Damian Lillard


Book Description

Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard is one of the NBA's most exciting scorers. Learn how he became a superstar and see what he does on and off the court to be the best.




Damian Lillard: the Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Star Guards


Book Description

Learn the Inspiring Story of the Portland Trailblazers' Star Guard, Damian Lillard! Read on your PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet or Kindle device! One of many riveting reads in the Basketball Biography Books series by Clayton Geoffreys. In Damian Lillard: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Star Guards, you will learn the incredible story of one of basketball's greatest guards, Damian Lillard. Since being drafted by the Portland Trailblazers with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Lillard has dazzled for Portland fans. In his time thus far in the league, Lillard has consistently been one of the best point guards in the entire league, and helped Portland contend every year in the difficult Western Conference. In the 2019 off-season, the franchise awarded him for his hard work, with a four-year extension effective in the 2021-2022 season. Pick up this unauthorized biography today to learn the inspiring story behind superstar guard, Damian Lillard! This is the perfect basketball book for kids or basketball fans of all ages. Here is a preview of what is inside this Damian Lillard biography book: Childhood and Early Life High School Career College Career Getting Drafted, Winning the Rookie of the Year Award, All-Star Seasons Franchise Player, the Snub Years, The Elite Damian Lillard Damian Lillard's Personal Life Lillard's Impact on Basketball Legacy and Future An excerpt from this Damian Lillard biography: Historically and no matter what era you look at, the point guard has always been arguably the most critical position out on the court when you talk about the NBA brand of basketball. Some of the greatest championship teams in the history of the league had a point guard that allowed them to perform well on both ends of the floor. The '50s and '60s Boston Celtics had the services of Bob Cousy, who is regarded as the pioneer at the point guard position because of his excellent ball-handling skills and passing ability. The '60s and early '70s era of the Los Angeles Lakers thrived under the hot shooting and playmaking of Jerry West, who was so good that he was used as the model for the NBA's logo. The 1971 championship team of the Milwaukee Bucks had Oscar Robertson, who was putting up triple-doubles at a rapid pace a few years back when he was still in his prime handling the point and passing the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And who could ever disregard Magic Johnson, the man responsible for the Los Angeles Lakers dynasty of the '80s and the playmaker regarded as the best to play at his position? The '90s and 2000s also saw their share of terrific point guards who may not have won titles because of the dominance of teams like the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls, Shaq, and the Big Three San Antonio Spurs that revolved around Tim Duncan. Such all-time great point guards are Penny Hardaway, Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, and Steve Nash. Did you like this short excerpt? Then scroll up and buy a copy of this Damian Lillard biography today. Tags: Damian Lillard biography, Portland Trailblazers basketball, Damian Lillard book, books for basketball fans




Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)


Book Description

Based on Kurt Bennett's popular-ish blog God Running, Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven-year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus' every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus' words than he was following Jesus' words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett's own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including: -Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God's love to others. -How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman's love languages (and how you can too). -The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ's extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions. -How to respond to critics the way Jesus did. -How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did. -How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat). -How Jesus didn't love everyone the same (and why you shouldn't either). -How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself--he even napped--and why you should do the same.-How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end. With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God's definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too. A life of loving like Jesus.




Thinking Basketball


Book Description

Are top scorers really the most valuable players? Are games decided in the final few minutes? Does the team with the best player usually win?Thinking Basketball challenges a number of common beliefs about the game by taking a deep dive into the patterns and history of the NBA. Explore how certain myths arose while using our own cognition as a window into the game's popular narratives. New basketball concepts are introduced, such as power plays, portability and why the best player shouldn't always shoot. Discover how the box score can be misleading, why "closers" are overrated and how the outcome of a game fundamentally alters our memory. Behavioral economics, traffic paradoxes and other metaphors highlight this thought-provoking insight into the NBA and our own thinking. A must-read for any basketball fan -- you'll never view the sport, and maybe the world, the same again.




The Midrange Theory


Book Description

From one of basketball's foremost experts in the field of analytics, a fascinating new perspective on how to watch and think about the game. At its core, the goal of any basketball team is relatively simple: take and make good shots while preventing the opponent from doing the same. But what is a "good" shot? Are all good shots created equally? And how might one identify players who are more or less likely to make and prevent those shots in the first place? The concept of basketball "analytics," for lack of a better term, has been lauded, derided, and misunderstood. The incorporation of more data into NBA decision-making has been credited—or blamed—for everything from the death of the traditional center to the proliferation of three-point shooting to the alleged abandonment of the area of the court known as the midrange. What is beyond doubt is that understanding its methods has never been more important to watching and appreciating the NBA. In The Midrange Theory, Seth Partnow, NBA analyst for The Athletic and former Director of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks, explains how numbers have affected the modern NBA game, and how those numbers seek not to "solve" the game of basketball but instead urge us toward thinking about it in new ways. The relative value of Russell Westbrook's triple-doubles Why some players succeed in the playoffs while others don't How NBA teams think about constructing their rosters through the draft and free agency The difficulty in measuring defensive achievement The fallacy of the "quick two" From shot selection to evaluating prospects to considering aesthetics and ethics while analyzing the box scores, Partnow deftly explores where the NBA is now, how it got here, and where it might be going next.




