amazed by his refined, so to speak, technique. It's a pleasure to remember my friend and teammate of CSKA - Stanislav Eremin, after whom the younger generation of point guards, who played after me, already begins. In this galaxy, the 1988 Olympic champions should be noted: Voldemaras Chomicius, Igor Miglinieks, and especially Tiit Sok - that's who was the real conductor at the Games in Seoul; they were followed by Evgeny Pashutin, Vasily Karasev, Sergey Bazarevich - the great point guards of their time.
The role of point guard in our country was deservedly respected, and our basketball - first Soviet, and then Russian - pleases fans all over the world with the number of stars in this role. My interest in this place on the team is due to the fact that as an active basketball player I have always been a point guard, but modesty does not allow me to continue the list with my own name.
The need to begin the presentation of the history of world basketball is due to how interesting the circumstances under which this game came into being. Americans are rightfully proud of their invention: the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, is considered the birthplace of basketball. The game originated at the Young Men Christian Association college. True, there is one nuance in the history of its creation: it is generally accepted that basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith, but in 1891 James Naismith was a simple teacher, and besides that he was a citizen of Canada, that is, it turns out that a Canadian gave us a wonderful sport, working in the United States of America.
James Naismith was a PE teacher at this philanthropic men's college. It was a serious institution of higher education, well equipped and equipped for that time: a large sports hall 48 meters long and 32 meters wide with high ceilings, electric lighting and a balcony for spectators. At the end of the century, most of the time in physical education classes was devoted to performing a large number of rather boring gymnastic exercises, and students could play their favorite games - baseball and American football only on the street. Outdoor games are possible only in warm weather, and in the summer students have holidays, and the climate in Massachusetts does not favor year-round physical education in the fresh air, so the director of the college, whose name history has not preserved for us, gave teacher James Naismith the task of inventing an outdoor ball game in the room. It is difficult to say whether this task was easy for Mr. Naismith, but two weeks later he told the director that he had come up with a game in which the main goal is to score as many goals as possible - he used the word "goal" - in the opponent's basket, which is on top , which means you can't reach it.
The height at which the basket should be placed, one of the rules that Naismith devised and which has survived to this day, was 10 feet, that is, 3 meters and 5 centimeters. This is due to the fact that it was at this height in the college gym that the lower edge of the balcony was located, to which the peach basket was nailed. A very funny story is connected with peaches: in Massachusetts, peaches did not grow because of the too harsh climate, they were brought from states with milder weather conditions, for example, from Georgia - a real peach state. Throughout the country, peaches traveled in special round wicker baskets with a bottom, and after use, such baskets could only be burned. For this purpose, they were prepared in the college yard, from where Naismith took them and adapted them in the gym for a new game. The most interesting thing is that at first the baskets hung with the bottom. The first basketball games in Springfield were held on 9for 9 people in the team, which is explained by the large number of students in the class - 16-20 people.
Dribbling had not yet been invented: it was impossible to drive the ball, and it was also forbidden to run with the ball - this is the second rule that is still alive. According to the rule, you can run without the ball, and after the player has caught the ball, the rule regulates the ability to take two steps and stop in place. Thus, it turns out that the invented team game was softer than it is now, because physical contact between players of opposite teams was prohibited by the rules - all collisions were interpreted in favor of the attacking team. I have tried many times to imagine playing by the rules of the 19th century, and it seems to me that basketball was not as spectacular as its modern version, but I believe that then the game was more exciting. It was required to show certain athletic qualities: jerk speed, jumping ability, endurance and, most importantly, a sense of elbow - the ability to see a free partner and give him a pass, while the most important thing is that the partner was at a close distance from the basket in order to transport the ball there.
The duties of the referee during the match, and he was alone, included getting the ball out of the basket, so the stepladder was an obligatory attribute of the first basketball games. Photographs have been preserved, though taken 10 years later, where Dr. Naismith, standing on such a stepladder, removes the ball from the basket. In fact, just three weeks later, when the throwing skills of college students in Springfield began to develop, it became clear that using a stepladder was not the best option, and a truly wise decision was made: the bottoms were cut out of the peach baskets and the ball, falling into the basket, fell through through - down. Around the same period, the name of the game was born, which has come down to us: “basketball” (“basket” is a basket, “ball” is a ball). One interesting fact that I really like is that basketball and volleyball are the same age, both of these sports were born in the United States of America, and university teachers are the inventors.
Basketball gained popularity and developed, the rules of the game changed. First of all, the number of players on the court decreased: first there were 7, and then 5 people. Such changes were dictated by the physical qualities of the athletes themselves. Of course, the load on each player increases when playing 5 on 5, but since basketball is a team game where an unlimited number of substitutions are allowed, it turns out that such substitutions allow the player to periodically rest during the match. At the same time, it is important that the responsibility for the result among the team players is divided approximately equally.
