1) “The Breaks of the Game” by David Halberstam (1981)

A Pulitzer Prize winner for his New York Times reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam was also renowned for his Civil Rights Movement coverage during the ’60s but later in his career turned his attention to sports. His first book, “The Breaks of the Game,” changed sportswriting forever, and is still regarded as an ur text of the modern genre. Halberstam embedded himself with the Trail Blazers for their tumultuous ’79-’80 season and the resulting story was a treatise on the intersection of sports, culture, race, and labor relations in America. Forty years later it’s still essential reading for anyone interested in how basketball writing can transcend sports.

2) “The Jordan Rules” by Sam Smith (1991)

Long before Twitter, YouTube, and an army of sports bloggers rendered the differential obsolete, NBA stars could essentially live double lives. The manicured, focus group-tested on-court personas of stars like Michael Jordan often belied their actual thorny personalities, and “The Jordan Rules” cut through that dichotomy like a steak knife. Named after the defensive strategy deployed at the time by Jordan’s biggest rivals, the Pistons, the book was penned by Smith while he was covering the Bulls’ ’90-’91 championship season for the Chicago Tribune. At the height of Jordan meticulously cultivating his brand, the book was essentially a muckraking takedown, featuring stories of the superstar sparring with teammates, feuding with coaches, cracking dirty jokes, and compulsively gambling. Though Jordan and many of his teammates derided the book, most of it has proven prophetic in our current understanding of His Airness, both on and off court.

3) “Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association” by Terry Pluto (1990)

Conceived by Pluto as a light-hearted account of a fun ’70s diversion, “Loose Balls” has instead become a vaunted encyclopedia of ABA history. That’s because the league was lightly covered in national media at the time, and most of its appeal came not in statistics or results but in stories, leaving this book as essential reading for anyone interested in the league. Featuring essentially every notable player, coach, and executive, who are listed as a “cast of characters,” it’s an oral history of the league, from its mid ’60s conception to its dissolution and merger into the NBA in 1976. Most of the great tales of the ABA can be linked back to its origins in this book. In fact, even the official NBA Pro Encyclopedia mostly just cites and quotes “Loose Balls” in its ABA section.

4) “Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend” by Bill Russell (2009)

One of the most profound and impactful friendships in basketball history is captured here by one of the participants himself, recalled in stunning detail. It captured a complex but fulfilling relationships between Russell, one of the greatest players of all time, and Auerbach, one of the greatest coaches. Together the pair teamed up in some capacity for 11 championships in just 13 years, and they also became unlikely friends based on a mutual respect. Russell imparts the life lessons he learned from Auerbach but also the ones he taught his elder coach and executive. NBA stars have written dozens of autobiographies over the years that were bloated and/or meaningless, so it’s refreshing to see one of the all-time greats release something so concise and thoughtful.

5) “When the Garden Was Eden” by Harvey Araton (2011)

Yet another tale of the early ’70s Knicks seemed excessive at the time of this book’s release, but Araton somehow pulled off a refreshing and essential telling of an already ubiquitous subject. Though Araton (a veteran New York Times sports columnist) couches the story in his recollection of following these Knicks teams as a teenaged fan, this is no hagiography, weaving the tale in respectful but realistic tones. As you would expect in a historical account of a large U.S. city in the ’70s, the Vietnam War, racial tension, and generational gaps also play a large part of the narrative. A few years after the book’s release, it was the basis of a documentary of the same name that aired as part of the ESPN 30 for 30 series.

6) “The Book of Basketball” by Bill Simmons (2009)

During a decade-plus of writing and podcasting for ESPN under the “Sports Guy” pseudonym, Simmons had developed numerous reputations, both good and bad, but perhaps none more so than as a basketball historian. He made an attempt at a post-modern, internet-era NBA bible in 2009 with “The Book of Basketball”, which he also hoped would serve as a unifying theory of why the greatest players and teams succeeded. It certainly didn’t live up to those lofty goals, and suffered from the typical Simmons writing deficiencies (most notably his sexism and his Boston homer-ism), but was still an interesting attempt. With chapters dedicated to a Hall of Fame restructuring, MVP re-litigations, and infamous “what if” scenarios playing out, it’s an entertaining, if overwrought, love letter to the NBA that’s essential reading for any modern fan.

7) “Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin’ and Gunnin’ Phoenix Suns” by Jack McCallum (2006)
8) “Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World” by Jack McCallum (2013)

In the same year that David Halberstam released “The Breaks of the Game,” a young McCallum joined the staff of Sports Illustrated, covering the NBA and most notably chronicling the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry. Over two decades later, inspired by Halberstam, McCallum spent the ’05-’06 season embedded with the Suns, essentially receiving the access of an assistant coach. The resultant book, “Seven Seconds or Less,” was arguably the essential read of the modern NBA, a perfect distillation of the post-Michael Jordan era. Named after the team’s high-tempo offensive strategy, the book expertly captured the pressure-filled life of coaches and players. Then, as a follow up, McCallum crafted the essential writing about the greatest team in basketball history, the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team, by drawing on both his own notes from the time when he was covering the team for SI, plus insights gleamed from a new round of interviews.

9) “The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul” by Phil Jackson (2004)

Part coaching lesson, part salacious tell-all, and part zen koan, “The Last Season” was a perfect distillation of Jackson’s career. Except for the winning, of course, as this book specifically dealt with the ’03-’04 Lakers that lost to the Pistons in the NBA Finals, ending a brief but spectacular dynasty (Jackson would later recall his numerous titles in more detail in the aptly titled “Eleven Rings). Though Jackson spread plenty of blame for the Lakers coming up short, including towards himself, most of the media attention on this book was in his depiction of Kobe Bryant as petulant, selfish, and full of rage. It was released just a few months after Jackson stepped down as Lakers coach and his stunning return less than a year later to helm the team still highlighted by Bryant rendered this book even more intriguing.

10) “Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich” by Mark Kriegel (2007)

Published 19 years after Maravich’s shocking death from heart failure at age 40, Kriegel’s book traced the basketball legend’s life story and successfully positioned the context of his career into the modern NBA. Painstakingly researched over several years, “Pistol” took a nuanced approach to the life and career of a player that’s simultaneously overrated and underrated depending on who you ask, from his militant upbringing to his free-flowing college style to his unwanted “Great White Hope” reputation in the NBA. It paints Maravich as a complicated player and person, with a career and life that were both ultimately unfulfilled but still glorious.

11) “When the Game Was Ours” by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jackie MacMullan (2009)

Penned by the two legendary stars in conjunction with longtime sportswriter MacMullan, “When the Game Was Ours” captures the golden age of NBA basketball through the filter of Bird and Johnson’s relationship. Though it mainly just reinforced preconceived notions of the two players, the book was still a compellingly personal account on their dovetailing careers, which started in rivalry and ended in friendship.