Sprawlball


Book Description

"Beautifully illustrated and sharply written, SprawlBall is both a celebration and a critique of the 3-point shot. If you want to understand how the modern NBA came to be, you'll need to read this book." --Nate Silver, editor of fivethirtyeight.com From the leading expert in the exploding field of basketball analytics, a stunning infographic decoding of the modern NBA: who shoots where, and how. The field of basketball analytics has leaped to overdrive thanks to Kirk Goldsberry, whose visual maps of players, teams, and positions have helped teams understand who really is the most valuable player at any position. SprawlBall combines stunning visuals, in-depth analysis, fun, behind-the-scenes stories and gee-whiz facts to chart a modern revolution. From the introduction of the 3-point line to today, the game has changed drastically . . . Now, players like Steph Curry and Draymond Green are leading the charge. In chapters like "The Geography of the NBA," "The Interior Minister (Lebron James)," "The Evolution of Steph Curry," and "The Investor (James Harden)," Goldsberry explains why today's on-court product--with its emphasis on shooting, passing, and spacing--has never been prettier or more democratic. And it's never been more popular. For fans of Bill Simmons and FreeDarko, SprawlBall is a bold new vision of the game, presenting an innovative, cutting-edge look at the sport based on the latest research, as well as a visual and infographic feast for fans.




Built to Lose


Book Description

"From front offices to college campuses, Jake Fischer takes you on an engrossing tour of the NBA in its latest golden age, when some of the most captivating teams won by losing." —Lee Jenkins, former Sports Illustrated NBA writer An insider account of modern NBA team-building, based on hundreds of exclusive interviews A single transcendent talent?can change the fortunes of an NBA franchise. One only has to recall the frenzy surrounding recent top pick Zion Williamson to recognize teams' willingness to lose games now for the sake of winning championships later. It's a story that weaves its way behind closed doors to reveal intricate machinations normally hidden from public view. Backed by extensive reporting and hundreds of interviews with top players, coaches, and executives, Jake Fischer chronicles secret pre-draft workouts, feuding between player agents and executives, surprising trade negotiations, interpersonal conflicts, organizational power struggles, and infamous public relations fiascos, making for a fascinating look at the NBA. The definitive account of the NBA's tanking era, when teams raced to the bottom in the hope of eventually winning a championship.




Golden


Book Description

The #1 national bestseller and inside story of Steph Curry, the greatest shooter basketball has ever seen. Golden is the first book to provide an all-access look at Steph Curry and the team that has fueled Dub Nation—by longtime Warriors beat reporter and Bay Area News Group sports columnist Marcus Thompson, the go-to expert on all things Golden State. A lifelong Warriors fan turned insider Thompson is uniquely qualified to tell the definitive story of a singular talent, pulling back the curtain on the crazy work ethic and on-court intensity that make Curry great—and the emphasis on family and faith that keeps him grounded. Combining the competitive grit and fun-loving spirit of his mother with the mild demeanor, easy charm, and sharp shooting of his father, former NBA player Dell Curry, Steph Curry derives support and strength from his close-knit kin and his commitment to Christianity. This hard-working, wholesome image however is both a blessing and curse in a League of big personalities. Thompson unravels the complicated underpinnings of the Steph Curry hate with a nuanced analysis of how class and complexion come into play when a child with an NBA pedigree becomes the face of a sport traditionally honed on inner-city black top and dominated by the less privileged. With unprecedented access, Thompson draws from exclusive interviews with Steph Curry, his family, his teammates, Coach Steve Kerr, and the Warriors owners to bring readers inside the locker room and courtside with this remarkable athlete and man.




Furious George


Book Description

The most outspoken and combative coach in NBA history—and one of the most successful, amassing more than 1,175 victories, the sixth best winning record ever—reflects on his life, his career, and his battles on and off the basketball court in this no-holds-barred memoir A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs—and long after he stopped playing. Karl’s beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a thirty-five-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times. After leading a team beset by injuries and with no superstar to its best season of all time—an achievement that earned Karl the title NBA Coach of the Year—he was dumped by the Denver Nuggets in 2013. Less than a year and a half later, Karl was at the helm of the Sacramento Kings, snarling and bellowing on the sidelines before being cut loose in May 2016. Intense, obstinate, and loud, Karl has never backed down from a confrontation, whether with management, officials, or star players, as NBA legends from Allan Iverson to Gary Payton to Carmelo Anthony to Demarcus Cousins can attest. Telling his story, Karl holds nothing back as he speaks out about the game that has defined his life, including the greed, selfishness, and ass-covering he believes are characteristic of the modern NBA player, and the rampant corruption that leads all the way to the office of the NBA commissioner, David Stern. Karl also reveals how he’s learned to deal with the personalities, the pressure, and the setbacks with a resilience he acquired from his three bouts with cancer. Raw, hard-hitting, and brutally honest, Furious George is as thrilling, unpredictable, and entertaining as the game that has defined Karl’s life.




The Elusive Embrace


Book Description

Hailed for its searing emotional insights, and for the astonishing originality with which it weaves together personal history, cultural essay, and readings of classical texts by Sophocles, Ovid, Euripides, and Sappho, The Elusive Embrace is a profound exploration of the mysteries of identity. It is also a meditation in which the author uses his own divided life to investigate the "rich conflictedness of things," the double lives all of us lead. Daniel Mendelsohn recalls the deceptively quiet suburb where he grew up, torn between his mathematician father's pursuit of scientific truth and the exquisite lies spun by his Orthodox Jewish grandfather; the streets of manhattan's newest "gay ghetto," where "desire for love" competes with "love of desire;" and the quiet moonlit house where a close friend's small son teaches him the meaning of fatherhood. And, finally, in a neglected Jewish cemetery, the author uncovers a family secret that reveals the universal need for storytelling, for inventing myths of the self. The book that Hilton Als calls "equal to Whitman's 'Song of Myself,'" The Elusive Embrace marks a dazzling literary debut.