The following changes have affected the dimensions of the platform (diagram 1) . The main difficulties arose and arise due to the difference between the American and international metric systems. The American dimensions of the site are 100 by 60 feet, that is, in terms of the generally accepted system - a little less than 30 by 16 meters.
In Europe, the size of 28 by 16 meters is considered a classic playground. It seems to me that the latest trends in the convergence of the rules of professional basketball and amateur basketball under the auspices of the International Amateur Basketball Federation - FIBA ( Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur) will soon allow us to talk about the unification of the size of the court. Most likely, the size of the court in the NBA will become the benchmark, especially considering the facts that after Barcelona in 1992, NBA professionals began to be allowed to the Olympics, and the term "amateur" in the FIBA abbreviation becomes a tribute to the tradition - the international federation pays no less attention to professional basketball than to children's or student. Moreover, soon the three-point arc in FIBA will move away from the ring at the same distance as the same three-point arc in the National Basketball Association is now, that is, by 7 meters 15 centimeters, and then it will become obvious that the wider the court, the more space in her corners to make that three-point shot.
Today, basketball has grown, it has become faster, more powerful, the height of athletes has seriously increased, and high growth implies a large foot size. Therefore, today in the corner of the European site for a player with a height of, for example, 207–208 centimeters and 49the size of his feet simply has nowhere to put the whole foot, and he still needs to jump powerfully and make a hit on the ring. It is more logical and correct to switch to more convenient for the player and therefore fair dimensions of the basketball court, adopted in the United States of America.
Scheme 1
I really want to emphasize that the triumphal procession of basketball around the planet began with the United States of America. The word "triumphant" is not in the nature of exaggeration and decoration, the success of the newly invented game was really colossal. The first friendly game at Springfield College took place in February 189.2 years, and the first match between the teams of universities took place already in 1894, that is, after 2 years.
And already in 1896, basketball was included in the physical training program of the American army and navy, because most military personnel were educated at universities and knew the rules of the game. Millions love this game. Since 1904, the U.S. Student Championship has been played. True, the professional community of athletes did not react too quickly - the National Basketball Association was organized only in 1946 year. It is unlikely that the Americans thought about the serious expansion of basketball in the world, probably, the nation's own vigor and the successful rules of the game coincided, but soon the new sport conquered the whole world.
Basketball entered Russia for the first time through the largest port - St. Petersburg, where American sailors at anchor played among themselves. We went out to the pier, installed portable structures of shields with rings, marked the field with chalk and played basketball. At that time, ours preferred to play football, while the Americans scored balls into the basket.
The Russian Imperial Athletic Society, which later became known as the Mayak Sports Club, was primarily interested in the rules of the new game. The first basketball rules were translated into Russian in 1897 year Lev Markov - teacher of English at the gymnasium. Then the rules were translated several more times and, in the end, the last correct edition of the rules of the game of basketball was published in 1901 in Tiflis (modern Tbilisi, Georgia), where the game also gained popularity. Constant training of the basketball teams of the Mayak sports club also began in 1901, and there were some oddities. The English name of the game was not immediately accepted, the rules published in Tiflis regulated "Throwing the ball into the basket". At 19In 2002, when reissuing the rules, the word “throwing” was excluded, the result was a game - “The ball in the basket”. And the collection of sports games, which described basketball, used the name "Mobile Games". In 1904, the committee for promoting the moral and mental development of young people, in addition to lectures, began to conduct practical exercises in physical education using elements of various sports.
It was precisely this society that later became known as "Mayak". In 1904, a young man from St. Petersburg, Stepan Vasiliev, came to work at Mayak. It is his Russian basketball players who consider him the grandfather of domestic basketball. He was the first captain of our national team and the first captain of the St. Petersburg team, and he later became the first Russian coach to work with basketball teams in St. Petersburg.
I can be proud of the fact that the first coach of my grandmother, Nina Yakovlevna Zhuravleva, who was born in 1909 and started playing basketball in 1921, was, as they called him, "Uncle Styopa" - Vasiliev. I only saw him in photographs with the men's and women's teams, which he coached after the revolution in Leningrad. A slender, very interesting man, already gray-haired by that time, dressed to the nines and, according to his grandmother, possessing unusual manners. It was always felt that this man studied under the king, he knew all the rules of etiquette and skillfully used them.
The patriarch of Russian basketball had a very important quality for an athlete - he could not help but compete.
