I was introduced to sports, specifically basketball, at a very young age and have been obsessed ever since. My first dream was to make it to the NBA, but I realized fairly early on that 1) I’m of average height, which means I’m very small for basketball, and, more importantly, 2) I’m not good enough to play in the NBA. So, I pivoted to writing and have been extremely fortunate to carve out a career that combines my two greatest passions. I’ve worked for SLAM Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the New York Post, and the NBA. I don’t know much, but I know sports books. Really hope you enjoy these!
I wrote
Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA
More than anything, I loved this book because Agassi was honest, detailed, and, well, uncensored.
I’m not a huge fan of tennis, so I was skeptical when I first started reading—but Agassi’s life and career are so fascinating that I eventually couldn’t put it down. This autobiography is different from any other I’ve ever read; Agassi opens up about issues that most athletes shy away from discussing, including his search for identity and peace amid a remarkable career.
He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court - but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game.
Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts.
Fader’s book presents a side of Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo that I never knew about, focusing less on his stellar NBA career and more on his family and all the hardships he has faced, from growing up in immense poverty to grappling with his identity to struggling to adjust to life in America.
Through outstanding reporting, Fader tells a story that is both heartfelt and inspiring in ways I didn’t expect when I first dove in. This is one of my favorite books ever.
As the face of the NBA's new world order, Giannis Antetokounmpo has overcome unfathomable obstacles to become a symbol of hope for people all over the world; the personification of the American Dream. But his backstory remains largely untold. Fader unearths new information about the childhood that shaped "The Greek Freak"-from sleeping side by side with his brothers to selling trinkets on the street with his family to the racism he experienced. Antetokounmpo grew up in an era when Golden Dawn, Greece's far-right, anti-immigrant party, patrolled his neighborhood, and his status as an illegal immigrant largely prevented him from playing…
As avid readers and sports lovers likely already know, Pearlman is an amazing storyteller, and he perfectly captures the drama and craziness surrounding the Lakers dynasty from 1996-2004, defined by the dynamic duo of Kobe and Shaq.
This book is packed with details and insights—gleaned from hundreds of interviews and extremely in-depth reporting—that kept me engaged from start to finish.
The story of the Lakers dynasty from 1996 through 2004, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal combined—and collided—to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the franchise as a powerhouse
In the history of modern sport, there have never been two high-level teammates who loathed each other the way Shaquille O’Neal loathed Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant loathed Shaquille O’Neal. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. And yet, despite eight years of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo…
This book is what happens when you give an incredible writer incredible access to an incredible subject.
The late Bob Knight allowed John Feinstein to essentially join his team, the Indiana Hoosiers, for the 1985-86 season, and the result is a deeply compelling and extremely engaging profile of the legendary coach, whose style was… unorthodox, to say the least.
Decades after it spent weeks at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, A Season on the Brink remains the most celebrated basketball book ever written—an unforgettable chronicle of his year spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach Bob Knight.
Granted unprecedented access to legendary coach Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers during the 1985–86 season, John Feinstein saw and heard it all—practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and midgame huddles—as the team worked to return to championship form. The result is an unforgettable chronicle that not only captures the drama and pressure of big-time college basketball but…
In a lot of ways, this book provided the blueprint for my own book as McCallum brilliantly captures an NBA season from the inside, detailing coaches’ meetings, film sessions, locker-room interactions, and more.
As a kid watching the NBA (I specifically remember watching the Phoenix Suns team McCallum covers!), I always wondered what was going on behind the scenes. This book answered all of my questions.
Sports Illustrated's chief NBA writer, Jack McCallum, only planned to spend the preseason with the Phoenix Suns as an "assistant coach" -- and then write a story about his experiences. Instead, he stayed on with the Suns throughout their exciting and controversial 2005-2006 season. Gaining access to everything from locker-room chats with superstar point guard Steve Nash, to coaches' meetings with maverick coach Mike D'Antoni, McCallum learned what makes this wildly popular, innovative, and international assemblage of talented players and brilliant coaches tick -- making Seven Seconds or Less an all-access look at one of the greatest shows in sports.
Welcome to the G League, the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players—Jared Harper, Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham, and Malcolm Hill—this book details the relentless pursuit of an elusive dream.
During the 2021-22 season, I was embedded with the Birmingham team to capture the experience of playing in the G League. That year, with hundreds of NBA players sidelined by Omicron, there were a record number of call-ups. My access enabled me to document the incredible journeys of G League players and to tell the larger—far less glamorous—story of life in the minors.
I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.
The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.
No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…