The first match, which was held by the Mayak sports society in St. Petersburg, took place in 1906. Some basketball historians say that before this match, friendly matches were held with teams of American sailors in the port of St. Petersburg, but this was the first official tournament that took place on the site of the Mayak sports society, 4 teams took part in it. In fact, it was the same Mayak basketball section, just divided into four squads. "White", "purple", "blue" and "blue" - according to the color of the T-shirts in which they went to the site; Stepan Vasilyev played for the purple ones, and his team won the first official tournament on our territory.
Well, then everything started to spin. Basketball conquered everyone with excitement and accessibility: the problem of the need for sufficiently sophisticated equipment was easily solved: any poles turn into racks, the backboard can be wooden, and the rings are nailed to the pole with ordinary nails.
It is not difficult to make a ring with a diameter of 61 centimeters on your own, namely, the correct ring has such a diameter: 2 feet, a foot is equal to 305 millimeters, that is, exactly 61 centimeters. At the same time, Dr. Naismith determined that the diameter of a basketball should be 30.5 centimeters, and two balls cannot fit into the ring, they get stuck.
Basketball began to be played not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Moscow. Moscow and St. Petersburg have always competed with each other in all areas, including sports. Basketball sections are opened first in Moscow, then in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Central Asia, Tashkent and Alma-Ata, basketball has confidently walked around our country. And when Vsevobuch was organized in 1918 - universal military training, some sports games were included in the course program, and it is especially remarkable that basketball was introduced in almost every military unit, and a playground appeared in each garrison. Basketballs were then sewn from genuine leather and by hand.
They were chamber, that is, with strings: older people remember such balls, they played football with them for a very long time. The chiefs of physical training of the regiments began to teach the soldiers of the revolutionary Red Army to play basketball, and it turned out that in our country there are a lot of people who seemed to be created for this game.
The first USSR basketball championship in 1928 was not held for club teams, it was called a tournament of cities: national teams from 12 largest cities competed, and Moscow became the first winner of such a tournament. Not all cities remained in the annals of history, but Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov and Tbilisi took part in that tournament. All of these were pre-war tournaments, in which representatives of the Baltic countries did not participate, where basketball appeared even earlier and was even more popular than in the RSFSR, and then in the USSR. Basketball in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the Central Asian republics developed independently of the Baltic countries.
The first international match, in which Russian basketball players took part, was held in 1907, also in St. Petersburg, at the same venues of the Mayak sports society, and it was then that our team defeated the founders of basketball. There is a logical explanation for this: the St. Petersburg team beat the American ship team, and people who train at least three times a week will easily beat those who have been training for a long time and went to the site to have fun. There is no reason to be particularly proud of such a victory. But as for the first international tournaments, it should be noted that in the history of world basketball there are several significant dates for fans of this sport.
The first time basketball was seen at the Olympics was in St. Louis, in the United States of America, but then this demonstration tournament, in which only two teams from the United States took part, was not popular, and there is no information about it in directories, except in the most meticulous.
But in 1936, basketball was introduced as a demonstration sport at the Olympics in Berlin, and a tournament was held there, in which 19 teams took part. The US team won the tournament, easily defeating all its rivals, for example, the Americans won the first match against Uruguay with a score of 39:7, one can imagine the difference in the class of participants. The International Olympic Committee recognized basketball as an official sport in 1936, and this is the merit of Dr. William Jones, an American basketball fanatic who had a business in London, where he held friendly tournaments and organized the first sections in Europe. Of course, basketball developed in France, and in Belgium, and in Holland, before the war it was played in Spain and the Baltic countries. Dr. William Jones in 1931 organized what is now called FIBA - the International Basketball Federation. For five years he sought to have this federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee, and achieved this. Colleagues from the International Handball Federation helped him in this by including the basketball subcommittee in its structure artificially and thus introducing it to the International Olympic Committee, after which basketball became an official Olympic sport.
European Championships have been held since 1933 years every two years, were not held only in 1939 due to the outbreak of World War II and until 1945 for the same reason, and from 1947 to the present day, the European Basketball Championship has been held every odd year. In these tournaments, the team of our country - first the USSR, and then Russia, always performed successfully. I remember very well all the victories of our national team over the entire period, but, in my opinion, the victory of 2007 in Madrid is especially significant, when the Russian team for the first time after a long break under the new name "Team of the Russian Federation" became the continental champion. This victory of our team under the leadership of a wonderful coach David Blatt was wrested from the hosts of the championship - the Spaniards, who were considered by all to be the undisputed favorites of this tournament. We won with a score difference of only 1 point, and John Robert Holden, an American with a Russian passport, who defended the colors of CSKA and our national team at three tournaments in a row, scored the winning goal into the Spanish basket: at two European Championships and at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, for which he and all the team players were awarded the title of Honored Masters of Sports of the Russian Federation.
